Danger deepens bond between K9 and handler

“Break!” says Const. Adam Philpott, commanding his bulletproof-vest clad Belgian Malinois dog to sprint in a field outside of Brandon. The officer of Brandon Police Service shouts again, and his dog stops halfway, fixated ahead on a ball.

When the K9 unit dog Zeus is commanded to retrieve the toy and bring it back, he jumps up and pushes his paws on Philpott’s chest. It looks typical of a man and man’s best friend. But most dogs don’t wear bulletproof vests, and most dog owners don’t have on their mind the reason why that vest is needed.

The relationship between a K9 handler and their animal is just different from normal dogs, Philpott said in a recent interview. There are many reasons, but shared trauma is one of them, and the necessity to work closely together in dangerous and stressful situations.

“He’s my partner,” Philpott said. “I trust him 1,000 percent to do his job, and he trusts me.”

Despite having two other dogs at home, the man’s-best-friend distinction goes to Zeus, said Philpott. By nature of their work they must form a tight bond, not to mention that the K9 unit spends almost all of their lives together.

It may not be common knowledge, but the K9 dogs of the Brandon Police Service go home with their handlers. The two take off their uniforms together. They eat together. They wake up together. The result is that the K9 dog typically grows close to the handler.

“These guys are very much a part of our family,” Philpott said. “I get up, my kids are sleeping, the first thing I do is take care of my dog. It’s the last thing I do before I go to sleep.”

Driving down First Street with Zeus in the back of the police cruiser, a bowl of water bumping around at the dog’s feet, Philpott explained that they ride like this every day. And so, with closeness at work and home, the two experience life together almost entirely for the time that they are a unit.

It’s important that they grow a bond, he said. The two become reliant on each other in their work, and the deeper they bond, the safer they work together.

When Zeus squats to poop during a tracking exercise later, it’s a “negative tell” that they had lost the trail, Philpott said. Reading the animal is just as important as it reading you, he said.

Manitoba First Nations Police Service K9 unit officer Cole LeBlanc, who started work as a K9 handler just over a year ago, has had the same experience. He told the Sun that his best friend is also his dog, Nyx, and that’s just the way it happens through work.

“We spend more time with these animals than anyone else in our family,” LeBlanc said.

The miraculous ability for humans and dogs to bond is useful for police work, but there is an obvious downside for K9 handlers.

Tracking drugs, guns and suspects means naturally high-risk situations. And so in forming this bond with dogs and providing this service, the K9 handlers are constantly seeing their family member at risk.

“Your dog is pulling you to danger all the time,” LeBlanc said. “And, usually you’re going to people who don’t want to be caught. And they’re motivated.”

When a woman was stabbed in the head last year at a home on Victoria Avenue, Philpott responded and executed a track into the alleyway behind the home with Zeus. When a man was nearly killed at a hotel in Brandon this year by a machete attack, Zeus was pursuing the suspects as well.

As part of the tactical response unit in Brandon, K9 units are part of the tip of the spear in finding criminals, Philpott said. He and Zeus are called to almost all high-risk situations, and in many cases their job is to lead the pursuit of high-risk suspects.

The risk follows that Zeus could be hurt in duty or killed. Philpott has mentally prepared for this, it is clear, when he answers that dogs who die this way are heroes. But there is no way to stop it from cutting deep, he said.

“It would be the worst day of my life.”

Bulletproof and stab-resistant vests offer some comfort for K9 handlers, he said. But truthfully, the risk can never be zero. It is something that he’s come to terms with, and perhaps it is something that strengthens the bond between him and his best friend.

Philpott said his dog Zeus is about halfway through its career, at five years old. He said he wants to enjoy all the time they have left in service, and when it’s over, he wants to stay involved training dogs if he can.

For now, he helps as the Brandon Police Service trains its newest recruit, K9 Merrit, who was taken up to fill the shoes of Storm.

»cmcdowell@brandonsun.com