Published: April 26, 2006 12:57 am            

All I could see was teeth: Editor has upclose, personal look at police’s newest canine

If you find yourself on the wrong side of the law and one of Enid Police Department’s K-9 teams is on your trail, I have one bit of advice.

Give up.

If you try to run away, you won’t get far. And, it will hurt.

A lot.

I feel qualified to give this advice because I had the opportunity recently to witness a demonstration of the abilities of two of EPD’s K-9 teams.

It was an up-close experience that involved me standing there and letting the dogs run at me, jump at me and bite me.

Crazy? Maybe. But I did get to wear the bite suit officers use during training. Criminals don’t get the protection of that suit, which absorbs most of the bites. Except for one minor nip, I survived unscathed.

It started out as a demonstration of the abilities of Adam, EPD’s newest dog. He’s a 16-month-old, 57-pound Belgian Malinois, and his handler is Officer Steve Miller.

I didn’t know it beforehand, but I also would get to see how EPD veteran Thor, a 41⁄2-year-old, 75-pound German shepherd, handles his responsibilities. His handler is Officer Justin Lamle.

I didn’t have the pleasure, though, of meeting the third K-9 team, Officer Ryan Fuxa and his dog, Rex. They were out on patrol at the time. Lucky me.

The demonstration started out with me putting on the bite suit. It weighs a lot (no one was really sure how much), and it’s hot. The fabric doesn’t breath.

Then came a lecture from Lt. Dean Grassino, Lamle and Miller about the do’s and don’ts when it comes to facing police dogs. Do keep your hands in a fist and inside the sleeve of the bite suit jacket. Do keep your arm up and don’t lean into the attack. Do keep your head back.

And, don’t do anything that could hurt the dog. Yeah, like that was going to be much of a possibility.

I did have one question, though.

“Did he (meaning Adam) get the same speech?”

That drew a round of laughs from everyone, including my friends who showed up to encourage me. Actually, they all told me they came to see Adam maul me.

Finally, it was the moment of truth.

After a quick bite from Adam to let me get a feel for what to expect, Miller led Adam off a few feet.

Now, I was supposed to play the unruly suspect who wouldn’t listen when Miller told me to stop.

Three times he warned me to stop or he would release his dog.

Three times I ignored him.

Then came what could have been the longest couple of seconds in my life. I watched as Miller gave the command and Adam sprang to life and charged straight for me.

Closer and closer. Then he leaped — mouth wide open — for my arm, which was out in front of me for protection. I’ll never forget that image. All I could see were teeth.

Adam bit into the suit, and I moved my arm back and forth. He held on tight. I wasn’t going to shake him off, and he wasn’t going to let go.

Miller came up after several seconds and lifted Adam off the ground, while giving him the command to let go. Adam’s young. He’s still learning, but he did eventually let go.

A couple of go-rounds with Adam left me hot, tired and with a sore arm.

Lamle then surprised me when he asked me if I wanted to have a go with Thor.

Sure, why not? I’m here, and he’s here.

Instead of sitting quietly at Lamle’s side, as Adam did for Miller, however, Thor barked and moved about, straining to get loose and come at me. Maybe Lamle said something to him to get him excited. I don’t know.

When set free, Thor ran straight for me, leaped at my arm and grabbed hold. His momentum spun us both around, me barely able to keep my feet and Thor lifted off the ground a foot or more.

I played Thor’s tackling dummy a couple of times before the demonstration ended.

It was an impressive showing. Those dogs are tough, and the teams of man and animal work well together.

In the real world, though, EPD’s dogs don’t have to show off their skills at subduing suspects that much. Just their presence usually is enough, Lamle and Miller said, to end the situation at hand without the dogs having to be turned loose.

Tracking and subduing suspects, though, is only part of the job these versatile dogs do. They also are trained to sniff out drugs and can help search for missing people.