Another Case for K9 Police Dogs

Stock K9 Police Photo

By Amy Fernandez

This week New York was treated to a news story that kept dog lovers high all day.

On Tuesday June 18, Bear, a six year-old 90 pound German Shepherd and veteran NYPD K9 was on patrol with his handler Officer Vincent Tieniber. At 11:15 a.m. they were called to assist a transit officer at the nearby at E. 59th St. and Lexington Ave. subway station.

They arrived to find a major smackdown underway on the southbound platform of the 4 train. The fighting escalated and Tieniber jumped in to restrain one of the combatants as she attempted to choke another. Choking wasn’t the only thing on her list that morning. As Tieniber attempted to handcuff her, she began kicking Bear in the head. Although he was barking, growling, and obviously agitated at that point, he didn’t cross that line until she had kicked him twice, injuring his nose and tongue, and breaking four of his teeth. At that point he grabbed her foot and successfully subdued her until Tieniber was able to get her cuffed. Throughout the ordeal, Bear never bit down hard enough to injure the woman.

He was later evaluated at the nearby Animal Medical Center. Two of his canines will be capped and two other broken teeth will be filed down. He got the day off Wednesday, but was back on the job Thursday along with his human partner who sustained a sprained wrist during the altercation.

Bear has been an NYPD K9 for four years and is also trained for explosives detection. He spends his downtime at home with the Tieniber family on Long Island. Tieniber, an 11 year NYPD veteran, later admitted that the mere arrival of a K9 team is usually sufficient to stop most disorderly conduct. Even though MTA police patrols are an ongoing casualty of budget cuts, K9 units have consistently demonstrated their value, usually without flashing a fang. In this case, Bear put his training into action. He brought down the perp without causing any physical injury. How could you ask more from a dog?

This story was particularly timely because last Friday, June 14, the MTA police inducted eight new dogs into their K9 Unit. It’s already one of the country’s largest, with 50 K9 teams. Most MTA K9s are cross-trained for protection work and explosives detection. They regularly patrol train and subway stations, tracks and facilities.

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Posted by admin on Jun 22 2013. Filed under Breaking News, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.