COLUMBIA, S.C. — Richland County deputies are mourning the loss of another K-9 officer, the second such loss of a Midlands K-9 in just 10 days.
As you can imagine, the last week and a half has been extremely tough for local law enforcement. For one group, though, the losses hit even deeper.
K-9 handlers spend almost every waking moment with their four-legged partners. All of that time naturally leads to an intense bond.
“You spend a lot of time with them. You spend just as much if not more, time with them as you do your own family, so you build a bond very quickly, you build a very strong bond at that," said Master Police Officer Christopher Gunter, who, along with his K-9 partner Bo, serves on the Columbia Police Department.
As Gunter speaks, Bo listens intently while scanning the area where the two are seated. Bo is always on duty. Although the two have only been working together for three months, the dog is already fiercely protective of his handler.
The bond between K-9 officers and their handlers is like no other. The dogs give their entire unit an advantage, and as we’ve seen recently, sometimes that means taking a bullet that wasn’t meant for them. Gunter explained how Bo works just as hard as his fellow officers.
“We can use them for tracking suspects, and on the opposite side, not everybody we track is a suspect. Sometimes we help find missing juveniles, vulnerable adults. We can track them.”
But before a dog can be deemed a K-9 officer, the National Police Dog Foundation (NPDF) says it takes months of hard work and training to bond the dog and the handler as they prepare for the many scenarios they’ll face.
“A lot of that bond starts with the training. It’s hundreds of hours each year that we go through, and a lot of it you have to start with bonding,” Gunter said.
Of course, all of this comes at a cost. The NPDF says that many police dogs come from Europe at a cost of over $8,000. Initial training for patrol work, detection, and tracking can add another $12,000 to $15,000. Once the initial training is complete, both the K-9 and the handler also participate in ongoing training.
“We do a lot of our training here at the city in-house. So we’ll spend hundreds of hours every year. To keep our certification, we are required to maintain at least fifteen hours a month,” Gunter said.
However, Gunter said the best job in the department is for the officers who work with their K-9s day in and day out.
“To me, there’s no other better job. There’s not. You can’t beat this.”