I watch Cops and Lone Star Law and such. Do the dogs recognize police uniforms?
Do they ever attack a fellow officer by mistake?

Not a handler...but yes, guys do get bit. Usually because they do dumb stuff and go where they're not supposed to when they're not supposed to.

I was chasing a guy one night in the not so best neighborhood I patrolled. The K9 officer had come to help me on the traffic stop and he released his partner. I got tore up when the dog tackled me and began eating me alive. The handler yelled something in German that sounds like “flagon” and the dog let go….he told the dog to go get him and the dog ran right over me and found the bad guy who was several yards away by now…he got eaten too!

Yeah, normally the dog doesn’t bother us guys in uniform, but once he gets the magic word that dog will bite anyone in his path.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: MikeinNC,

There is (or was, don't know if he's still working) a local police dog that would go after horses, including police horses.

A dog trained to bite does what he's trained to do. Sometimes that includes other officers and even their own handlers on occasion.

quote:

Do they ever attack a fellow officer by mistake?

^^^^^^^^^^^
Yep. They do not recognize the stripe on the pants.

Usually when the Fur Missile is released on Bad Guy there is no problem until someone steps between the Fur Missile and Bad Guy (such as officers deciding to chase the Bad Guy), then that person is the new target. If a dog is well trained it can be re-directed to the original Bad Guy, but this may be after a nip or bite on the officer. Sometimes the re-direct can occur before the dog makes contact with the officer in the way. Really well trained and dogs with damn near perfect 3 Cs (Calm, Controlled, and Confident) will lock on to the Bad Guy only, ignoring anyone else who gets in the way. Here is an excellent example of German/Malinois mix K9:


Notice the dog locks on to Bag guy, ignoring the cop who got between them. Also notice that Dog does out and is not going crazy trying to get another bite. Getting the dog off the bad guy is where most Malinois Handlers get bitten by their own dogs. In my personal opinion, too many high strung "competation" Malinois end up as working dogs.

Been seeing more and more the German/Malinois cross dogs and for the most part I have been very impressed. Still love my GSDs though, they aren't best in any category, but they are second best in every category.

We had a pursuit one time that ended with the bad guy intentionally crashing into a squad car and then bailing on foot. We were all right there, so we knew he hadn't gotten far. The car he hit just happened to be the K9 unit, and thenkfully both the handler and dog were ok, although their squad was trashed.

I was young and excited...don't remember if it was my first pursuit or not, but if not it was very close to it. I volunteered to run with the handler when he started the track. You're supposed to stay a few yards behind and keep your eyes open to watch for the bad guy...basically a second set of eyes for the handler's security, because he's dealing with the dog. Well, they stopped suddenly, I didn't, closed distance on the handler and the dog keyed up on me and took a jump at me....I actually felt the moisture of his mouth on my left hand right before the handler yanked him back. I'd done a stupid and got very lucky...that mal could have crushed my hand.

I've seen another officer get bit because instead of staying back behind his vehicle like he was supposed to, he ran up on the suspect vehicle after a pursuit...a pursuit that clearly had a K9 unit as the lead vehicle. Bad guy got out and ran, dog got deployed (like every cop involved should have expected), overzealous officer who should have know better goes running up there, is now between the dog and the bad guy, and of course the dog starts chewing on him. Meanwhile bad guy is running away. Ultimately, they got the dog off of the officer and ended up tracking and arresting the bad guy, who gave up without getting bit. Maybe the object lesson provided by officer overzealous scared some smarts into him .

Never held a handler position during my 28 years working the streets, but I have had many, many opportunities of working with K-9's and their handlers. I have seen first hand how valuable a K-9 asset can be. You quickly learn to stay out of their way when they are looking for a crook. You also learn not to mess with their car when they are in it or near it. Playing "grab ass" or a simple buddy hug with the handler can get your ass punctured if you are not careful. Then there is the crappy handler. That guy who just wants to have his own car and the "glory" of having a dog. They don't care much about the daily training and dedication needed to be a good dog cop. It's all about them. That's when you get the negligent civilian bites and crappy tracking performance. Then there is the just plain old psycho dog. I have seen a few. Eyes of Lucifer. When that one is on duty, the W/C carries a thick check book.
A good K9 handler and K9 will always have my respect. You just gotta use your common sense around them.

When I bought my house the next door neighbor and his roommate both had just started the academy. Over the next few years he shared a bunch of stories with me but one of the best ones was about his first call with a K9 looking for the bad guy.

