You’ve probably noticed them sitting on the sidelines, discouraging fans from running onto the field at the University of Florida football games. You might have seen them patrolling the community with their partners or attending public demonstrations. For a special group of dogs, it’s all in a day’s work.
There are 16 active police working dogs between the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office and the Gainesville Police Department. With their handlers, these dogs spend their lives training and patrolling, apprehending criminals, tracking scents, detecting explosives and locating narcotics.
All but one of the dogs on the GPD’s K-9 Unit are German or Dutch Shepherds that were bred overseas for their high-quality genetics, said GPD officer and spokesman Ben Tobias. At around 1, the puppies are evaluated to determine their potential as future police dogs.
“The dog is selected on its drive,” Tobias said. “It has to have a drive to work.”
Sergeant Nigel Lowe, a nine-year member and head of the Alachua County Sheriff’s K-9 Unit, agreed that the most sought-after quality in a police dog is ambition.
Selected puppies, costing up to $10,000 each, will be brought to the department with no prior training and begin their police dog preparation. The state mandates both the dog and handler complete a 400-hour training course for the K-9 unit, Tobias said. During this time, the dog and his handler will begin to bond.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement certifies each team as “patrol-ready” before they can begin working. According to the GPD website, each pair must also “re-certify annually to ensure that they have maintained the highest level of proficiency.”
To complete assigned tasks, Lowe said, the dogs learn to understand verbal cues and non-verbal gestures. However, the training does not stop at certification. Canines and their handlers train regularly to stay sharp, focused and prepared for whatever situation may come their way.
Some of the most common duties undertaken by these particular police dogs are criminal apprehension, tracking and drug detection. All of the dogs are skillfully trained in a spectrum of law enforcement tasks. The only exception is a single black lab, handled by a GPD officer, who works exclusively as a narcotics dog on the Alachua County Combined Drug Task Force.
Both Tobias and Lowe stressed the canines are not trained as “attack dogs,” a common misconception among the public.
“They’re not trained to bite or maul,” Tobias explained. “They’re trained to hold a suspect until an officer can get there to control it.”
The dogs frequently attend events and demonstrations, where they blend in with the general public — and oftentimes interact with children. Tobias described most of the dogs as “very playful.”
“Attack dogs are dogs that just go ahead and bite,” Lowe said. “Our dogs do not apprehend anybody unless we tell them to. We are in control of the dogs at all times.”
At the end of the day, police dogs from both the GPD and the Sheriff’s Office K-9 units go home to live with their officers.
“They want to make it the best relationship possible,” Tobias said.
Off duty, they interact and play with their handler’s families and enjoy the comforts of a home. Lowe said the officers make a strong distinction between home life and work life with their canine partners. “When they go home with me, it’s time to play. We don’t do any [police] training at home. The only training that we do is in the vehicle and at work.”
When it’s time to go back on duty, the officers fit the dogs with a work-only collar and place them in their specially equipped K-9 vehicles to make the transition. “They know that when they go in the vehicle, it’s time to work,” Lowe said.
After approximately five to eight years of service, the time comes for a police dog to retire. Usually for health reasons, the animal will turn in his badge and continue living with his partner as a household pet. Lowe’s retired canine partner, now 10 years old, has made the adjustment to family life. He enjoys playing with Lowe’s current 3-year-old police dog when they come home from work.
A position on the K-9 unit is considered prestigious, according to Tobias. Not many people have the opportunity to work alongside these special dogs and connect with them on the level their partners do.
“Being around one of the trainers made me realize that it was something I wanted to get into,” Lowe said. “The bond is really close. They’re very loyal.”
