Waco PD K9 attacks handler, was killed to save human LEO.

[surprise_i'm_armed]

http://www.kxxv.com/story/39238357/poli ... north-waco

The above link details a sad event for Waco PD. For some reason the K9 attacked his/her handler, biting him on the hand.
Another officer had to kill the dog to save his fellow officer from further damage.

This is so puzzling. K9's bond with their handlers, go home with them, and have the intelligence to know that they are part of the LEO community, and are to only bite bad guys.

I have heard that some PD's prefer female K9's since male K9's can get too excited during operations. No word as to what gender the dog was (or which gender it considered itself, ha ha).

C-dub: You know about dogs, what say you sir?

SIA

[The Annoyed Man]

This is heartbreaking.

[C-dub]

I saw this and pondered whether this may have been a relatively new dog to this handler.

When I was doing dog training of this nature I also worked with many police handlers. Just like we are aware that many are not all that proficient with firearms, there are also many K9 handlers that are not very proficient dog handlers or trainers and only know the basics. They really rely on bonding with their dog to gain that familiarity of how THAT dog thinks and works, but rarely, if ever, does that officer train his dog/partner anything. For many departments the raising and training is done by someone else and then the handlers are also taught by some of those facilities before taking possession of their dog and return for refresher training every now and then if they think a problem has arisen or just scheduled "maintenance" according to their contract. Larger (BIG) departments may have their own program.

I haven't done that sort of thing or been involved with it for almost 10 years now. Maybe it's different now, but I doubt it.

BTW, I've been in situations like what this officer got himself into and been able to safely get the dog off the handler it was attacking more than a few times. If the other officer's had the knowledge they also could have done so without taking that dog's life. I'm VERY sorry it ended that way for the dog, the officer that was attacked, the officer that shot the dog, and the department. However, I think it also illustrates that for most LEOs their only response to any aggressive dog is to shoot it. Most don't have the knowledge or skill to have the slightest clue how to deal with an aggressive dog in a safe way for both dog and human.

I apologize for my rant.

[Deltaboy]

Prayers sent for the officer . A dog bite in the hand can be bad news.

[Oldgringo]

Something about this incident smells to the high heavens! Yes, I am an animal lover.

[jason812]

One of the stories a few days ago said it bit the officer in the groin and his partner was worried about the dog biting the femoral artery.

Edit to add:

I found the article.

https://www.kwtx.com/content/news/Local ... 85811.html

Initial reports indicated the officer was bitten in the hand, but KWTX later learned the the Belgian Malinois bit the handler in the groin area, close to the femoral artery./quote]

[BBYC]

Tragic. The only bright spot is this dog and handler combo aren't out in public any longer, where some child could get bitten, and their parent could face felony charges for protecting their child.

[Waco1959]

Met Officer Bucher and Kastor as part of the Citizen Police Academy the day before this happened. I don’t remember the time but he mentioned having been a K-9 officer for several years and (IIRC) had Kastor for a couple of years.

From the info given to us, SOP seemed to be getting dogs that were initially trained (18 months?) and then the training was expanded on by the K-9 section. Dogs purchased with the provision to return if the dogs didn’t work in a different environment or couldn’t work with the officer.

It was obviously a different environment but Kastor did obey commands and didn’t seem stressed or overly aggressive. Attentive and ready to do something seemed the best way to describe his body language.

[C-dub]

That article says the dog, Kastor, was only two years old. The officer could not have had him for a couple years. My guess would be that he only had the dog for 2-4 months at the most. This would support my initial assessment. However, maybe the dog was at least 2.5 years old and had been with his human partner for over a year, but I doubt it.

Knowing dogs of this caliber, i would not put a dog like this on active duty until at least three years of age. They are not fully mature mentally and able to be stable enough under the stressful environment they work in until then. I think they should have also lived with their partner for at least 6 months in order to bond. An additional 6 months would be very helpful for the team to undergo training together under a controlled environment to simulate work conditions to discover and work out “bugs” before hitting the street.

In the dog world we used to call “bugs” skeletons. Almost every dog will have a skeleton or two somewhere in their closet and might show up and a bad time. We will probably never find out if that was the case for Kastor.

[surprise_i'm_armed]

https://www.wacotrib.com/news/police/po ... b27a5.html

The above link details that Officer Bucher, the K9 handler, is recovering OK.

Waco PD has 2 other K9's. The remaining dogs are Belgian Malinois, as was Kastor.

The link has a pic of both officer Bucher and Kastor.

SIA

[Waco1959]

That article says the dog, Kastor, was only two years old. The officer could not have had him for a couple years. My guess would be that he only had the dog for 2-4 months at the most. This would support my initial assessment. However, maybe the dog was at least 2.5 years old and had been with his human partner for over a year, but I doubt it.

And it is possible I misheard or misunderstood what the officer said. Then was also another K-9 officer there and I may have mixed the details of the two together.