Life with a Former K9 Firearms and the Law: Handbook for Women’s Personal Protection
Life with a Former K9
By Joy Tiz, MS, JD
©1995 J. Tiz
Police dogs are extraordinary animals. A police K9 must be intelligent, brave, loyal and dedicated. Future police dogs are selected with care. Prospective K9 handlers are chosen from an elite group of experienced patrol officers. There are times however, when a dog just doesn’t quite make the grade. Some of these dogs end up in civilian homes. Life with one is an Experience. After a series of odd twists of fate, I became the owner of a former K9.
A dog can be disqualified from police service due to some physical problem that doesn’t affect the dog’s ability to be a fine companion. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to speak to my Jet’s former handler. So I don’t know exactly what went wrong. After four years with Jet, I’ve got some pretty good hunches. Before you call your local police department and offer to adopt a former K9, stop and ask yourself: Why? Is it their intelligence you admire? Do not make the mistake of thinking that MENSA dogs are easier to train. They aren’t. A dog with a high I.Q. has the skills to outwit you constantly. Personally, I do not want to own another dog who is smarter than I am. Do you think a well trained K9 will make an efficient guard dog? Possibly.
Jet has, on occasion been known to guard items she considers worthy of her attention. Jet applies a two prong test: 1) relative value of the item to her; and more importantly, relative value of the item to the other dogs in the house. This explains why she will fight to the death to guard a fossilized Gummy Bear on the floor but cares nothing about my stereo. What would she do if someone actually attacked me? My guess is, dive for cover and await the arrival of back up. When I first adopted Jet, I made an effort to learn about police dogs. What I discovered was alarming. It was apparent that Jet had learned some obedience commands in German.
Handlers worry that criminals will get together (perhaps at their annual symposium) and learn the same commands. So, some handlers invent secret commands. A lot of cops have a sense of humor, so this worried me. What was her “Attack!” command? What if she had been trained to go into a flesh-tearing frenzy at the sound of some common household phrase like: “TAKE OUT THE TRASH!!!!!!!!!!” I needn’t have worried. There was no danger that Jet would obey any commands. Fortunately, I was working with good trainers at the time and they wisely assigned her to the Basic Obedience class. She loved it. It reinforced her belief in her superiority and gave her a chance to show off.
Everyone really enjoyed having her in the class. I cleverly pretended she had not had any previous training. She was the only dog in the class who did a nice heel and automatic sit on the very first day. She sat sideways. At home I taught her a long down stay. She likes to create the illusion that she is watching her handler, eagerly awaiting the next command. Actually, she was waiting until I looked away so she could inch out of position on her belly, like a soldier crawling out of a bunker. Of course, if you adopt a K9, your friends will think it’s really cool. They will all come over to see your Police Dog in action. Jet understands this and accommodates by flopping down for a nap when guests arrive. She makes quite an impression by not so much as raising her head.
Jet’s willing to make an exception, however if the visitor is a fellow law enforcement officer. And undercover detective dropped by to chat about the drug dealers across the street. Jet sat nicely to greet her former colleague. When he reached to pet her, she grabbed his wrist in her teeth. The extremely gracious detective wrote this off on a theory that she had been trained to sniff out concealed weapons. We were able to settle out of court when I agreed to let the Department move into my spare room for a stake out and spring for the pizza. Are police dogs dangerous in civilian homes? Absolutely.
Not long ago, I was pulling my car into the driveway. Jet raced up to my other Shepherd and delivered a full body slam, shoving him directly into the path of my moving vehicle. This was not the only incident of Attempted Vehicular Dogicide. The same male Shepherd once tumbled out of a truck under rather suspicious circumstances. If you are considering adopting one of these dogs as a playmate for your other dogs, forget it. The only game Jet knows is Pursuit and Felony Hot Stop. This involves running up behind the subject and chomping down on a rear leg. The other dogs don’t like this game.
She did, however come equipped with a Frisbee Fixation. No, she never retrieves them, she invented Frisbee Solitaire. The game, as I understand it requires punching the Frisbee in the center with a paw so she can grab an edge in her teeth. She’ll gnaw at it for awhile and start over. To keep it interesting, she will sometimes roll it down the creek bed and watch it float away. One of the hazards of owning a really smart dog is that she will miss no opportunity to make a fool out of you. I once had to request a sheriff’s deputy to chase some drunks off the vacant property next door. Jet didn’t seem to mind the drunks. No, she waited until the police arrived to show off her skills.
