Thursday, January 22, 2004

It's so cold on Market Square that my pen won't write, and the four-legged half of the man-dog team I'm interviewing is whimpering almost as much as you would if you were standing barefoot on ice.

	Patrolman Don Savko with his partner, Alex, in Market Square, Downtown, yesterday. (Pam Panchak, Post-Gazette)

I'm feeling a tad guilty for doing this to Officer Donald Savko and his partner at the end of the leash, Alex. They would have been patrolling in their warm K-9 vehicle, but I asked them to go among the city's shivering walkers to see the dog's fluorescent safety harness in action.

That might sound odd, but a press release had come across my desk stating that students of veterinary technology had donated five police dog harnesses for the spring graduating class of K-9s.

"The harnesses allow for the dogs to be clearly identified as police dogs, which helps keep the dogs, the K-9 officers and the public safe." So said the Median School of Allied Health Careers, the Downtown school these future veterinary technicians attend.

Call me a quick study, but when I see a German shepherd held by a uniformed officer, I think "police dog." I don't need the sign. But K-9 officers say the poochside word "POLICE" makes a difference. For some reason, it induces well-meaning animal lovers to ask if they can pet the dog before they surprise him with a hand to the head.

The sign also takes the alibi from any suspect who runs and then says, "Hey, I didn't know that was a police dog." Ditto for anyone who sets his own dog upon one working for the law. The fluorescent harness also makes the dog easier to see if he gets ahead of everyone tracking crooks through the dark.

All that is great, but I wouldn't have been freezing my tail if these harnesses hadn't been donated. At a time when nobody wants to give the city another nickel, this chapter of the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America has made the city a hair safer at no cost to you.

"The community was having such a rough time, such a difficult time with the finances, we had a concern it might affect the K-9 unit," said Sheila Gross, 26, outgoing secretary of the NAVTA chapter, who lives outside Washington, Pa.

So the group raised about $250 through bake sales, T-shirt sales and the like. The school matched it. Enough money was left over to throw in a leash or two.

The new harnesses will be worn by five German shepherds still in training with their handlers. When they hit the streets in March, that will bring the city up to 18 K-9 teams, about half to a third as many teams as city police had in the 1970s and '80s. But a shrinking city has to make do with less.

Officer Rudy Harkins, the K-9 trainer, said it costs less to train a dog than a human, and the return can be greater.

"He doesn't question anything I command him to do," Harkins said of his dog, Yuri. "He doesn't hesitate. If someone is going to attack me, he responds immediately. That's why I became a K-9 officer in the beginning. I'd much rather have an animal as a partner than a human."

"He will give his life for me," Savko said of Alex, a Czech-born German shepherd. "And I don't have to ask about his wife and kids, and he won't complain about his ex-wife."

This is true. I spent more than an hour with the pair and Alex never brought that up.

The night before I walked with them, another police dog chased down a robbery suspect after a home invasion in Knoxville. We didn't get into any searches for narcotics or burglars, so I didn't see Alex track anyone, nor did I see the way he can protect a crime scene just by pacing in front of a crowd as restive as the Jerry Springer audience. But I did see Alex use the revolving doors and escalators in Fifth Avenue Place, which was pretty impressive.

Oh, and nobody petted him. One woman asked permission after reading the sign, but Savko said no, Alex was on the job.

Brian O'Neill can be reached at boneill@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1947.

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