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Police Dogs Pursue A Place In The Sun

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By KEITH MORELLI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 23, 2007

LAKELAND - Rex is 8, but he just won't accept that his competition, some half his age, can get the jump on him. He's a trooper - well, actually, a police dog, from O'Fallon, Mo., and even though he can't get over a 6-foot wall, he still has heart.

In dog years, he's 56, and by most accounts, that's near retirement age. Still, he and his partner and lifelong pal, Keith Lewis, came to Lakeland this week for the U.S. Police Canine Association's National Police Dog Trials. Dogs and handlers from law enforcement agencies across the nation are vying for the title of top dog.

Lewis said Rex will retire soon to spend days lounging around Lewis' household in O'Fallon, about 25 miles west of St. Louis. There he will decompress from a career in law enforcement and start taking care of the officer's family instead of the town's residents.

Because he didn't cross the wall when other, younger dogs made it easily, Rex may have lost his chance to win the overall event, which concludes Thursday. Lewis is not disappointed. His partner will always be a winner.

'He's almost 8,' the officer said after a hot and steamy morning of competition Monday. 'He's an exceptional dog.'

Every handler at the event would likely say the same thing, all 132 of them, many veterans of the competition as it moves from city to city each year.

'We have dogs from all over the country, as far away as Idaho,' said Lakeland police Sgt. Ed Cain, the organizer. The number is up from last year, when 118 competed in Minnesota.

All of the dogs here this week have earned that right. They all finished with top qualifying scores at regional competitions, he said.

'These are the best of the best,' Cain said.

Twenty-two judges oversee events that test skills such as agility, obedience, and the ability to find things such as spent shotgun shells in tall grass and suspects in boxes.

With all of the dogs, there are bound to be some canine differences of opinions, egos inflated by words of competitive encouragement.

'Sometimes there are scrapes, but the people here know which ones to keep separated,' Cain said.

All of the dogs are German or Dutch shepherds or Belgian Malinois, he said.

Those breeds 'are the most reliable,' Cain said. Rottweilers and Doberman pinschers are no longer among the elite in police dog circles.

Joe Litzinger, also with the O'Fallon Police Department, held Rocky on a leash as others competed Monday morning. Rocky had just finished his agility drill and was resting in the splotchy shade of a tall pine tree. Oblivious to the standings, he watched others climb the ladder and hop over the obstacles.

Rocky, a 4-year-old Belgian Malinois, is participating in his second national competition. Litzinger said Rocky's claim to fame in O'Fallon is that he once sniffed out 100 pounds of marijuana sealed inside four tires of the car of a suspected drug dealer.

Across the field, Paul Bryant, who is in charge of the judges, hollered that the panel was ready for the next entrant. Bryant, who has been a dog handler for the Philadelphia Police Department for 24 years, loves his event role. He's a dog person.

'I enjoy it, and I enjoy judging it,' he said.

Dogs are more controlled than in years past, he said, largely to avoid liability.

'Who wants a dog chasing and biting everybody?' he asked. More dogs live in the homes of their handlers and have to get along with families, so they are better behaved, he said.

All of that raises the level of competition.

The dogs also are more specialized. Some sniff out only cadavers, others just drugs, and others just explosives. There are patrol dogs and tracking dogs.

The canines and handlers get called out all the time. And when they're off, handlers always have to care for their four-pawed partners.

'Dog handling is the only 24-7 police job in law enforcement,' Bryant said.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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