K-9 Officer Sages steps into the social media spotlight

A new official Utah State University social media account has been showing up on feeds, featuring K-9 officer Sage on Instagram at @sage.usu.policedog

She has been posted doing activities like watching a university basketball game and doing therapy work at Cache Alternative High School. The labrador retriever has been working at USU since 2023, tasked with crisis response, critical incident and community engagement. Now, she is also gaining popularity on social media.

Sage’s handler and account manager Officer Shane Nebeker spoke about the decision to introduce her to social media.

“The big reason we wanted to do that is — and not that I’m opposed to it one bit, but — she is becoming a meme,” Nebeker said.

On Feb. 6, parody Instagram account @thefakesman made a post jokingly inaugurating Sage as the new president of USU.

“President Sage’s office has been fully equipped with a play pen, toys, and unlimited treats, according to inside sources,” the post wrote.

Although amused, Nebeker wanted to make sure Sage’s mission isn’t overshadowed by playful posts made about her.

“Yes, she’s a lot of fun to be around. She does a lot of fun things, but she has a really serious role, which is part of the reason I’ve been posting some of the things that we’ve been doing over the last couple of weeks,” Nebeker said.

The USU Department of Public Safety is also active on Instagram and has a lot of posts of Sage as well. Another inspiration for starting Sage’s own account was Nebeker worrying about dominating their Facebook and Instagram accounts with content of Sage and overshadowing their goals.

Nebeker first posted on Sage’s account on March 12, and the account now has over 800 followers.

“I did one collaboration with the HURD, and we got her about 600 followers in 20 minutes,” Nebeker said. “I was looking at the dashboard today. Her profile has been viewed 11,000 times in the last week and a half.”

The account has received a lot of support from fellow official USU accounts such as the Sexual Assault and Anti-Violence Information Office, or SAAVI, and USU Athletics.

“SAAVI loves all the hard work that Sage does for USU,” @ususaavi commented on one of Sage’s posts on March 27.

Sage is often seen walking around campus with Nebeker, and students are welcome to come and greet them. There are also K-9 trading cards, depicting both of USU’s police dogs. Aside from Sage, Zoomer is a K-9 who is a certified law enforcement explosives detection dog. If Aggies are able to find them and their handlers on campus, they might be able to obtain a trading card with a photo of one of the dogs.

“That has been really positive as well,” Nebeker said. “We can kind of spread the message that way. I’m seeing her card on the backs of phone carriers now.”

Despite the quick popularity of the account, Nebeker hasn’t been very active on social media prior to this new endeavor. His children and colleagues have been able to help him come up with ideas for content.

“I’m an old-timer. My generation is with Facebook, but Instagram is new to me,” Nebeker said. “Some of the younger officers helped me with ideas on things that we can do to make it look more professional and not like some old man is doing it.”

With her comments flooded with support and declarations of love, Nebeker said it’s clear the impact Sage has had on USU and the community.

“The only hesitation would be to make sure that we’re putting her out there in the correct light,” Nebeker said. “She does have an important role, so I’m trying to be careful to make sure that we’re putting her out there in an appropriate way and showing what she does.”