The Dog Squad

by Vikki Petraitis

  As thousands more piled into the city, and even more surrounded the city square, screaming and yelling at the four dog handlers, Mick thought: oh shit, we’re in trouble. He fully supported their right to protest, but police wisdom dictates that while individuals are usually sensible and open to reason, crowds are not. And this presented the biggest danger to those joining the protest. While most of the protestors were peaceful – mums and dads with young kids on their shoulders, mingled with teenagers and uni students – regular folk had no idea how quickly these things could turn violent. The smallest spark could ignite the powder keg.

  Mick scanned the mob with heightened senses, visually identifying the antagonists; the organised element who would do their best to spark violence, then film it and post it online as an example of police brutality. From where Mick stood, it wasn’t the police who were being brutal. As threatening as the huge aggressive crowds are, handlers get some confidence from the dogs by their side. The dogs held the crowds in their place. While protestors rattled the fence and spilt their venomous words, there was not one person willing to push through the fence. Once the riot team arrived and stood between the handlers and the crowd, people lost interest and moved on, but not before many had come through to yell vile things at the police. Mick knows that if he reacts in situations like this, another hundred violent people might flood in. He also knows that their actions do not reflect society in general.

  So much is asked of police dogs. They find missing kids, face down armed offenders and sometimes they make the difference between crooks getting away and getting caught. One night in Hoppers Crossing, a teenager had awoken to find someone in her bedroom with a torch. She screamed and her dad came in and wrestled with the intruder, but the man got away. Mick and Flynn raced to the scene, and began a kilometre-long track through the quiet suburb.

  Flynn led Mick down streets and sometimes into yards and over the little fences at the front where the man had obviously ducked down to hide. Suddenly, Mick saw Flynn air scent. Then he saw a guy’s head pop up from behind a garden bed near an intersection. He was hidden from the road, and Mick walked around and approached him from behind. The guy tried to run and Flynn brought him down. It turned out the crook was 75 metres from his house. If he had made it home, they might not have caught him. Mick shrugs at his luck. ‘No one expects the dogs,’ he says.

  MICK’S TRAINING TIPS

  Two words: consistency and repetition are key. However you train your dog, be consistent and the dog will learn whatever you want to teach it.

  If a police dog is released and ordered to bite, it is done in order to protect the handler, or as a last resort in the resolution of a serious incident. Photo courtesy of Christopher Chan

  CHAPTER 15

  The newest member

  Senior Constable Brad Mascoll is one of the Dog Squad’s newest members. He has been a police dog handler for less than six months and is still very much learning the ropes. The first time Brad saw a police dog in action was not long after he joined the Victoria Police. He had been working general duties at the Pakenham police station when he was called to a break-in at a local primary school – it was the second night in a row that the school had been burgled. Brad and his partner arrived at the same time as a police dog handler.

  Brad watched as the dog was unloaded and harnessed. The handler and the dog made their way to the school buildings and within minutes, the dog had found a scent and tracked it across an oval to an unmown vacant block. As the handler and dog approached the area, three guys popped up like rabbits from the grass and ran towards a nearby car. Brad and his partner managed to cut them off and arrested all three.

  Once the thieves were loaded safely into the police vehicle, the handler let the dog off the lead. During a systematic sweep of the vacant block, the dog located gloves and computer equipment that had been stolen from the school. The police got a warrant to search the thieves’ houses, and recovered some computers stolen the prev­ious night.

  Brad couldn’t believe how effective his canine colleagues were. Without the dog, the attending police officers would have just searched the school grounds, not the vacant block on the other side of the school oval. They would never have recovered the hidden cache of stolen goods from the long grass and the thieves would never have been caught.

  Without the dog, the job may well have become another unsolved burglary.

  That school break-in marked the beginning of Brad’s interest in police dogs. Brad chatted to handlers whenever he saw them at a job and loved hearing their stories. There was something about the thrill of the chase that appealed to him. But back then, Brad was new to the police force; to join the Dog Squad, he would need a lot more policing experience under his belt.

  Brad moved through the police force from general duties to the Highway Patrol and spent seven years policing the streets of Melbourne. Much of his job involved liaising with local cops. Highway Patrol operations were often intelligence based – if they got wind of a problem, they would set up cars to target certain areas. His knowledge of crime in the suburbs of Melbourne grew by the week.

  In some ways, the skills of Highway Patrol officers were similar to those of police dog handlers. Both jobs required officers to work mostly on their own, and both required a lot of self-motivation. Highway Patrol officers housed the police car in their garage at night while a handler housed the police dog in the backyard.

  After seven years in Highway Patrol, Brad had enough policing experience and was fit and ready; it was time to apply for the next vacancy at the Dog Squad. He booked a place at a Dog Squad information night and arrived at the Police Academy to find around eighty cops already gathered in the meeting hall.

