# Book segment - patrol dog search



## Jim Engel (Nov 14, 2007)

I have tried to be as even handed and objective as possible in the following segment. As usual your comments, and especially your criticisms, are welcome:

The typical dual-purpose police dog has some outdoor search, tracing or trailing capability in addition to his drug detection and building search applications. When the need arises on a crime scene or in response to a missing person report the dog on the street is the most immediately available and if time is of the essence this is likely the dog that will do the job. If a crime subject has been seen fleeing time most definitely is of the essence in that the suspect typically is highly motivated to be long gone by the time the dog approaches. The distinction between pursuit and trailing may tend to blur when the distance is short and closing.
When there is more time, it is often desirable to bring in specialist dogs and their handlers. Reports of missing persons, such as overdue hikers or people failing to show up at an expected time and location are often deferred because of a lack of sufficient indication of illegal activity or immediate physical danger. When the search dog is brought in, the scent is likely to be much older and confused by other activity in the search area. In such instances, specialist police teams, sometimes Bloodhounds, or volunteer search and rescue organizations are called in.
The street patrol dog accustomed to building search operations is likely trained in an active search and bite or engage mode or at least used to an aggressive encounter at the end of his search. Such dogs are from the police breeds where aggression is a fundamental part of the breeding process, and a certain amount of aggression is necessary to make the cut in the selection process. Such dogs are problematic, to say the very least, when searching for an innocent civilian, often an especially vulnerable child with a mental disability or a confused or diametric older person. Although some agencies do not permit such patrol dogs to search in these circumstances because of the danger to the subject and the enormous legal liability, sometimes the dog at hand is used on a very short lead and with close up assisting personnel if available. This is a compromised situation in search effectiveness as well as danger and liability, as the tightly constrained dog can only cover a small fraction of the area an off lead search and rescue specialist dog could. Every situation is different and tactics must be dictated according to the potential benefits and liability, which is only one of the reasons that police department command personnel need to know as much as possible about specific canine capabilities and potential, so as to make the best possible decision in conjunction with the handler.


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## Joe Agustin (Jan 15, 2013)

I agree and have been deployed to look for missing persons. In 5 years i have been asked 3 times to find a missing person, or innocent person. Your right, its a tough decision. The one time I decided to deploy my single purpose, find and bite patrol dog to find the innocent person....IT WORKED.
Nothing changes from the time the dog exits the vehicle up until you get a positive read. I even challenged the guy as i would a suspect and had police officers walk up to him and put hands on to guide him, painting the same picture my dog would see if it indeed a bad guy. A person called his family and said he overdosed on meds cause hes trying to die. he said he was in the woods in the park. I decided i would use the wind and break the park down into smaller grids....I worked the woodline and woodline only. I only worked the area where I had immediate control of my K9, and i could see infront of the dog. I handled it as a patrol route....I gave the Kodi his command to search and walked the wood line. When i believed he got into odor I let him narrow it down to source until i believed we were as close as we were getting before breaking into the woods. When we entered the woods, I had kodi on a short leash and we used tons of flashlights and I was talking loud constantly giving warnings and wouldnt ya know it....30 yards in the woods from where Kodi indicated.....ol boy lay out of it, def took some pills at the least, and he washed em down with some alcohol. Deathly amount, prob not, but a good find for my boy.

I believe its possible, but i also believe it comes down to handler confidence and ability. sometimes there are those clueless handlers, you need one who can problem solve, think and think ahead.


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## Jim Engel (Nov 14, 2007)

Joe,
Very interesting, thanks for sharing.

I would guess that you used a harness rather than
the Schutzhund style collar?

Would a using a muzzle be a sensible option?

Not all muzzles are tight fitting like the agitation
muzzles, which I would think might inhibit breetiing
and sniffing.


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## Joe Agustin (Jan 15, 2013)

Jim Engel said:


> Joe,
> Very interesting, thanks for sharing.
> 
> I would guess that you used a harness rather than
> ...



I work my dog on an intruder harness by K9 storm. Hes hooked to the harness for any and all work or training. Tracking, on leash searches, when i do articles on leash....all done on the harness. I still have E if i need that stimulation around the neck. Choke collar for obedience. when were hooked to the harness...get ready, its time to work.

Kodi can search in a muzzle all day long. We do many of building searches with a muzzle, both on and off leash. But there is no need for a muzzle on a patrol dog when the decision is made to utilize their nose to find innocent people. Here is why....My dog, in that situation, was never off leash, I did not allow the dog to take corners or go into woods without me. As I stated, in this situation, my dog will no go where I cannot see. When I can place eyes on the area, we can move. I am strictly using my dog for his nose. If i deployed in a muzzle off leash, or on the 30 footer long lead to search, he can still injure by means of muzzle fighting. Kodi is a very strong muzzle fighter. Again, im simply using Kodi for his nose. When the dog gives solid enough indicators that you are in the right are....lets start using other officers. I always carry NV and Thermal as well. It ends up being a good find and training, but my dog thinks find and bite/fight. I will not train that out of him, I just retain the ability to not let him get to the innocent person.


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## David Frost (Mar 29, 2006)

Interesting discussion. I teach all my patrol dog handlers to weigh the available options and the consequences should they decide to or not to conduct a search for a missing person. In other words is possibility of getting the person bitten better than letting the person die because we didn't respond. sometimes, in the real life, we have to make those decisions. It's also the reason all building searches, scouting problems, track problems etc in training do NOT end with a bite. 

