By Doug Skinner For the Daily Journal
“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law. If you cannot afford to hire a lawyer, one will be appointed to represent you.”
Those words are never spoken by a working police dog, or K-9, when it apprehends a suspect. Their sole job — the tunnel vision instilled in them though rigorous training — is to apprehend a fleeing suspect, not counsel it.
Over the years, I have worked in a veterinary capacity with a number of city, county and state K-9 officers and their handlers. Many have been routine situations, but there have been some highs, and unfortunately there have been some lows. The professional attachment the human officers have for their K-9 partners is built around trust and capabilities: in a tough situation, can this K-9 be trusted to have my back, to save my life if need be?
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An overlooked attachment is the deeply emotional one, one that develops over the years and is built on a rock-solid 24/7 relationship of training, working, living, caring and dependency upon each other.
I was recently invited by Morgan County deputy sheriff Brighton Sichting to observe a day of a training and accreditation session at Lake Monroe and nearby areas.
There are a number of accredited training groups across the nation that police departments use for this yearly accreditation. The group doing the testing that day was American Police Canine Associates, or the APCA. The training drew officers and K-9s from across the country to this serene part of Indiana.
Failure to meet the rigid standards, which apply to both K-9 and human officers, could mean the difference between a successful or failed apprehension, rescue or discovery. Sometimes, it could mean the difference between life or death.
The two most high-profile breeds used for police work are the intimidating German shepherd and the athletic Belgian Malinois, each bringing its own strengths. I say high profile because they are the ones most likely to be used in apprehensions: they are the first responders, the risk takers, the biters. Labradors, beagles and bloodhounds are also used, primarily for their sophisticated sniffing abilities for bombs, cadavers, lost people and drugs.
Though German shepherds and Malinois are trained for those same duties, each breed and even each individual dog brings its own strength into the field.
Sichting’s impressive 90-pound-plus German shepherd Daino, like all of the dogs going through the training, was required to pass muster in many physically and mentally demanding areas over the week-long session. The animals had to locate narcotics in a hospital. The dogs had to take part in a helicopter deployment and ride a boat across Lake Monroe, then go through a search and apprehension in the woods.
Other tests included the car extraction and the apprehension of “suspects,” sleeved volunteers wearing protective sleeves pretending to be bad guys. The K-9s are exposed to all kinds of experiences that will challenge their fear, focus, and desire.
K-9s normally go into training between 12 to 18 months of age, preceded by five weeks of patrol training and three weeks of narcotics training. After the initial schooling, the animals continue training 12 hours each month and do the yearly APCA certification. Some dogs will add additional training if they go into a specific arena of work or specialization.
The human officers are challenged much more than the dogs, learning everything the dogs do plus animal behavior, training techniques, nutrition and care in addition to their police training. All commands are given in Czechoslovakian language all the time. Costs for a dog, its training, the officers’ training, and equipment easily runs tens of thousands of dollars.
Once in the real world, these brilliant, brave dogs and handlers are tasked with searching for drugs, explosives, crime scene evidence and missing people They have to chase and hold suspects, intimidate suspects so they won’t fight and protect police officers.
After getting the background on these animals, it was time to see them in action, and they didn’t disappoint. There is no way I would ever try to outrun, outfight or outsmart one of these dogs. Especially Daino, who may hold a grudge against me for some of the medical care I have given him.
First up was the car extraction. These dogs dove through open car windows and grabbed the “suspect” by a padded training sleeve. Other times they pulled them out of opened car doors or chased the suspect as they ran from the car on foot. Any scenario that might happen in the real world was practiced, critiqued and repeated until it was right. Each human officer knows that one shortcut or mistake could cost him or her their life or that of their K-9.
I had a favorite dog, though I didn’t catch her name. She was maybe 42 pounds, dripping wet, a female Malinois that thought she weighed 100 pounds. With a ferocity and enthusiasm unmatched by her bigger counterparts she entered the open car window in a single bound, without so much as any of her touching the car. She was on the suspect’s sleeve so fast it was intimidating.
Daino, Sichting and I took a boat across the lake and disembarked. This part of the training was to challenge him with the boat experience, then go ashore and apprehend a padded-sleeved suspect in the woods by tracking him. In 38 seconds, Daino traveled 50 yards, nose to the ground before I heard the suspect screaming. The screaming is done to mimic a real-life situation. Earlier in the week he had done the same search after being deployed in a helicopter.
I watched a building search, which was followed by the narcotics search test at an area hospital. If mistakes were made, the instructors made sure each error was understood by the handler and corrected before they moved on to the next area of evaluation.
There are several things to think about here. First, never get one of these dogs and think you know what you are doing with regards to training, for it is a recipe for disaster. They are very complex animals and their handlers have gone through rigorous training to control them.
Second, these are beautiful, intelligent athletes that are loved by their handlers and love them in return.
Third, all police forces deserve our respect. If they are not training dogs they are developing skills elsewhere within the department.
And fourth, don’t even think about running from Daino, or one certain little 42-pound Belgian Malinois.
