SAN ANTONIO – Spikes K9 Fund, a nonprofit supporting and training police dogs across the country, is in San Antonio this week helping 12 officers, 6 SWAT team members and their K9 units all for free.
They’re working on a tactical integration course, helping the teams work together for dangerous and extreme operations as they arise.
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The nonprofit has worked with hundreds of dogs over the years, supplying some with ballistic vests and building training courses.
Instructor Steven Stoops was a police officer in Indiana for 20 years before he joined the military, training tactical military dogs in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He says it’s important that these dogs, like people, never stop learning.
“We pick a dog just like we pick a good policeman: open, good work ethic, and courage,” Stoops said. “And when we get that dog, then we marry these tactics up so we can use the dog as a location tool. Biting plays a very small part of what a police dog does. It locates and it dominates the adversary.”
Officer Travis Reich has been with the K-9 unit for nine years, and says his childhood experiences inspired him to start working with police dogs.
“I grew up with hunting dogs, so to be able to bring them over into the police profession, go out and find the bad guys, find the drugs, the things that we wouldn’t be able to locate without them. It’s just been absolutely amazing,” he said.
His newest dog, a three-year-old Belgian Malinois named Baca, is energetic and a driven hunter. He says working with dogs can often be a safe and non-lethal method of apprehending dangerous suspects.
“Biggest thing is safety. Not only safety for the officers, but safety for the the people that we’re looking for,” Reich said. “The dogs can go in and they’re going to locate these guys. And then at that point, we can figure out how to properly and safely take them into custody.”
He says he’s excited to go to work with Baca every day, both to protect his community and to shed a new light on the job they do.
“When they see us out there, I think it brings a little sense of humanity, you know. That the policemen, we’re not these big, bad men that are out there to hurt people. But we have these dogs that, they are friendly looking dogs, but also they’re there to do a task”.