  Gary ‘Claude’ Silinzieds ran the night. He began with the negatives: be prepared to work mostly twilight shifts, to not see much of your family, to scoop dog poop, to stand out in the rain, and to occasionally work in horrible conditions. It was a good reality check; the audience was left in no doubt of the demands of the job. But after that, Silinzieds spoke about the positives. The average length of service was seventeen years – which said volumes about how much handlers loved their job. He described the kinds of jobs the dogs got called to: critical incidents, fleeing offenders, searches, and a myriad of other front-line policing situations – known in the business as the pointy end of the action.

  Brad put in an application. He was selected with around twenty other applicants for physical testing at the Police Academy. A beep test, push-ups, sit-ups, chin-ups, an agility run, and a dummy drag, all did their bit in culling the number of applicants; those left were sent on a three-day training course.

  Brad was one of them.

  Part of the training involved interacting with police dogs. Never having had a dog, Brad had sought advice from handlers before the course.

  ‘Don’t be afraid to be a dickhead’ was the best piece of advice he got. Jumping around like a yahoo, using high energy, fast movements – all these things engaged the dogs.

  Brad was a bit worried and a bit intimidated dealing with the police dogs. He was even more worried about looking like a clown in front of the handlers.

  It happened anyway.

  He put the check chain on backwards on one of the dogs. And when he reached the limits of his physical endurance on one of the training courses, he vomited in front of everyone.

  And that was before the public speaking component.

  The stories Brad had heard from the handlers about the joys of the job kept him going through the gruelling training. They were the carrot. He just had to survive the stick.

  Four of the applicants made it through to the eight-week novice course. Again, Brad was one of them. Even though the four cops were competing with each other, the nature of the training meant teamwork was a must. The physical side of the course was brutal and would test even the fittest of applicants.

  Brad and two others passed the course and won the right to apply for the next vacancy at the Dog Squad. But it w
ould be another year before a vacancy was finally advertised. When one came up, Brad applied and was thrilled when he got the call saying he had the job. Then came the most exciting part of joining the Dog Squad: getting the dog.

  Brad found out the hard way that not all dogs are meant to be police dogs. He bonded and trained with his first dog for over four months, but the dog couldn’t track as effectively as was required. Brad knew it, but he hoped that the effort and training that he and the staff at the Dog Squad had put in would bring the dog up to scratch. It wasn’t to be.

  Brad went on holidays with his dog, and the day he returned to work, the dog was sacked. For Brad, it was an absolute wrench. Losing the dog was heartbreaking. Nonetheless, it turned out to be an important reminder that police dogs were working dogs first and foremost.

  As disappointing as losing the dog was, the thought of starting again after nearly five months of training was worse. But in this, at least, Brad was given a reprieve. Through a series of events, handler Matt Steele’s German shepherd Axel was allocated to Brad. Another handler with a siege dog had left the squad, and his dog needed a specially trained siege-dog handler; Matt had the required training so he swapped Axel for the siege dog.

  By the time Brad got him, Axel was three years old and already highly trained. The first time he saw his new dog was when he went to pick him up. Axel appeared from around a corner of the yard.

  He’s a little bloke! was Brad’s first thought.

  After losing his previous dog, Brad was wary of getting too attached to Axel, but the dog was so affectionate, it was hard not to warm to him. Brad’s fiancée, Bree, had also grown very attached to his first dog and was shocked when the dog was sacked. She too had reservations when Axel arrived at their house, but the dog took to her and she to him.

  Axel quickly figured out that while Brad represented work, Bree represented pats and hugs. Around her, he wasn’t expected to do anything and seemed to relax. He loved every minute of her attention. As soon as she got home from work, Bree headed straight out to the back deck for a hug. If Brad ever joined her on the deck, Axel snapped to attention. He could quickly switch between home and work mode.

  Because Axel was already trained, the rest of Brad’s orientation into the Dog Squad was geared towards him learning to work with dogs. Being new to the world of dogs, every part of the training was a progression from the part before. And every part of the process was fascinating.

  Axel proved stubborn and liked to test his new handler. Part of Brad’s training was figuring out which things his dog responded to and then working out how to capitalise on those things. The other handlers provided a wealth of knowledge in helping the squad’s newest recruit better understand the nature of police dogs.

  Training a dog involved constant problem solving. If Axel hopped out of the car at the park and wouldn’t acknowledge Brad’s commands, Brad learnt to put him straight back in the car and make him wait. After a couple of minutes, Brad would let him out again, and Axel would do as he asked straight away. Brad had to problem-solve little incidents of disobedience that had the potential to be magnified in a working situation.

  As in the life of all handlers and their dogs, there came a day when the training was over and it was time to hit the road. The biggest challenge for a new handler is in reading the dog. There is no safety net, no starting point; the handler has to learn how to put the police dog in the best position to do the job. Time and experience are the only ways to improve. Brad understood that working through the first months as a handler was hard because he didn’t have his own bank of experience to draw from. Talking to other handlers helped, but a lot of those early months were trial and error. And constant learning.

  Brad and Axel’s first job involved chasing a bloke who had broken into some cars in Cranbourne West. There had been a car break-in earlier in the day and witnesses told police that the thief had ridden off on a BMX bike. A couple of hours later – and just around the corner from the first theft – another local resident had disturbed a man breaking into cars and called the police.

