k9 cop safety

Hi Mike, thanks for dropping in and adding your comments. As always for any topic there are at least two sides. We totally understand that working dogs, especially Police K9’s need the ultimate in control. There are going to be those who believe that a collar is safe to use under any given circumstance. Our belief is that they are either misinformed or uninformed. If I understand you correctly, the Officers use harnesses when tracking. What about when the dogs are working but not tracking? I’ve seen them straining at the very end of their leash barking at the bad guy, leash taut, collar pushing hard against their throats. The problem with neck collars is the action of pushing on the throat. Using harnesses when tracking minimizes this hazard but doesn’t eliminate it. Police dogs are particularly in danger of being injured when wearing a neck collar because of the job requirements. There are dangers to dogs when using any type of neck collar (not just a choker) when the dog is pulling with a collar around their neck. You might want to try Googling for topics such as “dangers of prong collars” (and other collar types) and you’ll find the kind of information that I refer to. We have no qualms that K9’s are active, always want to work and are very high energy dogs. We understand that control is of the utmost importance and that K9’s are ALWAYS supervised. The fact remains that any dog that pulls when wearing a neck collar of any kind is in danger of injury to their throat. I tend to think because of what K9’s do for a living, the potential for injury is increased greatly. The trachea (part of the breathing process) is just one area that can be permanently damaged and even collapse. I’ve been advised by my vet and professional dog handlers as well about our own dogs pulling and the damage that can be done. A Police dog pulls when working (not just tracking). I doubt there’s a way to stop that from happening unless you release the dog from its collar or harness to do it’s job and that isn’t an option in many instances. We care about the dogs whether they’re K9’s or pets and feel strongly that there needs to be a better way to control a working dog or even just walk a pet dog that pulls, than a collar that can seriously hurt them. It just seems safer to harness them for work vs. collaring them for work and switching to a harness for tracking purposes. We still feel very strontly that all K9’s should be vested when working. No K9 should die because he wasn’t wearing a vest. Vests are not a perfect fit, the ones I’ve seen have quite a bit of open space around the shoulder area where a bullet can still hit it’s mark. But wearing one still provides more protection than not wearing one at all.

Hi Candy, thanks for your comments, we really appreciate your support on this! The point you made about the bullets flying is exactly one of the things I’m talking about. I don’t think it’s a matter of the Officers hating the dogs. I’d like to think it would take a pretty demented cop to choose K9 duty for the wrong reasons. Dogs in general are a lot of work, but Police K9’s require more extensive work and dedication to all that goes along with being a K9 handler than the general public can even imagine. A dog-hater would probably not want to deal with the heavy-duty requirements of a K9. There are any number of reasons more K9’s aren’t vested, none of which in our opinion is good enough. Wouldn’t it be nice if a law were passed that any department wishing to have or already has a K9 Unit would be required to properly vest the dogs?

