Attack From The Rear!

Attack On The Rear!

(C) James J Alonzo


I worked as a K-9 officer with Saber was my K-9. He had become a Great partner and between the two of us, we trained each other well. As the Saber was a very good dog, however the hardest part was getting around his independent streak, and his willingness to argue with me, sometime at the most inopportune times.

When the leash was connected to Saber's collar, and I was holding the leash, I commanded. The dog was very obedient and versatile and was very good at tracking, locating drugs, and intimidating crowds. 

However Saber never got over his exuberance to bite. Sometimes when I was cleaning his kennel, saber would sneak up behind me and nip me in the ass. This was his way of telling me, 

"I want to play, so hurry up!"

One night, I got a call, 'burglary in progress', so it was lights and siren all the way. This was another problem with Saber, fir he would stand directly behind my head, and against the screen or cage, he would bark all the way! 

"Will you shut up!" I'd shouted.

Saber would pounce against the cage banging it so hard, my head would rattle,

"BANG!"

I thought he was going to break it!  When Saber and I got there, I opened the rear door once I had the leash in hand. The second patrol vehicle showed up, and I said,

"Take the rear!"

The house was one of those large mansions that had very large chain link connected to poles that stood a mere three feet above the ground. The chain drooped between the poles at a height of two feet, more for decoration than security. I ran up the front door it was secure, but Saber caught a scent that went off to the side, towards the woods.

"Search Saber, search!"

I radio backup and told him the situation, and I heard him coming around the house towards us. I could see tracks in the snow, I took off running, Saber running along side of me. When we got to the chain links, I didn't slow down, and jumped over the lowest part of the hanging chain.

I knew I was in trouble when I felt the rearward jerk and at the same time seeing my feet shoot up to the height of my vision! 

"OOOMFFF!" 

When I jumped the chain links, Saber decided that no one had trained him to jump fences, low hanging chains, short bushes, so he sat his 175 lb body down! As I laid there trying to suck in air from any orifice, into my lungs, I heard the other officer run past us laughing,

"Want me to call back up, or get you a ladder for your dog??"

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(For two weeks after that incident, I worked with Saber jumping over obstacles. By the time I was finished he had no trouble jumping over four foot high fences, nor climbing ladders)
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Except for the occasional ass bite, I enjoyed having the dog for back up.  When I made a traffic stop, I would leave the driver's side window open, as well as the cage between the front seat and the kennel - which was in the rear seat area.  That way the dog could respond if I called for him.

One night, I made a traffic stop on a very noisy drunk driver.  The driver was much larger than I and apparently thought he could take me on.  I called for back up, and immediately pushed him up against the auto. Ducking a slow loping right hook, I easily handled him, and had him up against the trunk of his car and had just gotten the handcuffs on.  Suddenly, Saber over excited by the the commotion of the arrest, appeared next to me and bit the drunk driver in the ass.

"Shit!, " shouted the perp.

I didn't say a thing, just looked down at the dog in astonishment! I snapped my arm, hand pointed Saber to our car! The dog, suddenly aware that he was in deep trouble, ran back to the patrol vehicle, jumped in the driver's side window, and into the kennel in the rear seat.

The drunk driver apparently never saw the dog.  When the backup patrol vehicle showed up to transport the perp, the officer placed the drunk driver in the rear seat of the vehicle. 

When I got into our vehicle I was pissed,

" You are a sorry excuse for a police K-9, sneaking up on that perp and biting him? Shame on you!"

Saber, instead of barking at me, just laid down on the seat and didn't make a sound. I drove to the station and on arrival, I left Saber in the vehicle to pout.

"You should feel bad!" I said enjoying Saber's discomfort.

When the officer brought the drunk driver into the jail where the rest of us were waiting, the outraged driver said,

"i want to lodge a complaint! Do you know what this deputy did?"  "He bit me in the ass!"

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