  This time, the thief was on foot, but since both witnesses had described the man wearing grey tracksuit pants and a black T-shirt, the odds were it was the same offender.

  At the scene, the resident met with Brad and the local cops. He had seen the man run off and pointed the way. Brad got Axel out of the car and cast him on the 10-metre tracking line. Axel picked up a scent – it was only ten minutes old by that stage – and the two set off on a kilometre-long track. They arrived at a suburban park and Axel nearly raced Brad off his feet with excitement. He pulled on the lead and headed across to some bushes on the boundary of the park. On the other side of the bushes, Brad saw a BMX bike lying in the front yard of an adjacent house.

  Axel was very excited. So was Brad.

  As Brad and Axel walked up the front path of the house, a woman opened the door. Axel bolted towards her but Brad reeled him in and pulled him back to his side. A man appeared from behind the woman and pushed her out of the way.

  ‘What the fuck are you doing here?’ he roared at Brad.

  Brad could see he was wearing grey tracksuit pants and a black T-shirt. He pulled back a little, keeping his very excited German shepherd by his side. But the man moved towards them in a threatening manner.

  ‘Get down!’ yelled Brad. A million things ran through his mind at once. Axel had only taken people down in training and Brad realised he didn’t know how the dog would be with a real crook. Would he bite the man? And what about the logistics: how do you hold the dog, keep a crook at bay, and radio in your position all at the same time? Luckily Brad had kept D-24 up to date with his location and backup was just around the corner.

  ‘Get on your knees!’ he yelled again, trying to look as if he did this kind of thing every day.

  The man yelled at Brad.

  The woman in the doorway screamed her two cents’ worth. ‘He’s innocent!’ she cried.

  As local cops moved in to make the arrest, Brad realised with great clarity why handlers stayed in the job for decades. He felt the rush that the other handlers had all spoken about – he and his dog had followed a crook right to his door. It was almost magical.

  Both Axel and Brad loved every minute of their first arrest together. After the arrest, Brad took his dog across to the park for a game of fetch with his favourite toy. He told Axel he was a good boy about a thousand times, and there was lots of hugging and patting.

  In all of Brad’s previous policing, he had made an arrest, written a statement and then appeared in court as a witness. But working with dogs was different; these cases ended with catching the crook. Whether the man would be found innocent or guilty when the case finally got to court didn’t matter. Brad knew he was guilty because his dog knew it.

  Axel’s finest moment was his first bite. In the early hours of the morning, Brad got called to a job where three young crooks had stolen a car, then dumped it on the outskirts of town after being pursued by police. Officers at the scene had nabbed one guy, but the other two had run off. Brad and Axel went looking for the driver while another dog and handler set off after the passenger. Axel quickly picked up the scent and was excited and energetic.

  They tracked through bushland before coming to a stop at a creek. Brad yelled to one of the police officers following behind to shine a torch up the creek to see if there was a narrow section they could easily get across. But Axel didn’t wait. He took a flying leap at the stretch of creek and Brad leapt after him. Luckily both cleared it – Axel by a mile, Brad by centimetres.

  Through more scrubland, they both kept going until the dog began to pull even more frantically on his lead. Moments later, Brad and Axel cornered the car thief in the backyard of a house that backed onto the bushland.

  ‘Police! Stop or I’ll send the dog!’ yelled Brad.

  The thief, it seemed, decided to take his chances. He jumped up onto the fence on the far side of the yard. Axel had been in fine form from the moment th
e track started. He was more than ready to catch the guy.

  Brad let Axel go. The dog bolted towards the man and took a flying leap as the guy scrambled wildly up the fence. The force of the flying dog pulled the guy backwards off the fence and onto the ground.

  Brad ran up and shone his torch to see where Axel had bitten the thief. In the beam of torchlight, he saw that his dog had taken hold of the hood of his jumper.

  Axel hadn’t made a mark on the guy, but the result was still the same – the dog had caught the crook and taken him down.

  ‘Good boy! Good boy!’ yelled Brad, letting Axel continue his hoodie tug of war.

  Meanwhile, the crook was almost crying for Brad to call the dog off. Even though he wasn’t getting hurt, the chap was clearly a little disconcerted to have the excited police canine attached to his clothing. The more the guy pulled and tugged, the more of a game he made it for Axel. The dog was having the time of his life.

  ‘I’m going to have to cut the hood off,’ Brad said.

  ‘Just do it,’ wailed the guy.

  One quick swipe with the small blade attached to his Leather­man – a pocket-sized device similar to a Swiss army knife – and the hood was history. Brad got the crook and Axel got the hood – a great reward for both handler and dog.

  Brad was fascinated to see how Axel behaved post-crook. The best way to describe it was that his dog had his trot on. All the way back to the car, Axel pranced out in front of his police colleagues with the black hood clamped firmly in his mouth.

  Indeed, the dog pranced for a full kilometre and only put the hood down to drink from a puddle. In the back of the police car, Axel then carried it all the way home like a prize. He still had it the next morning when Brad’s fiancée, Bree – a police officer herself – made Brad throw it out. She refused to have crook hoodie in the house.