Does you K9 like kids?.....

I love a good K9 on my scene. Nothing, with the possible exception of a shotgun getting racked opens the eyes and adjust the attitude of a turd like the sound of a K9 barking. That four legged police animal can change with one word from his handler from a friendly doggie to the most merciless creature a suspect will every know. So I have to say I look at this with reservations.

Advocates ponder use of K-9s to protect schools

The idea for K9s4KIDs grew out of school shootings and suggestions on applications for police dogs

LOS ANGELES — While some say school safety hinges on guns, cameras or alarms in classrooms, Mark Gomer and Kristi Schiller think specially trained dogs should take point in preventing violence in schools.

Gomer's for-profit company has sent a gun- and drug-detecting dog to patrol the halls of an Ohio high school, while Schiller is launching a nonprofit in Houston to give schools the trained canines for free. Their programs are still in their infancy, so questions remain about dogs that can distract, scare or send kids into sneezing fits. But they think they can cultivate their ideas to help schools across the country stay safe.

Gomer's first full-time safety dog is a year-old Dutch shepherd named Atticus, who reported to duty this school year at Oak Hills High School in Green Township in southwest Ohio.

The dog trained at the school before the summer break, said Gomer, co-owner of American Success Dog Training in Bridgetown, Ohio. As part of the company's School Protection Dog program, Atticus learned on the job about marching bands and school bells and the thunk of books hitting a locker.

Gomer, who has trained about 8,000 dogs over 20 years and has three children in the school district, suggested the dog after 20 students and six teachers were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Atticus has won over students, parents, teachers and district Superintendent Todd Yohey, who initially worried what people would think of him spending $10,000 on a dog.

Gomer has talked to a lot of parents and faculty, and they are saying it was money well-spent, he said.

Atticus spends his days on a leash with two security guards and goes home with Principal John Stoddard at night. Messages left for Stoddard were not immediately returned.

For her part, Schiller is looking to provide safety dogs to schools free of charge. She hopes her new initiative, K9s4KIDs, does for schools what her K9s4COPs did for police departments. She has placed more than 60 dogs with agencies in three years.

"These canines are extremely social, yet highly qualified warriors that are accustomed to going straight to the source of a threat or shooter and disengaging the suspect armed with the weapon," said Schiller, a Houston mother and philanthropist....

When I have a dog on scene I will like to play with him a bit but first thing I do is ask the handler "Can I approach him?". K9 friendly may confuse you for a bad guy and the results won't be nice. Too many kids may not realize this is not a pet.

And the part about the dog going home with the principle is not good IMHO. He should have a handler and meld with him and the handler's family. The dog is as much a part of the family as his kids.

Hey, I'm hopeful this works. Anything that can adjust the attitude of the punks who inhabit our inner city schools is good.