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I ran across this article on newsinslowjapanese, and the title is: フレンドリー過ぎて警察犬をクビになったわんこ. The article translates this in English as "Police Dog Fired For Being Too Friendly", but why is "dog" mentioned twice? (i.e. 警察犬 and わんこ?) 警察犬 (police dog) is the direct object of クビになった, which forms an adjective phrase that modifies わんこ (dog). If it were just 警察犬をクビになった, or クビになったわんこ, it would seem to make sense. But 警察犬をクビになったわんこ looks like it reads "Dog that fired a police dog for being too friendly".

Why is "dog" mentioned twice in the same noun phrase?

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    I would suggest that 警察犬 implies "the job of being a police dog" rather than the police dog itself.
    – jogloran
    Jul 3, 2017 at 5:05
  • @jogloran That was my first guess too, but the fact that 警察犬 is a direct object threw me off a bit.
    – rurouniwallace
    Jul 3, 2017 at 5:12
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    We often say like that. For example、彼は、警察官をクビになった. It means "He was fired from his job as a policeman.
    – Yuuichi Tam
    Jul 3, 2017 at 5:29

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Consider the comment by @jogloran

警察犬 and わんこ are not necessarily identical. If we were to literally translate 「警察犬をクビになったわんこ」, then we would have something along the lines of "dog that became fired from being a police dog." Dog is not necessarily mentioned twice, but a task and an animal are mentioned. That is, "police dog" and "dog" are mentioned.

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