The deputy, an amiable young man, was interested in seeing my former police dog. I assured him that she was just fine with new people. At that moment, she grabbed a mouthful of chain link fence, tearing at it with a bloodcurdling snarl. Evidently, she holds a grudge. I would be remiss if I failed to warn you that these dogs often have dominant temperaments and sometimes require firm handling. A former boyfriend once confessed that when I was not around, he relied on Jet to discipline my younger male Shepherd. Every time Cassius misbehaved it was “Get him, Jet!” I had no alternative but to place the boyfriend in a more suitable home. The rumor I heard when I got Jet was that she “lacked sufficient aggressiveness for police work”. Don’t worry, they grow into it.
Actually, Jet usually gets along well with the other dogs. After all, working K9s are supposed to be level headed about such things. The only time she attacks my little Sheltie is when he’s asleep, posing an obvious menace. The problem with not having met Jet’s handler is that I have no idea what type of police work she did. My guess is the bunko squad. That was probably where she refined her skills as a con artist. She’s an expert at framing the other dogs for her capers. Truthfully, her true calling is the theatre. She’s a good actress. If I have to give her a stern correction, such as telling her to “knock it off”, she will hurl herself to the ground whimpering and yelping. Guests must think I beat her mercilessly.
She pulls this same routine when she’s brushed. Even the vet has been known to fall for it. This is a dog who went through the police academy! She can tear a fake bad guy in that bomb proof protective stuff to shreds. But no. She is a frail and delicate flower. Jet easily identifies humans who are easy marks. A friend of mine, a very intelligent attorney is completely snowed. If I tell my friend Jet got out of control with another dog and had to be corrected, do I get any sympathy? No. It’s: “Noooooooooooooooo, not my little Jetty! She’s sooooooooo sweet . . .” Right. My lawyer friend doesn’t know she’s been had. This is Jet’s hedge against the day she does something truly heinous (like bite her owner). She wants to be certain she will have good legal representation.
Maybe Jet was one of those Search and Rescue dogs. That would explain her special gift for excavation. Should a 300 story building collapse, rest assured my Jet could tunnel clear through to the underground parking structure in under three minutes. Provided, of course there was something under there that she wanted, like a two inch Frisbee Fragment. There are, every now and then, special joys in owning a K9.
A friend once brought a crazy person to my house. You know the type, always busy stockpiling incendiary devices in his basement. Claims the FBI is shooting microwaves at his head or something. Jet plastered herself to this guy. If he was in the bathroom, Jet was lying in front of the door. If he was on the sofa, she was next to him. He tells everyone the Police Dog really liked him, “She followed me around everywhere.” Of course she did. Jet knows a Bad Guy when she sees one. This article has been reprinted numerous times in such publications as: Police Times, Texas Dogs, The Criminal Post and other magazines.
Firearms and the Law: Handbook for Women’s Personal Protection (California course only)
By Joy Tiz, MS, JD
©1994 J. Tiz
Use of Force This concept is more complex than it might seem at first blush. As a general rule, you can legally use the same level of force against an attacker as that being used against you. When we talk about guns, we’re really talking about deadly force.
The law says that you can use deadly force in the face of deadly force. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, if someone bursts into your living room pointing a machine gun at you, you’d be on pretty solid legal ground if you shot him.
Fortunately, that’s not usually what happens. Under the law, we’re granted a privilege to use lethal force under certain, very narrow circumstances. In California, you will find this rule in Section 197 of the California Penal Code. This code section defines justifiable homicide.
All killings are homicides, even though a killing may later be ruled justified. The problem we have is that this code section which is very straightforward, has been rewritten by the courts. In fact, if you read only the statute itself and believed it to be the law (which is what you should be able to do, as California is a statutory jurisdiction) you could be in big trouble.
The statute says that you can use deadly force to resist a felony.
