Blue IV takes over as Butler University’s beloved mascot

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The leashes have officially been handed over at Butler University. There’s a new dog in charge, and his name is Butler Blue IV. Let’s see what his first week on the job looks like!

“When I got dressed today, he knew something was different because I was wearing some more official clothes than I have in the past few months. He loves the work and he loves the people,” said Evan Krauss, Butler Blue IV’s handler.

For the last six months, Blue and Krauss, have been preparing for the day that Blue would become top dog. So, Blue’s been busy with intense physical training so he can hit the ground running, (or waddling).

“He was about 17 pounds there and now he’s over 43 pounds. He’s quite the big boy now,” Krauss added. “We wanted to make sure his commands and obedience are all worked on pretty heavily. So, we have those down and that just includes his sits, his stays good boy, lay down the type of things might need in an appearance to her photo shoot.”

But the most important part of his training, has been the “Bone Run”.

“We’re working on getting him to do his run. So he runs the team out on the football field and he runs the basketball team out and he runs for a big raw hide bone during basketball games,” said Krauss.

Now that he’s got the run down, and he’s got the look, the last test he had to pass was proving he has that tenacious Butler spirit.

“I think what Blue’s learned these last few weeks with everything being so uneasy and so unsettling and different, it’s the same things our students learned. He had to adapt. And so now he’s at home and he’s learning new things and how to be a Butler bulldog from home,” said Krauss. “And so I think at the end of the day, he’s going to be a lot stronger because of that once we return back to normal. He has gone through the ringer in terms of training and he’s going to be a pretty great pup afterwards.”

But Blue’s not taking any breaks while he waits for his favorite student body to return. He’s got a full schedule for the days, weeks, and years to come.

“Blue’s got a couple of virtual appearances to do. He’s got a meeting tonight with about 20 other live mascots. So we’ll, we’ll hit, hit up a Zoom call with all of them. And so he uses them as nice mentors to be able to prepare for the future,” Krauss said. “But for the next couple of weeks and months, we’ll keep up our virtual appearances. He’ll keep hosting game night and puppy hours and making sure that his voice is heard on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, he’s going to step up his TikTok game a little bit, but other than that we’re getting his training ready. Cause the second we’re back on campus it’s game time.”

Go get em Blue.