This Boston Police K-9 Puppy Is Melting Hearts Across The Internet

This little guy is named Tuco, and he might some day get a job with the Boston Police Department. In the meantime, his handlers have posted a picture of the adorable puppy and the image is going viral on the internet.

The Boston Police puppy is a 9-week-old German Shepherd who is owned by the Boston Police Department’s official dog guy, Troy Caisey. Caisey has been training police dogs for 22 years now, according to the Huffington Post.

The image of the adorable pup, wearing a bulletproof vest made for his much larger colleagues at the Boston PD (but that he hopes to grow into), was first posted on the Facebook page of Massachusetts Vest-a-Dog, an organization that provides bulletproof vests and canine first-aid kits to police dogs. Since then it has gone viral, getting over 1,000 comments (as of this post) on Reddit.

Tuco is one of the models in the Vest-a-Dog 2015 calendar, which can be yours for a donation of $10 plus shipping & handling. Proceeds will help raise money for bulletproof vests for [adult] K-9 officers. The dogs need the vests because they’re often in just as much danger as their human counterparts, according to this Inquisitr report.

In the calendar, the Boston police puppy is named “Batman,” but his handler, Mr. Caisey, is having none of that. The dog is named Tuco, after Tuco Salamanca, the Mexican drug capo on AMC’s Breaking Bad.

“Tuco was the crazy drug dealer. It’s been Tuco since I’ve had him, since eight weeks ago.”

Mr. Caisey was given the German Shepherd pup by a friend, according to Boston Magazine, and he’s raising the pup with the hope that he’ll be be Caisey’s K-9 partner some day.

Right now, it’s too early to say whether or not Tuco will make the cut to be a police dog.

“It depends on the dog and how he matures. I’m doing foundation work with him now, and in a couple of months I’ll know if he will make it as a work dog, and when he will start his formal training. I’m doing little things with him now, but no formalized training will start until later.”

For now, all Tuco will have to worry about is being cute: the Boston police puppy will not begin his formal police training until he’s about one and a half to two years old.