The Court says “No you can’t”. In a classic example of “legislating from the bench”, in 1984, the California Supreme Court took it upon themselves to tell us what the legislature should have said. The court held that the privilege to use lethal force exists only to resist a felony that is “forcible” and “atrocious”.
Luckily, their honors were kind enough to give us a list of what felonies are sufficiently forcible and atrocious to justify lethal force: rape, murder, mayhem, robbery and (sometimes) burglary (People v. Ceballos 12 C3d 470).
So there you have it. No using a gun to defend yourself against a non-forcible, non-atrocious felony, like simple assault.
Also, keep in minds that the courts have consistently held that “bare fear” alone is not enough to justify deadly force. What this means is, that you must be prepared to state specific facts which would lead a reasonable person to believe she was in reasonable fear of immediate grave bodily harm. For example, “I woke up in the middle of the night and found a strange man in my bedroom, holding a knife”.
That would likely convince a jury of your peers that:1) You were afraid of the intruder; and, 2) Your fear was reasonable, under the circumstances. In other words, any reasonable person who found an intruder in her room holding a knife would be afraid she was about to be seriously injured or killed.
The courts have never tolerated the use of lethal force in the defense of property on the theory that all human life is inherently more valuable than any property. It is important also to understand that the privilege to use deadly force lasts only as long as the threat.
This means that if you come upon an intruder who is clearly exiting your home, let him go! The courts have left intact Penal Code Section 198.5, commonly known as the Homeowner’s Presumption. The rule is not limited to homeowners, but applies to anyone in lawful possession of a dwelling.
The law allows you to presume an intruder’s intent to commit grave bodily injury or murder. What this means is that if an intruder enters your home by force and is not a person known to you, you will not later have to prove that you held a reasonable fear of grave bodily harm or death to justify the use of deadly force.
You get to start out with the presumption, albeit a rebuttable one, that the intruder’s intent was to do harm. The presumption is not air tight and could be overcome by contradictory evidence. The rule is important, though as it gives you a right to protect yourself in your own home.
The most efficient way to get yourself thrown into prison is to fail to identify your target! The law specifically requires that you know the intruder is a trespasser and entered without your knowledge or consent.
The Article Archive
Life with a Former K9 Firearms and the Law: Handbook for Women’s Personal Protection
Life with a Former K9
By Joy Tiz, MS, JD
©1995 J. Tiz
Police dogs are extraordinary animals. A police K9 must be intelligent, brave, loyal and dedicated. Future police dogs are selected with care. Prospective K9 handlers are chosen from an elite group of experienced patrol officers. There are times however, when a dog just doesn’t quite make the grade. Some of these dogs end up in civilian homes. Life with one is an Experience. After a series of odd twists of fate, I became the owner of a former K9.
A dog can be disqualified from police service due to some physical problem that doesn’t affect the dog’s ability to be a fine companion. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to speak to my Jet’s former handler. So I don’t know exactly what went wrong. After four years with Jet, I’ve got some pretty good hunches. Before you call your local police department and offer to adopt a former K9, stop and ask yourself: Why? Is it their intelligence you admire? Do not make the mistake of thinking that MENSA dogs are easier to train. They aren’t. A dog with a high I.Q. has the skills to outwit you constantly. Personally, I do not want to own another dog who is smarter than I am. Do you think a well trained K9 will make an efficient guard dog? Possibly.
Jet has, on occasion been known to guard items she considers worthy of her attention. Jet applies a two prong test: 1) relative value of the item to her; and more importantly, relative value of the item to the other dogs in the house. This explains why she will fight to the death to guard a fossilized Gummy Bear on the floor but cares nothing about my stereo. What would she do if someone actually attacked me? My guess is, dive for cover and await the arrival of back up. When I first adopted Jet, I made an effort to learn about police dogs. What I discovered was alarming. It was apparent that Jet had learned some obedience commands in German.
Handlers worry that criminals will get together (perhaps at their annual symposium) and learn the same commands. So, some handlers invent secret commands. A lot of cops have a sense of humor, so this worried me. What was her “Attack!” command? What if she had been trained to go into a flesh-tearing frenzy at the sound of some common household phrase like: “TAKE OUT THE TRASH!!!!!!!!!!” I needn’t have worried. There was no danger that Jet would obey any commands. Fortunately, I was working with good trainers at the time and they wisely assigned her to the Basic Obedience class. She loved it. It reinforced her belief in her superiority and gave her a chance to show off.
