Watch Moment 'Enthusiastic' K-9 Derails Police Recruitment Video

A K-9 proved to be a law unto himself while police in Indiana were busy filming a recruitment video for social media.

Around 50,000 police dogs are actively engaged across the U.S., with the canines trained to assist in a specific area of law enforcement, the nonprofit Project Paws Alive estimates.

Jinx is a 3-year-old Dutch shepherd who has been working as a K-9 for the Warrick County Sheriff's Office, under the guidance of handler Deputy Spencer Wester, for close to two years. He's been trained in drug sniffing, criminal apprehension and tracking. But he's definitely not been trained in how to perform for the camera.

That was apparent after he was enlisted by Warrick County Sheriff Michael Wilder to star in a special police recruitment video, which didn't go entirely to plan. A video posted to TikTok by the sheriff's office offers a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes chaos that ensued.

"We decided to use Jinx in one of our recruitment videos, and filming the original recruitment video, we decided to put out a short video with some of the bloopers," Wilder told Newsweek.

Captioned "When you ask an enthusiastic K-9 to help with your recruitment video," the 37-second clip has several outtakes showing Jinx going a little off script.

At the start of the video, Wilder is interrupted midway through speaking to the camera when Jinx decides to climb up over the desk toward someone off screen. Later, Jinx can be seen sniffing at paperwork and moving objects around the sheriff's desk as the attempts to film continue.

At one point, Wester tries to demonstrate how Jinx has been trained to put his two front legs up on the desk. Jinx ends up sprawled out across the workspace.

Still, Wilder and the other officers were able to see the funny side of it all. The sheriff even suggested he may have been partly to blame for Jinx's behavior in the clip.

"The reason Jinx made some mistakes was because I was trying to give him some of the commands instead of his handler who was in the room, and he was just a little confused by it all and probably because of the bright lights and camera," he said.

Commenting on the moment the K-9 leaped up on his desk, Wilder said: "Jinx jumped up on the desk because that was the command I was trying to get him to do, but only with his front paws and not his whole body. The issue was probably more with me and not Jinx."

Whatever the circumstances that led to it, the video has been a huge hit, with 7.4 million views and counting, considerably more than the 125,000 views the recruitment video got.

Jinx may have been nervous, but his efforts have earned him a legion of new fans if the comments on the video are any indication. "Nice to know that even the highest of trained Belgian Malinois also get the ridiculous zoomies at any moment," one viewer wrote.

Another agreed: "It's really comforting to know even a police dog is just as unhinged as my own dog."

A third user said: "I hope the entire video is used as the ad because it's amazing."

A fourth added: "I don't know where Warrick county is but I want to work there."

The reaction has left Wilder stunned and delighted. "We never imagined this short little blooper reel would get this many views," he said.

Let's just hope the newfound fame doesn't go to Jinx's head.

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