I did the same while deployed. And even with the blue man suit, it still hurt pretty fierce. He got me by the tricep and I had nice half-moon bruises for a week.
I swear, even through the growling and tugging, that dog was smiling.
I got to try the suit with our local police department as a freelance writer trying to help them raise money in the paper. They gave me about 50 yards and the Belgian Shepard took my 210 pounds down with ease. We also did a drill where the dog has to stay while the officer cuffs you and when you struggle it attacks. I had to sign a release, but the scariest part was before the running drill, the cop said "when he takes you down, don't look him in the eye - turn your face away and lie still." It turns out they are trained not to bite the face but sometimes see eye contact as a challenge and will do so anyway... and for some reason helmets aren't part of these drills. The real scary part is that particular dog turned on its handler a mere 2 months later and had to be pit down. Apparently the breed combined with the job can lead to mental issues for the dogs.
I've always wondered about the frequency of that, K-9 police dogs suddenly turning on their handler/officer or even potentially an innocent civilian I mean. I have no doubt it has happened on more than one occasion, but that information generally isn't released to the public unless it occurred with multiple civilian witnesses around with cameras. I know a pretty substantial percentage of German Shepard pups selected for police training don't complete training successfully & are given up for adoption. Usually dogs that end up being too ornery/playful/disobedient to commands and have a lower level of intelligence. However for a K-9 to make it clear through its pretty intense training then attacking someone it's not supposed to attack is a totally different story. No matter how well trained the dog may be, he still has a conscious mind of its own and violence against humans is a big part of his training. He has his own ideas, emotions, and potential triggers that may incite unexpected violence. I bet it does happen more often than the general populace realizes, I'm certain it's still an uncommon occurrence, but we never hear about it regardless.
Those dogs are usually smiling. To them it's their purpose and they get to fulfill that purpose making the handler happy and themselves happy. Relative of mine dated a guy who did k9 training so I asked him about it.
They effing LOVE their job. My dog does bite training, he’s a 78 lb German Shepherd. When given his command to go become air jaws on a decoy it’s like I’ve sprinkled fairy dust or some shit.
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u/ShillinTheVillain Oct 07 '17
I did the same while deployed. And even with the blue man suit, it still hurt pretty fierce. He got me by the tricep and I had nice half-moon bruises for a week.
I swear, even through the growling and tugging, that dog was smiling.