Hi Jessica - It’s nice to have another GSD lover/handler/rescue person jump in here! I commend and thank you and your hubby for your work and dedication to the dogs you work with! It is so great to see the St. Paul dogs and handlers in action! This show is as up front and personal as most people will ever get to seeing these magnificent animals and their handlers in action. I said I love the show and I do think the Officers and their K9 partners do a GREAT job! However, their work is not the issue nor in question here. I’m sorry you don’t agree that all K9’s deserve to be protected as best we can protect them, which in our opinion, includes bullet proof vests and harnesses instead of collars. It’s not that the handlers and departments don’t care, period. If they didn’t care, they probably would not be a K9 handler. We feel that cities with K9s should care enough to provide safety equipment. After all, these dogs are keeping their human Officers safe while helping to protect the public. We never know when we ourselves are going to need the services of a Police Officer and maybe their K9! One thing stressed throughout the show is safety but it seems very one sided, geared towards human Officer safety. Human Police Officers should have every bit of equipment it takes to keep them safe. Our issue lies with the question “Where is the safety for the dogs?” A dog going into a dangerous situation without protective equipment is like sending in a human cop without his gun and vest. We would never expect this of a human cop. K9 safety equipment could be a part of the Department’s uniform allowance package as one suggestion. If the cities and Departments don’t, then we think it’s up to the Officers to see to it that their dog is outfitted for safety. If some Officers can’t afford to do this (and I’m sure there are those who can’t - times are tough, I understand this), and their cities won’t foot the bill, then they can do fundraisers, take donations or contact Vest A Dog. There’s also a link on their home page for starting a local vesting program. Nobody likes to see higher taxes, but if my city wanted to raise my taxes in order to cover the cost of safety equipment for K9s, I’d not complain one bit and in fact would donate even more money than required. I don’t have school aged children, yet some of my tax dollars goes to the school system. That to me isn’t right, school taxes should belong to those who have children in school. Tax dollars going to help protect these dogs which in turn helps protect every citizen is absolutely ok by us. A number of years ago, I had a group of cops take down a bad guy they’d been chasing in my own driveway. Had my Officers not been in pursuit, this jerk could have wound up in my house and he had a gun! If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. If you think about it, it would probably only mean increasing each individual tax payer’s tax responsibility by a few dollars and barely be discernible on one’s tax bill. In a city the size of Chicago for example, it would maybe only be a dollar per tax payer because it’s a high population area. Smaller areas have fewer K9s, and the tax same scenario. We feel the handlers need to care enough to see to it their dog is protected, whatever it takes. There are ways to make this happen without taking away from their own income. These dogs help bring them home safely to their families every day. Their wives still have a husband and their children, a Father. Cops and their human partners have a unique bond as well, and the they do what they have to in order to keep one another safe. If their human partner didn’t have a vest for example, don’t you think the one with the vest would help see to it the one without got one? I’m glad you mentioned the bond between cops and their K9 partners. There is no other bond like it I’m sure! K9’s have no idea the importance of the service they perform and more importantly the danger they are in, but we humans do understand. So, why then are the two bonds thought of or treated differently? K9’s cannot outfit themselves for safety, that’s the human’s job. I’m sorry you were offended by my comments. Offense wasn’t intended towards you or the SPPD K9 Officers and Department or any other K9 handler for that matter. K9s and their handlers have our respect, gratitude and a tremendous love for the dogs. A K9 unit is a very unique and important service to the public. Both handlers and dogs put in tremendous amounts of hours, work and dedication to be good at what they do. They are the elite! I think my reply to Candy’s comments covers that. We feel it’s of the utmost importance to bring about an awareness for this issue. K9’s are very special. They have a tremendous and very dangerous job to do! They deserve to be protected, not simply be replaced because they die needlessly in the line of duty. Don’t you think that if the K9 was able to comprehend the danger they’re in and if they could speak, they’d ask “Hey, where’s my vest?” Granted, the cost of a vest and a good, suitable harness is not cheap, but it’s considerably less costly and less heartbreaking than replacing a good dog? Once that bond is developed, it carries over to the dog having become a member of the handler’s family and the department it works for. You probably have seen in the show that the loss of a K9 directly and sadly affects the children in that family. By vesting the dogs, the handler is also helping to protect his family from having to feel that heartbreak. It’s hard enough to lose a dog to illness or age, which is something that can’t be helped. But we can do something about K9 safety. By outfitting them for safety, departments would actually be saving money and at the same time, keeping their dogs as safe as possible. It’s a win-win situation. As K9’s are retired, the equipment can be passed on to the incoming dog, so dog safety equipment in good condition is recyclable as well. We see to it that our human cops are kept as safe as we can by providing them through our tax dollars with proper equipment. For us, there just simply is no excuse for these dogs to not be kept as safe as possible as well. They are cops doing a job that a human cop physically can’t do because human noses aren’t as refined as a dog’s nor is sometimes their presence as effective as a K9. The show itself pointed out that a bad guy will surrender to a dog more readily than to a human cop. Now that is impressive! These dogs are protectors of the public and some have even achieved hero status. We’d like to see more of them achieve hero status without dying in the process. Having a K9 handler for a husband and being involved as you are with dogs, I’m having a hard time understanding why you would disagree on providing safety equipment for them. Whether you’re offended by my comments or not, the issue is K9 safety, not how I say something.

Hi Jessica, thanks for stopping back and providing more info on your feelings. I do appreciate it very much and I feel you have a good point. I didn’t see it as being negative, but your additional comments put things in another light. I will do my best to make this a more positive thing from now on. I would also like to say that we’re very sorry for the loss of your dog. We’ve lost several of our own over the years, and know all to well how devastating this is. You have all of our condolences. To anyone else who’s been offended by my comments, you have my apologies. I had no intention of offending anyone, only to help bring awareness to the K9 safety issue. Thank you, Jessica for bringing this to my attention.