Jim Belushi on Why He’s Passionate About His New Real-Life Police Dog Series ‘K9 PD’

Jim Belushi’s latest project pays tribute to the unsung heroes in law enforcement of the four-legged kind. A&E’s upcoming series sees the actor and comedian host K9 PD with Jim Belushi featuring gripping footage from surveillance cameras, body and dash cams, drones and more. These dramatic takedowns exemplify the bond between these officers with their well-trained canines. 

Belushi makes no bones about his love of these beloved animals. In fact, you may remember the star’s turn as Michael Dooley, a detective with a short fuse who is paired with a police dog named Jerry Lee (Rando) in the 1989 movie K-9. His experience on the film, which led to sequels, gave him new appreciation for those in the field. So for the 71-year-old, the new show is very much a come full-circle moment. 

Ahead of the March 25 premiere, we caught up with Belushi to talk about why he is so passionate about the project. 

How did you become involved with this show? 

Jim Belushi: I had another idea for A&E that I was pitching. They were staring at me in the room talking about this other project. They went, “We have an idea for you.” I asked, “Oh yeah, what’s that?” They said, “Well, it’s not quite there yet, but we’ll come to you.” Then they pitched me the idea. I thought it was natural for me. I love the German shepherd. I did three K9 movies, I did ride-alongs with these great officers and their dogs to train for those movies. I also went to the police academy and worked on training the dogs. I did some training with my dog. 

I just love the relationship between the handler, officer, and the dog. It’s just a beautiful, moving relationship, unlike any other relationships within the police force or at home. I have a German shepherd myself. I’ve had four. I’ve done Schutzhund with them, so I’m a dog guy…So they sent me the sizzle reel with the footage, and my God, it was so exciting to watch these dogs do their job so well. Again, the capturing of the relationship between the dogs and the officers is a beautiful thing for me to watch. It was natural for me. I got really excited about it. 

The dogs are also putting their lives on the line like the humans, but it’s mentioned this is actually a less dangerous approach when it comes to taking down these perpetrators. In the grand scheme of things, it’s better to get bit by a dog than shot. 

When I did the LAPD canine unit, there was a suspect in a house, and they could not get this guy to come out. He was surrounded, but he would not do it. They didn’t know if he was armed. We happened to be driving and got the call. As soon as the dog heard the helicopter, he started running back and forth in the backseat of the car because he knew it was time to play. He had been on the road a lot and worked a lot. We got out and said the suspect was inside. They let the dog in the house and within 30 seconds the guy is screaming, “Get the dog. Get the dog.” They caught him like that. By the way, there wasn’t even a bite. A bad guy will pull a gun on you, but they see a dog and drop everything. The dogs have saved many lives, so you’re right. And it’s not just the officers, but the bad guys. 

Do you think things have changed at all when it comes to this unit of law enforcement compared to when you were doing those ride-along trips? 

It’s the same. The real training comes from the release though. Getting the dog to drop it. Even with my dog Taro. He’ll paint my bathroom for a tennis ball. They just get so excited, but once he has that tennis ball in his mouth, he doesn’t want to give it up to me. So, the real training with these animals is the release. You don’t want to damage the victim. They don’t want lawsuits. It’s the same. The other thing about dogs right now is a lot of dogs were trained for drug work, and they just stopped. They stopped training the dogs for cannabis because it’s just not that big a deal anymore. The dogs are limited to how many smells they can retain. Some dogs it’s 27, and others it’s up to 39. They don’t want to waste the nose for cannabis, so they can add another layer for bomb and explosive compound units. 

Does working on this show bring back memories on the set of those K-9 movies? 

I’ve been thinking about it a lot actually. What I’ve been going through a lot is not only the movie, but all the men and women I worked with in the handling of these animals. In K9, the first one, Rando was the star dog. My job was every morning at 11 o’clock. I went to the training area where the dog was held and the handler was working with the dog. I worked with Rando for one hour straight, every day for 10 days. He taught me everything. It was very important to have a relationship with the dog. That relationship is in the discipline in training. That’s where the relationship develops, especially the shepherd. They want to please. As soon as you know how to communicate that way, the bond is tight. By the fifth day, the dog was at the fence because he knew I was coming. 

A&E

That is a bond. 

It was an incredible relationship I developed with Rando. The first scene we shot was me picking this violent dog up. We get into the convertible Mustang, and we walk around the car, and the dog  jumps into the front seat. “No front seat for you, Back seat. Get in the back seat,” I say. The gag is the dog is not moving…I open the car and then he growls at me after a few times, and I say, “Okay, you can sit in the front seat.” Rando and I had a relationship though. The dog doesn’t know acting. I walk up and walk over and say, “Get in the backseat.” He looks at me and goes, “Fine.” They yell cut, and we start again. He is like, “Okay, Jim, Jesus. What the hell?” He gets in the backseat. Now the guy on the other side, Karl Miller, the trainer, had to sit on the other side off camera. I would yell get in the backseat, and Karl would yell stay. Poor Rando was confused. 

When cut was yelled, I’d go to Rando, “I’m so sorry.” It screwed up our relationship for a couple of weeks. It broke the trust. I’ll never forget that guy. They want to please. It’s a beautiful thing. These officers take these dogs home. They are family. When something happens to these dogs, it’s devastating to the family, the officer. These are really deep relationships because they are life and death situations. These dogs do save people. They save the officer, the victim, it’s very important work that often goes unnoticed in the community. 

Does this motivate you to do another movie? 

You know what they say. Don’t work with dogs. Don’t work with children. Sure enough, I do Curly Sue and three K9 movies. I don’t know. 

What do you want to say to viewers about the type of situations that play out on the series? 

What I found watching it is just exciting. It’s very dramatic. Because of the bodycam footage and the way they’ve edited, I’d say it’s just exciting to watch. How these guys are respectful and handle people and how they protect us and the community from the bad guy. It’s interesting that most of these dogs are trained in either Dutch, Czech, or German commands as the relationship between the handler and the dog is very secretive. It’s also because you don’t want the bad guy to say stop, stay, get off me. The universal language with all dogs is ball. 

Which you found out. 

Yeah, so my recommendation for any bad guy running from a dog is always carry a tennis ball when you plan to do something bad [laughs]. 

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You have this new show, but I also loved seeing you act again on the big screen with Song Sung Blue. I thought you were great in that one. Where do you see your career overall?

In this profession now there is acting and acting adjacent. That’s the way it is. When I was doing a lot of movies, we couldn’t do commercials. The only place you could do commercials is internationally where nobody else could see you. You were limited to doing things. Now it’s wide open. You have Academy Award-winning actors doing credit card commercials. They are doing game shows. They are doing everything. Acting adjacent is what they call it. It has opened things up. It’s not like I’m going to do a game show, but my buddy Rob Lowe does one. He has a series, a show on Netflix, then an A&E-type show. So what do I see for my future? It’s all open. Whatever is available and something I can have passion for like this one, I’m open. I’d do a game show if I could win. If it was fixed. Then we could do a movie about how it was fixed. 

Playing the long game. 

Yeah, but also thank you for saying that about Song Sung Blue. That was terrific. That was a good movie. And if you have a moment to watch that Kristen Stewart movie I did called The Chronology of Water. That was probably about the best reviews of my career in that movie. It was a very heavy movie. Quite beautiful. 

So you can teach an old dog new tricks, right? 

Ah, you know what? The thing about old dogs is they know all the tricks. 

K9 PD with Jim Belushi, Series Premiere, March 25, 9/8c, A&E