DFrost


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## Joe Agustin (Jan 15, 2013)

David Frost said:


> Interesting discussion. I teach all my patrol dog handlers to weigh the available options and the consequences should they decide to or not to conduct a search for a missing person. In other words is possibility of getting the person bitten better than letting the person die because we didn't respond. sometimes, in the real life, we have to make those decisions. It's also the reason all building searches, scouting problems, track problems etc in training do NOT end with a bite.
> 
> DFrost


I agree with the aspect that not all training needs to end with a bite. I strongly believe in varying the reward, be it ball/toy, bite/fight or seeing the bad guy after a verbal challenge and watching officers apprehend him. I believe ALL patrol dogs need to be ready to fight/bite after finding their suspect, however, I stand strong on the opinion that in an on leash situation, its primarily the handlers responsibility to know his dog and ultimately make the decision to deploy k9 or not. 

There are many times i have tracked for very minor misdemenors. Are they green light bites....of course not. But I believe that Kodi and myself work as a solid team. I can locate the suspect for any crime. I will bring the Officers to him. If he gives up, great, its a find and arrest without incident. If he decides to get froggy and fight the officers, I still have my K9 as the suspect escalated his own charges from a misdemenor to felony assault. The suspect may be wanted for more serious violent crimes that do call for a bite and he may think thats why we are after him. Again, The Kodi is a TOO and my partner. I would hate to be in a situation where I left my vehicle and my partner/tool/force multiplier/deterant in the car and then ask the suspect to hold on while I get my dog. We even had a past handler in my unit go into a store after being told he had no backup for a disorderly suspect, refusing to leave. Soon enough the fight was on and his mace didnt work. The 150 pound officer relied heavily on the suspects brothers to keep the bad guy off of him. Needless to say, I dont go anywhere on a message without my sidekick b/c I know shit can go bad, and if it doesnt, my dog stays by my side.

On last thing....Our dogs needs to be environmentally exposed to EVERYTHING. People ask me how often i train.....I train every time my dog exists my patrol car. Every experience holds the potential to offer new situations....rickity stairs, water, fire escapes. I may not go into a bite situation to start off, but each and every call has the ability to get the dog used to something he may not have been previously. I mean shoot......My gun goes with me everywhere on every mesage, just cause i have it doesnt mean i always use it, but its there just in case. Same with my KODI


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## David Frost (Mar 29, 2006)

Joe Agustin said:


> I believe ALL patrol dogs need to be ready to fight/bite after finding their suspect, however, I stand strong on the opinion that in an on leash situation, its primarily the handlers responsibility to know his dog and ultimately make the decision to deploy k9 or not.


Which is exactly why I would never support b/h training in a PSD. It is the handler's decision on whether or not to deploy the dog. 

DFrost


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## Joe Agustin (Jan 15, 2013)

David Frost said:


> Which is exactly why I would never support b/h training in a PSD. It is the handler's decision on whether or not to deploy the dog.
> 
> DFrost



is B/H short for blood hound? All of our K9s graduate school with tracking, ground disturbance type. Jim duncan from chesapeake has introduced me to hard surface tracking. Depending more on the odor from the person. Its helped greatly as i work in a city


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## David Frost (Mar 29, 2006)

Joe Agustin said:


> is B/H short for blood hound? All of our K9s graduate school with tracking, ground disturbance type. Jim duncan from chesapeake has introduced me to hard surface tracking. Depending more on the odor from the person. Its helped greatly as i work in a city


Sorry for the confusion. We were talking about dogs ready to bite and fight. I was talking about how I refuse to train bark and hold for that very reason. 

dFrost


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## Howard Knauf (May 10, 2008)

This is a discussion near and dear to my heart because I had a PSD trained to do SAR and F/B. It's simply a matter of training using two different commands depending on the desired outcome.

I had numerous SAR finds with my dual purpose dog and no accidental bites when he was deployed in the manner he was trained. Maybe not ALL PSDs can do this but I'm sure there are more out there than people think.

I will say that all the SAR deployments were done on lead. Although I had confidence he wouldn't bite when he wasn't supposed to, at the end of the day the dog was an experienced, trained apprehension dog....and being that he was an animal it was only prudent that I did my part to prevent a bad outcome.


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## Joe Agustin (Jan 15, 2013)

Howard Knauf said:


> This is a discussion near and dear to my heart because I had a PSD trained to do SAR and F/B. It's simply a matter of training using two different commands depending on the desired outcome.
> 
> I had numerous SAR finds with my dual purpose dog and no accidental bites when he was deployed in the manner he was trained. Maybe not ALL PSDs can do this but I'm sure there are more out there than people think.
> 
> I will say that all the SAR deployments were done on lead. Although I had confidence he wouldn't bite when he wasn't supposed to, at the end of the day the dog was an experienced, trained apprehension dog....and being that he was an animal it was only prudent that I did my part to prevent a bad outcome.


 
I am very glad you made that statement....."and being that he was an animal it was only prudent that i did my part to prevent a bad outcome"......I love it. Dogs are dogs, dogs are animals, they are not the perfect robot that doesnt fail. Maybe im an overcautious handler, but I always try to envision in each circumstances that negative as well as the positive. We do not train bark and hold either, its very dangerous i believe but thats for another discussion. I believe every PSD dog should be ready to fight and bite when they reach the person at the end of their track or search. I only say this cause if i deploy my boy off leash i already have all the info i needed for a K9 apprehension. If i dont or i dont feel its safe enough we go on leash, and i still want my boy thinking hes getting a bite. If i choose to deploy the k9 or not is on me. I cannot talk on SAR as i dont do it or train for it. And while it sounds like it works for you, Im very simple minded and dont want too many things going on in my boys head. IF were searching for someone, i want him to think hes getting an apprehension. It is my job as a handler at the end of the lead to go forward with it, or when the suspect give up, let the cover officers take them into custody without incident.


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