Dulles Airport K-9 in training (Mali) attacks child - Page 1

Hoo boy.  So sorry to read this.

"DULLES, Va. (WUSA) -- Dulles Airport and Customs officials have confirmed a Customs and Border Protection K-9 in training attacked a 4-year-old girl just after 10am Thursday at Dulles International Airport.

The child was there with her mother and a younger sibling picking up a friend coming from Argentina.

Officials have not yet confirmed why the dog attacked the child, but she was bitten once and received a cut that was a half inch deep and two inches wide.

The child's grandmother tells 9NEWS NOW the dog bit the girl just under her pelvis and refused to let her go. The dog would not release her, even as the handler gave the command to release.

As her mother tried to intervene, she received numerous bites to her hand.

The dog was eventually subdued by its handler, and the girl was transported to Reston Hospital in serious condition."

More at http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=97332&catid=158

Oh beautiful (Said with sarcasm!)

Not only does the reporter needless bring up that Mali's look like GSDs, which they don't and there was no need to mention GSD but the video is of a GSD doing passive search so now your normal Joe Blow who just laps up spoon fed news articles is going to associate GSDs with this attack. 

This is why I get my news from BBC.

Getting your news from BBC does not change the fact that this was an inappropriate and terrible instance of a dog biting when it should not. It does not matter what the little girl did or did not do. The handler was also not on the ball here and the dog does not belong in this kind of situation. Dogs who are around people, including children in airports must be reliable and not prone to do something like this. I board airport explosive detection dogs and have not had one here that I would think would ever bite someone. That is not what they are trained to do when they are detection dogs. Someone messed up here and the family will sue and rightly so, collect from this unfortunate incident. The dog will probably pay for the lack of experience in the handlers and training program deficiencies.

The breed is not the issue. Not being able to out your dog is
the issue. This will bring on child protection laws. There is no
excuse for this, and it happens with all the working breeds.
dogs that work crowds need to be certified.  JLP

From what I understand, this dog may have been in training and not certified yet.  Someone obviously needs to examine and modify the protocol for how this is done.

Which breed is "our breed" again?  I forget.

Phil I was referring to the GSD when I said "our breed".....since this is a GSD forum.  I know the dog that did it was a Mal, I'm just stating that because they brought the Shepherd up in the video, and he looked exactly like mine for that matter.

Thank you Keith, that's the root of the problem, let's not all run away and put on dark glasses because it wasn't "our breed".  Over estimating one's ability as a handler is a far to common occurrence in the LE world.  I feel blame should be placed with the handler and/or the organization that placed the dog on the street too soon.  Get 'em out and get the money,,,,,,ahh the dark side of "selling K9's" and being under qualified.

The breed doesn't matter; this reflects poorly on all working dogs.