LACEY—Jeff Gunsolley will always remember his partner as a workaholic.
“He always made it look like I knew what I was doing,” Gunsolley said. “Anybody who was here who ever saw Pip deploy, you just knew he was ready to go. His ears would pop forward and he would just sit there and look at me. He went to work with me every day and if I didn’t take him to work, I’d catch hell. He would bark all day long and would be a total jerk.”
Pip, a rescued border collie, was the first K-9 to serve in the Washington State Department of Corrections’ Community Response Unit, CRU. As part of the CRU—a specialized unit tasked with tracking down high-risk fugitives and supporting interagency violent crime investigations—Pip served as a narcotics detection dog. Scent-trained to pinpoint illegal drugs, his cue was simple: once he smelled a narcotic he sat. That single alert established probable cause, allowing officers to obtain search warrants, and ultimately, remove dangerous drugs from the street.
Pip passed away in July due to complications stemming from an injury at home that left him paralyzed.
The department held a memorial service August 14 at the Lacey Community Center in Thurston County to honor Pip’s legacy of service. It opened with the Monroe Correctional Complex Honor Guard performing a presentation of colors, placing flags behind a table with an urn containing Pip’s ashes. Also on the table lay a shadow box with a photo of Gunsolley and Pip, surrounded by patches from all the law enforcement agencies the duo worked with over Pip’s 4-year career, challenge coins featuring Pip’s image and a piece of clay with an impression of his pawprint.
Dozens of department employees and staff from partnering agencies attended, with several sharing their favorite memories of Pip.
Tributes to a top dog
Corrections Officer Erik Prange, who is also a master K-9 handler and trainer at Clallam Bay Corrections Center, was the one who first recognized Pip’s potential.
He said Pip was initially adopted by an elderly couple in Kitsap County who wanted a companion animal for their senior border collie. But Pip was a destructive fireball of energy, relentlessly chewing household objects and digging up the yard.
The couple was on the verge of returning Pip to the shelter when Prange was called out to evaluate him. According to Prange, extremely high-energy dogs often make terrible pets, but that drive is what makes a great working dog.
“They need a job and that’s exactly what Pip needed—a job,” Prange said. “I would hide a tennis ball and say, ‘find it,’ and Pip would be just climbing over wood piles and getting that ball and bring it right back. A few days later I brought him back for training. Dogs like Pip need a job and he found his calling.”
Narcotics dogs like Pip undergo a six-week course through the Washington State Police Canine Association, WSPCA, at the Washington Corrections Center in Shelton. After completing the training, they are assigned to handlers at various law enforcement agencies.
Pip assisted law enforcement agencies all over Western Washington. One of his first drug busts became legendary. Gunsolley and Pip were assigned to a Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team in Lewis County, just days after completing WSPCA training. The pair were called out to assist local police to search a motor home during a traffic stop. After just a few sniffs, Pip gave his sit alert to let Gunsolley know there was a high possibility of drugs.
Upon inspecting the vehicle, officials found more than 300 pounds of methamphetamine inside. At the time, it was the largest amount of methamphetamine recovered from a single vehicle during a traffic stop in the state of Washington that did not occur at a border crossing.
“That’s a huge alert for a dog,” Gunsolley said. “He set the bar high for himself to begin with. I was very impressed by that.”
Over the course of Pip’s career, Gunsolley estimates Pip helped law enforcement officers recover nearly 1,000 pounds of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and other narcotics.
While Pip was a serious asset during high-stakes operations, Pip’s colleagues fondly remember his goofier antics.
Amanda Tuttle—the department’s only other CRU member with a narcotics K-9— said Gunsolley and Pip were what motivated her to become a K9 handler. She remembers joining the duo on a home search and recalls being amazed at how quickly and thoroughly they inspected each room.
“All of a sudden I hear Jeff saying a lot of colorful words,” Tuttle said. “And then I realized he (Pip) took a number two on the carpet.”
Tuttle said Gunsolley quickly cleaned up after Pip but “I don’t ever think I’ve ever seen a dog look so suspiciously proud.”
Former Centralia Police Sgt. Tracy Murphy supervised the Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team and had worked alongside Gunsolley since 2019. He says he often arrived to work early to play fetch with Pip. He said one of the things he remembers most about Pip was his love for people food.
“I remember a deployment on the freeway. Jeff gets done running the car and the driver happened to stop at McDonald’s before the stop,” Tracy said. “The driver was out of the car nibbling on his Big Mac and Pip’s got his hairy eyeball looking at the Big Mac and the next thing you know, it’s Pip’s Big Mac!”
A lasting legacy
Beyond the laughter and funny stories came a shared understanding among the law enforcement community of the unique grief that comes from losing a working K-9 partner.
Murphy, who handled a police dog for a decade, emphasized the profound bond that forms between handlers and their dogs.
“They become like family, they become like our kids,” Murphy said. “And our kids are supposed to outlast us. But as handlers, you know that’s not going to happen.”
DOC K-9 Program Manager and Master Trainer Terry Hartman praised Gunsolley's work with Pip and said the two bridged the gap between prisons and field operations. He added police K-9s become part of an officer’s family and support systems and feelings of loss are often shared.
‘We learn to trust our dogs. We take care of them and feed them and take them to trainings and our families take care of our dogs,” Hartman said. “This becomes who you are, which is why when something bad happens, you see it’s hard for all handlers. We struggle with it too because we all know that someday it could happen to us.”
Community Corrections Supervisor Michael Poston said Pip’s four years of service leave behind an undeniable impact among DOC colleagues.
“Together, Pip and Jeff helped remove significant quantities of dangerous narcotics from our communities and made a difference in countless lives,” Poston said. “Pip served with loyalty, courage, and an incredible drive to do his job. Those of us who had the privilege of working around him will remember not only what he accomplished, but the bond he shared with Jeff and the place he earned within our team.”
