Palmetto Police pull ‘sweet’ K-9 off the beat

Kanin the K-9 officer was willing to serve and protect the citizens of Palmetto.

There was just one problem: He didn’t like biting the bad guys.

The Palmetto Police Department removed the 15-month-old German shepherd from the beat a month ago because he couldn’t develop the mean streak necessary to apprehend the city’s most wanted.

His handler, Officer Jeff Lewis, has been riding solo since a pair of certified trainers agreed Kanin’s bite would never match his bark.

“To him, it was like, ‘I’m going to do this, but I don’t really want to,’ ” Lewis, 28, said of Kanin’s reluctance to bite on command. “We couldn’t get that corrected. … It’s like if somebody tells you to do something you don’t want to do, you’re going to do it, but you’re probably not going to be very good at it.”

The big, rambunctious puppy raced around Lewis’ west Bradenton backyard Friday afternoon after being let out of his kennel.

It has been a while since his last obedience lesson, which might explain why he grabbed a plastic planter in his teeth, dropped it briefly when Lewis yelled a command, then picked it back up and ran away as soon as Lewis glanced in the opposite direction.

Read more: http://www.bradenton.com/2010/08/28/2535399/palmetto-police-department-pulls.html#ixzz0y10JExlH

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