Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
this country, that decision was made decades ago. Ideally, patrol dogs are used to stop danger-
ous suspects, and Steve wants them to do a good job of it. The dog should give one solid, full-
mouthed bite with no hesitation, no coming off the suspect, or giving the suspect a chance
to use a gun or weapon on the dog or officer or bystanders. No more and no less, although
that, too, depends on what's happening in a chaotic environment. A dog with a good bite can
do less damage than a dog chittering up and down someone's arm, biting and rebiting like a
psychotic typewriter. Or nipping, or not biting at all, both of which create more problems.
Any patrol dog who hesitates before going in on a decoy during training needs work.
Steve was a green handler himself back in 1989. He had a green dog, a handsome, bold
German shepherd named Rick. Rick was a Schutzhund champion. The sport of Schutzhund,
like advanced obedience in a show ring, is an elaborate and difficult performance that in-
cludes bite work.
The call came in one night around eight
P.M
.: Someone had robbed a convenience store
at gunpoint in a strip mall. Steve responded, and soon he and Rick were pounding after the
suspect.
Rick went in on the suspect and bit him but didn't hold on. He simply wasn't used to
street conditions. Rick had been in Schutzhund competitions where everything was the same:
a regulation field, a regulation target, and a regulation bite. This situation was the opposite
of regulation. Rick was used to a guy wearing a bite sleeve. The suspect wasn't moving like a
Schutzhund decoy, arm pitched at a perfect angle, with a bite sleeve. Rick wasn't stupid; there
was nothing to bite. The armed suspect, higher than a kite on drugs, easily got away from
Rick's uncertain mouth. Rick figured he'd done enough biting for the night. Steve had to stop
the suspect, since Rick wouldn't. By the time backup arrived—and it wasn't long—the officer
could see the guy was swinging a gun toward Steve. The backup officer shot the suspect six
times before he dropped. In the chaos of struggle, the officer shot Steve as well. he nine-
millimeter slug shattered Steve's humerus, severed his radial nerve, destroyed his outer tricep.
Steve's arm was hanging by a thread of tissue.
That was when Rick decided it was okay to come back in and “reengage.”
“I could see the dog had the guy by the upper leg. That was good,” said Steve in his meas-
ured way. “We got success. It was painful success, but we got it.”
The suspect lived and Steve lived. But as Steve was lying in his hospital bed, arm sewed
back on, he stewed. he backup officer had done what he had to. If Rick had done his job
properly, Steve—and possibly the suspect—might not have been shot in the first place.
It would be a year and a half before Steve could go back on patrol. Rick wasn't kicked
out of the police K9 business. It wasn't his fault. Instead, Steve, his arm in a cast, retrained
Rick. He set up scenarios that mimicked real life, not the Schutzhund ring. He weaned Rick
off equipment, so the dog didn't think a bite sleeve needed to be there for him to bite. It's
