Kaybar top dog in K-9 competition

In his three years with the Amesbury Police Department, 4-year-old Kaybar has busted up cocaine, heroin and marijuana rings, rounded up fugitive gang leaders, apprehended a dozen or more criminals and landed himself a feature story on “Animal Planet.”

And if that wasn’t enough, last weekend, the four-legged, Slovakian-bred German shepherd proved himself all around top dog when he took home first place in a K-9 United States Police Canine Association competition in Falmouth, Maine.

The shepherd took first place overall in the competition and came home bearing six trophies, which he won through a series of agility, suspect search, evidence recovery, criminal apprehension and obedience competitions that measure skills of canines working on the front line. And against 12 of the best working dogs in the region, he emerged the leader.

“He was first place overall, so he was top dog,” said officer Tom Nichols, Amesbury’s official K-9 trainer and Kaybar’s master. “He got trophies in five out of five events.”

Kaybar excelled at the “false start,” which is an exercise that sends a suspect running, requiring the dog to stay in a sit until he’s told to move, Nichols said. And he excelled in the “full send” as well, where a dog is sent down the field after a suspect and engages and holds them until an officer arrives.

“You run down the field, and the dog is judged on how well they hold the suspect and how fast he gets ‘out’ and releases the suspect on your command,” Nichols said.

Depending on the command the dog’s been trained with, the dog then either heels or goes “into a down.”

“Either way, he has to stay in the position so you can conduct a pat of the suspect,” Nichols said. “He watches you during that time and can’t move. (Kaybar) was first place in the criminal apprehension phase.”

Kaybar’s not too shabby in the evidence recovery department either, as he proved Monday afternoon when he recovered a gun thrown from a bridge by a suspect being chased by Newbury police.

“That’s one of the things he’s trained to do is recover evidence and actually one of the things they test for at the field trials,” Nichols said.

Aside from his unique talents as a K-9 officer, Kaybar’s not too different from other dogs, except for his unique shepherd instincts and the specialized training he’s received that make him a natural for aiding in police work, Nichols said.

He and another shepherd, Kane, a former police dog candidate, live at home with Nichols and his wife and child. And thanks to Kaybar’s ability to separate work from pleasure, he transitions from aggressive work dog to family pet fairly well.

“When he’s not working, I would describe him as being a very clear-headed dog,” Nichols said. “(German shepherds) typically are an aggressive dog, but this dog has definitely got what I call an off/on switch. When we’re not on the road working and he’s at home in the kennel or in my yard, he’s completely relaxed. My 6-year-old daughter can hang all over this dog. But when my uniform goes on and we’re in the car, he’s an entirely different dog.”

That’s not often the case when it comes to K-9 dogs, Nichols said. They are selected for training based on the presence of certain drives endemic to the breed — hunt drive, prey drive, aggression and defense.

“My first dog was the exact opposite,” Nichols said. “He didn’t have a social bone in his body. He was on 24-7.”

With Kaybar, he said, “I have to be careful because he could be over-socialized if I allow him to get like that.”

The two types of dogs have their advantages, he said, and one is not necessarily better than the other. But because Nichols has a young child at home, he’s happy to have a dog like Kaybar, even though he knows you can never be too careful.

“Right now at this point, I prefer what I have now because I don’t have to be hyper-vigilant as far as who’s around him,” Nichols said. “I can be relaxed to some degree with him around people. But you never can be completely relaxed because he’s an animal.”

For Kaybar’s accomplishment last weekend, Nichols said, the dog took home six trophies and one special treat only a furry friend could appreciate.

“He got tons of praise and a big Milk-Bone when we got back to the cruiser,” Nichols said.

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