Everyone really enjoyed having her in the class. I cleverly pretended she had not had any previous training. She was the only dog in the class who did a nice heel and automatic sit on the very first day. She sat sideways. At home I taught her a long down stay. She likes to create the illusion that she is watching her handler, eagerly awaiting the next command. Actually, she was waiting until I looked away so she could inch out of position on her belly, like a soldier crawling out of a bunker. Of course, if you adopt a K9, your friends will think it’s really cool. They will all come over to see your Police Dog in action. Jet understands this and accommodates by flopping down for a nap when guests arrive. She makes quite an impression by not so much as raising her head.
Jet’s willing to make an exception, however if the visitor is a fellow law enforcement officer. And undercover detective dropped by to chat about the drug dealers across the street. Jet sat nicely to greet her former colleague. When he reached to pet her, she grabbed his wrist in her teeth. The extremely gracious detective wrote this off on a theory that she had been trained to sniff out concealed weapons. We were able to settle out of court when I agreed to let the Department move into my spare room for a stake out and spring for the pizza. Are police dogs dangerous in civilian homes? Absolutely.
Not long ago, I was pulling my car into the driveway. Jet raced up to my other Shepherd and delivered a full body slam, shoving him directly into the path of my moving vehicle. This was not the only incident of Attempted Vehicular Dogicide. The same male Shepherd once tumbled out of a truck under rather suspicious circumstances. If you are considering adopting one of these dogs as a playmate for your other dogs, forget it. The only game Jet knows is Pursuit and Felony Hot Stop. This involves running up behind the subject and chomping down on a rear leg. The other dogs don’t like this game.
She did, however come equipped with a Frisbee Fixation. No, she never retrieves them, she invented Frisbee Solitaire. The game, as I understand it requires punching the Frisbee in the center with a paw so she can grab an edge in her teeth. She’ll gnaw at it for awhile and start over. To keep it interesting, she will sometimes roll it down the creek bed and watch it float away. One of the hazards of owning a really smart dog is that she will miss no opportunity to make a fool out of you. I once had to request a sheriff’s deputy to chase some drunks off the vacant property next door. Jet didn’t seem to mind the drunks. No, she waited until the police arrived to show off her skills.
The deputy, an amiable young man, was interested in seeing my former police dog. I assured him that she was just fine with new people. At that moment, she grabbed a mouthful of chain link fence, tearing at it with a bloodcurdling snarl. Evidently, she holds a grudge. I would be remiss if I failed to warn you that these dogs often have dominant temperaments and sometimes require firm handling. A former boyfriend once confessed that when I was not around, he relied on Jet to discipline my younger male Shepherd. Every time Cassius misbehaved it was “Get him, Jet!” I had no alternative but to place the boyfriend in a more suitable home. The rumor I heard when I got Jet was that she “lacked sufficient aggressiveness for police work”. Don’t worry, they grow into it.
Actually, Jet usually gets along well with the other dogs. After all, working K9s are supposed to be level headed about such things. The only time she attacks my little Sheltie is when he’s asleep, posing an obvious menace. The problem with not having met Jet’s handler is that I have no idea what type of police work she did. My guess is the bunko squad. That was probably where she refined her skills as a con artist. She’s an expert at framing the other dogs for her capers. Truthfully, her true calling is the theatre. She’s a good actress. If I have to give her a stern correction, such as telling her to “knock it off”, she will hurl herself to the ground whimpering and yelping. Guests must think I beat her mercilessly.
She pulls this same routine when she’s brushed. Even the vet has been known to fall for it. This is a dog who went through the police academy! She can tear a fake bad guy in that bomb proof protective stuff to shreds. But no. She is a frail and delicate flower. Jet easily identifies humans who are easy marks. A friend of mine, a very intelligent attorney is completely snowed. If I tell my friend Jet got out of control with another dog and had to be corrected, do I get any sympathy? No. It’s: “Noooooooooooooooo, not my little Jetty! She’s sooooooooo sweet . . .” Right. My lawyer friend doesn’t know she’s been had. This is Jet’s hedge against the day she does something truly heinous (like bite her owner). She wants to be certain she will have good legal representation.
