Meet Vermont State Police's adorable, floppy-eared recruit, K-9 Loki

Vermont State Police's newest member is 9 weeks old, loves to play with her coworkers, and has floppy ears that are as big as her head.

Did we mention she's a dog?

Loki, a Plott Hound, made her social media debut Wednesday after arriving in the Green Mountain State this past weekend. She is the agency's first hound in 30 years, and she will specialize in tracking missing people and fugitives from the law.

Loki and her handler, Detective Trooper Chris Hunt, will be based at the Vermont State Police's St. Albans barracks, the agency said.

“The biggest advantage to having a Plott Hound is that they can track old scents," said Vermont State Police Capt. Mike Manley, the special operations commander. "These hounds can track scents that can be nearly a day old. For us this is all about tracking, having the best resource available to track lost and missing persons."

Loki comes from a breeder in Houston, Texas. She joins a K-9 unit comprised of 16 patrol dogs, four bomb-detection dogs and one arson dog. The patrol dogs are Belgian Malinois, German Shepherds, and Dutch Shepherds, and the other K-9s are Labrador Retrievers, according to a state police news release.

Loki will spend her next few weeks acclimating to her surroundings. She will then begin 15 weeks of training in early March with the New Hampshire State Police, which currently has two Plott Hounds in its K-9 detail, Vermont State Police said.

Loki's training will include obedience, tracking based on scents on the ground, evidence recovery, and searching wide areas using scents in the air. She may eventually learn to locate deceased individuals, police said.

If all goes well, the state police may consider adding more Plott Hounds to the agency's K-9 detail.

In the meantime, we'll just look forward to more aww-worthy photos and videos of this hound dog.

Contact Elizabeth Murray at 802-651-4835 or emurray@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizMurrayBFP.

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