He said “The entire shift in the district showed up and everyone of them stopped me to say don't ever get in front of the handler and dog.” Apparently during the chase even the dog told him. Fortunately his uniform pants hid the bandages until he healed up so the other cops on shift were not reminded to give him a hard time every time they saw him.

I like watching those videos.

quote:

Originally posted by sourdough44:
I like watching those videos.

Me too. My son visits and we watch cops.
Our favorites are when the bad guy squeels like
a girl when Rover is chewing on his arm or leg.
My brother had a huge German Shepard. Came home one night to find a burglar
in his house. Dog almost killed him, nearly ripped his throat out.
I had to be extra careful around my brother or the dog would have
lit into me.

I like the term Fur Missile.

As a police volunteer, I was instructed to never get in front of a patrol police dog. We have patrol, tracking, and drug specialty dogs, and there are differences in behavior.

 
Back when my wife was still working, as a K-9 officer, I used to listen to her frequency, and the County's frequency, on my scanner. Quite often, the K-9 officer would announce s/he was about to release the dog, off lead, so the other officers on the scene could either be aware or be safe.

Dogs bite cops on occasion. Or two occasions in my case. Same dog both times. I used to keep the partially eaten uniform shirt on the back of my chair at my desk. I think the K9 officer took it or had one of my guys take it. He seemed a little put out about the incident.
Cop later wrote a pretty good book, Werewolf. He didn't mention my being bit if I recall correctly.

When I was a dog handler, we had a pursuit one night. Dude was in a stolen truck pulling a 16 foot trailer. My partner (another dog handler) and I had been out working directed patrol. We heard the pursuit come out and decided to join in. By this point, it had been going on for about an hour and been through 4 counties.

We were informed that they finally were getting sticks out ahead of it. We made sure at that point to notify everyone that if the suspect were to run, not to pursue as one of us would release one of our dogs.

The pursuit ended and the suspect took off running. My partner got his dog out (K9 Kilo) and gave the warning. Dude kept running up this hill. Kilo was released. You could watch perfectly as Kilo locked onto the suspect and closed the gap. Then, a dumbass copper decided to run after the bad guy from another side of the hill, in between Kilo and the BG. And, in slow motion, you could see Kilo lock onto the cop and off of the bad guy. Bam! Kilo hit dumbass in a full run. I released my dog (K9 Tank) and got the correct bite.

Dumbass was warned over the radio. He was warned by the K9 warning. And said “fuck it” to common sense and wound up getting stitches. He actually wound up getting more stitches than the BG.

We don’t have “bite dogs” in the jail but many years ago one showed up with some street deputies to an escape at our honor farm. One of the jail deputies got bit when the dog was released prematurely. Oops.

It’s ok, that particular officer was a bit of a jerk. The dog was just fine.

Recently a handler at another local agency had his dog turn on him at home… no apparent reason reported. It was a very bad mauling and the officer was unable to get the dog off. I hear his wife tried to shoot it (at the officers request) but couldn’t get the weapon out of the holster.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
And said “fuck it” to common sense

Sounds about right for any number of guys at the end of pursuits.

quote:

Originally posted by thumperfbc:
We don’t have “bite dogs” in the jail but many years ago one showed up with some street deputies to an escape at our honor farm. One of the jail deputies got bit when the dog was released prematurely. Oops.

It’s ok, that particular officer was a bit of a jerk. The dog was just fine.

Recently a handler at another local agency had his dog turn on him at home… no apparent reason reported. It was a very bad mauling and the officer was unable to get the dog off. I hear his wife tried to shoot it (at the officers request) but couldn’t get the weapon out of the holster.

As far as a K9 biting a jerk/asshole officer, we had one of those get bite by the K9....we sent a "Get Well Basket"......to the dog.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
and even their own handlers on occasion.

Um, ask me how I know about this? Got a nice hole in my thumb for a few more weeks. And that was through the glove. Fine line between training obedience and NOT training drive out of them. Bite work is bite work. Always a chance.

Whomever said protective of their vehicles. Uh, yeah, back of the k9 vehicle is open, k9 in the crate. You just walk by and I swear that Mal is seeing fucking red. Beautiful thing though, to be on the field, and watch a well trained dog work. Best ones are always the most hostile. They live to bite. I remember one officer I met. His unit has a kennel so I think he dropped it off at night before he went home. I’ll never forget what he said “You have one, AS A PET!” He shook his head and I swear his own dog wore his ass out everyday.