Maybe Jet was one of those Search and Rescue dogs. That would explain her special gift for excavation. Should a 300 story building collapse, rest assured my Jet could tunnel clear through to the underground parking structure in under three minutes. Provided, of course there was something under there that she wanted, like a two inch Frisbee Fragment. There are, every now and then, special joys in owning a K9.
A friend once brought a crazy person to my house. You know the type, always busy stockpiling incendiary devices in his basement. Claims the FBI is shooting microwaves at his head or something. Jet plastered herself to this guy. If he was in the bathroom, Jet was lying in front of the door. If he was on the sofa, she was next to him. He tells everyone the Police Dog really liked him, “She followed me around everywhere.” Of course she did. Jet knows a Bad Guy when she sees one. This article has been reprinted numerous times in such publications as: Police Times, Texas Dogs, The Criminal Post and other magazines.
Firearms and the Law: Handbook for Women’s Personal Protection (California course only)
By Joy Tiz, MS, JD
©1994 J. Tiz
Use of Force This concept is more complex than it might seem at first blush. As a general rule, you can legally use the same level of force against an attacker as that being used against you. When we talk about guns, we’re really talking about deadly force.
The law says that you can use deadly force in the face of deadly force. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, if someone bursts into your living room pointing a machine gun at you, you’d be on pretty solid legal ground if you shot him.
Fortunately, that’s not usually what happens. Under the law, we’re granted a privilege to use lethal force under certain, very narrow circumstances. In California, you will find this rule in Section 197 of the California Penal Code. This code section defines justifiable homicide.
All killings are homicides, even though a killing may later be ruled justified. The problem we have is that this code section which is very straightforward, has been rewritten by the courts. In fact, if you read only the statute itself and believed it to be the law (which is what you should be able to do, as California is a statutory jurisdiction) you could be in big trouble.
The statute says that you can use deadly force to resist a felony.
The Court says “No you can’t”. In a classic example of “legislating from the bench”, in 1984, the California Supreme Court took it upon themselves to tell us what the legislature should have said. The court held that the privilege to use lethal force exists only to resist a felony that is “forcible” and “atrocious”.
Luckily, their honors were kind enough to give us a list of what felonies are sufficiently forcible and atrocious to justify lethal force: rape, murder, mayhem, robbery and (sometimes) burglary (People v. Ceballos 12 C3d 470).
So there you have it. No using a gun to defend yourself against a non-forcible, non-atrocious felony, like simple assault.
Also, keep in minds that the courts have consistently held that “bare fear” alone is not enough to justify deadly force. What this means is, that you must be prepared to state specific facts which would lead a reasonable person to believe she was in reasonable fear of immediate grave bodily harm. For example, “I woke up in the middle of the night and found a strange man in my bedroom, holding a knife”.
That would likely convince a jury of your peers that:1) You were afraid of the intruder; and, 2) Your fear was reasonable, under the circumstances. In other words, any reasonable person who found an intruder in her room holding a knife would be afraid she was about to be seriously injured or killed.
The courts have never tolerated the use of lethal force in the defense of property on the theory that all human life is inherently more valuable than any property. It is important also to understand that the privilege to use deadly force lasts only as long as the threat.
This means that if you come upon an intruder who is clearly exiting your home, let him go! The courts have left intact Penal Code Section 198.5, commonly known as the Homeowner’s Presumption. The rule is not limited to homeowners, but applies to anyone in lawful possession of a dwelling.
The law allows you to presume an intruder’s intent to commit grave bodily injury or murder. What this means is that if an intruder enters your home by force and is not a person known to you, you will not later have to prove that you held a reasonable fear of grave bodily harm or death to justify the use of deadly force.
You get to start out with the presumption, albeit a rebuttable one, that the intruder’s intent was to do harm. The presumption is not air tight and could be overcome by contradictory evidence. The rule is important, though as it gives you a right to protect yourself in your own home.
The most efficient way to get yourself thrown into prison is to fail to identify your target! The law specifically requires that you know the intruder is a trespasser and entered without your knowledge or consent.