Police K9 Handlers .. Collateral Damage and Poor Control - Page 2

Each incident should be looked at individually. I can not believe what we ask our modern day policemen and policewomen to accomplish. The dog is a tool. Every tool must be mastered by the person using it. Mistakes will happen in every work place. Unfortunately we ask, demand, and necessitate our police to go into horrible situations daily. There is a wide spectrum of dogs needed in the LE arena. Some of these dogs are capible of as much destruction as the criminals they keep at bay.  I first thank the ''thin blue line'' for what they do!

There is no single, best answer to this. It has to do with Depts not having or wanting to spend the money it costs to buy a good dog, ignorance on the Depts part on what constitutes a good dog, selecting the wrong handler, crappy training which is rampant among agencies, etc. Back in the 80's, bites were encouraged and you used to get a little badge to stick on the side of your K9 car for every apprehension your dog got. Today, you have dogs working the street for 7 years and they may have 5 bites. You go to court and lawyers are better educated on the use of force by a K9 than handlers and a big question that comes up is, "what is your bite VS your arrest ratio"? This can get long and complicated, but, it is the reality of police K9 work.

There is a Police Dept. in British Columbia that has the highest number of dog bites, compared to the rest of Canada.  An internal investigation found that the K9 were being used, not as intended, The handlers were using their dogs to get suspects or people of interests into a submission position, which resulted in unnecessary use of force and a larger volume of persons being bitten.  Note...it came down to the officers being lazy. 

D

good cops- bad cops. more good than bad. I would rather dwell on the good our GSD has done in LE. I would walk a mile in their shoes before I throw a stone. 

A dog that seriously attacks a child or a puppy has serious problems.  A nip or a bit of rough head washing can be tolerated when a dog is teaching the young ones be they human or puppy to show respect but some of these dogs seriously and purposely bit children and no amount of explanation makes that right.

I do not pretend to know enough about any of the situations to say any more than it should not have happened. I can not say if it was a good dog or not, whether it was good training, bad handling or conclude much more than it should not happen. If I had control of a k9 unit with several dogs, I would have one dog and handler with a ''not ready for prime time acter'' and a body bag. I would have another one who could go to the kindergarten and demo. I hope to have several handlers and instructors who knew the difference between those dogs. How many of the lethal force events which are current in our news media could have been controled by a effective K9 ? 

I always find it a bit of an oxymoron when I read about a Police Canine, or any canine injuring a person or animal.  The Moron part, in these instances is the owner / handler who failed to control the envirionment and canine relative to the situation.  I agree, too much focus on freaky drives, not quality dogs.  Through freaky drives you can harness that desire to achieve mediocre successes, albeit getting handlers and others injured along the way while achieving substandard results, (the majority of Police Canines IMO).  Quality, in any arena takes some cerebral, patient, thought out training and planning.  Sure, I can go thru the drive through and get my meal NOW!!!  I'd rather wait in line for awhile, make sure it's created with care and enjoy a healthy five course meal that will fuel my body and create positive energy.