The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Moments after Kato viciously attacks Deputy Kevin Greig during a drill, he reverts to a good-natured dog.

Pooch Patrol

Attack-trained police dogs scare suspects into submission

'Kato," an 8-year-old Rottweiler, is growling viciously while his jaws are firmly planted around a man's arm. He continues to hold the attacker at bay with his powerful jaws.

A sharp command and Kato releases the man and runs back to his master's side.

Minutes later Kato is sitting on the feet of an admirer, enjoying many pats and rubs on his head, back and chest. After the brief training session with sheriff's deputies Kevin Greig and Mike Powers--with Greig wearing protective gear for his "attacker" role--he is the picture of a big, sweet, contented dog.

Kato's master, Powers, revealed that the dog, a seasoned law enforcement professional, is actually a "big baby" at home.

Yet this "baby" once saved Powers' life, pulling a knife-wielding man off of Powers twice during a struggle that left the deputy seriously wounded.

Relaxed at home, Kato knows as soon as Powers puts on the trademark green deputy pants that it's time for work.

Kato also knows from Powers' voice who is a friend, and who is a potential enemy, which is why citizens should always ask permission from deputies if they can approach the dogs, either up close or in the car. For a friend, Kato will sit on his or her feet and lap up the attention. Enemies beware.

Kato is one of nine police dogs currently in service to the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department.

The Sunnyvale Public Safety Department has two dogs as part of its canine unit, Cetaan and Quindo, both five-year-old German Shepherds, imported directly from Germany where they were bred and trained for police work. Both dogs are cross-trained for patrol work and narcotics detection.

An untrained police dog costs around $8,000. Replacement cost for a trained dog is $20,000 to $25,000 for a cross-trained dog and $12,000 to $15,000 for a single function dog.

"The biggest expense is the time it takes to train the handler," Sunnyvale's Lt. Dave Davis said. "It's easier to train the dog than to educate the handler."

Davis and the Sheriff's deputies said that despite the cost of the dogs and training, law enforcement agencies actually save money, because the dogs can search areas faster than a team of humans can. Davis said that's a plus in Sunnyvale where officers sometimes have to search large electronics firms and other businesses for suspects.

"The dog can simply smell directly to the scent of the suspect," Davis said, in cases where the suspect is known and the officers can provide a scent for the dogs.

In a recent Sunnyvale case, Davis said, one of the dogs was able to sniff out drugs right away in a vehicle filled with so much stuff, it would have taken officers hours to sift through it all.

The dogs also save time and energy from deputies having to chase after suspects, and actually prevent potentially life-threatening fights between deputies and suspects.

"I've been in very few fights since I've had that dog," Powers said.

Powers and Greig said they've seen suspects give up the moment they know deputies have a dog. Men who will take their chances with guns, won't take a chance with a big, scary dog.

"They know what we can do , they don't know what the dogs can do," Greig said, citing a fear of the unknown. Greig's dog is 18-month-old "Marco," a German Shepherd.

"I saw a guy go through razor wire to avoid the dog," Powers said. "The second guy saw the dog and froze."

Davis agreed that suspects rarely run when a dog is in the picture.

"For some reason they know if they run the dogs are going to catch up to them," he said.

The dogs are trained to bite and hold suspects with non-lethal force. There is a possibility that the dogs will break someone's skin, but they are not trained to bite indiscriminately and attack someone.

Greig and Powers said police dogs got a bad rap during the '70s when dogs were used in some crowd control situations during demonstrations. Years of case law has limited exactly how and when the dogs can be used.

Usually, however, the dogs never even get into a situation where they have to bite someone. The potential of a bite is intimidating enough to the bad guys.

"Everything we do is for the safety of the animal and people," Powers said. "We don't want people to get hurt--that's why we give warnings."

For instance, if deputies are going to use dogs in a building search, or the search of a large, outdoor area, they are required to give three announcements over a public address system. They even command the dogs to bark into the PA.

One time, Powers said, a "guy stood up in middle of 10 acres saying, 'I give up,'" after hearing the bark of a police dog.

Puppies, and sometimes older dogs, are usually temperament tested at around 6 months old to see if they might make good police dogs.

"Not every dog is cut out for police work," Powers said. The dogs are evaluated to see if they are too aggressive, or not aggressive enough. "It's just like some people are not cut out to be cops."

Dogs can be fully trained by the age of 12 to 14 months. Trainers start with bite and protection work.

The dogs are taught commands in foreign languages, in part so that the wrong people cannot gain control of the dogs. Kato understands German and French. Cetaan and Quindo understand German. Czech and Dutch are used by other Sheriff's deputies' dogs. One dog, Powers said, "speaks Okie ... 'gid 'em!'"

"The whole training is nothing more than a big game" to the dogs, Greig said. "We introduce the behavior we want and reward the dog for doing it."

Powers explained that trainers are developing the dogs' natural instincts so that they can be used on command by law enforcement officers.

"The dogs themselves instinctively know to use their nose," Powers said as an example. Trainers introduce the dogs to what officers will want them to find, like drugs.

"Dogs can find drugs you would never even know are there," Greig said.

He said one dog keyed on a door of a car being searched for narcotics. The officers looked and looked, but couldn't locate any drugs. The dog continued to let her handlers know that she had sniffed a familiar scent. Finally the officers found a small piece of foil with narcotics residue on it wadded up at the bottom of the door's inside pocket. The residue wasn't enough to arrest the suspects, but it displayed just how powerful the nose of a dog can be.

Training does not stop once dogs are out in the field, however. In addition to the approximately 160 hours of initial training the dogs receive, the dogs and their human partners train once a week every week for the life of the dog. In additon, Davis said officers train the dogs frequently on their own; when not answering calls while they work in the middle of the night, officers take the dogs to local parks or available buildings for impromptu training.

The dogs can work as long as they are able, sometimes until they are 10 or 11 years old. Once a dog is too tired, or has lost interest in working, he or she is retired.

The dogs live with the officers, and often go everywhere with them, including on family vacations.

"At home they're just like another family pet," Davis said.

"There's a lot of responsibility... they're still police dogs," Powers said.

Less than two weeks ago, a sheriff's deputy's dog in Hollister was temporarily lost when the commercial tether that an officer had purchased for his dog failed. The dog left the officer's property during the night, which prompted a search and some small news stories in the local media. The 3-and-a-half-year-old dog was found about a day later.

On the job the dogs travel in special cars that have had the back seats removed. The dogs have plenty of water and a place to rest. The officers have remote controls that can pop open the back door of the patrol car from up to a block away. The dogs are trained to jump out of the car and go looking for their handlers.

For Powers, that training saved his life a few years ago. As he struggled with the suspect who was stabbing him in the chest, he was finally able to activate the remote control, located on his belt. Kato, who had been in the car worried about his master, jumped out of the car as soon as the door popped open and sprang into action, taking hold of the suspect and pulling him off of Powers.

Kato took it all in stride, relieved his master survived the attack. Back at home, Kato enjoys his time off from work. He's happy to go to work when Powers puts on his uniform. But when Powers, in his street clothes, asks Kato if he wants to go to the store, Kato declines, Powers said.

"He just rolls over and goes to sleep."

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, August 19, 1998.
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