Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier
Los Altos police officer John Korges holds his new partner Garry, a German shepherd. They will work as a team, performing such tasks as finding lost children and tracking down suspects after break-ins. Garry joined the force April 4.
Town Crier Staff Writer
For Los Altos police officer John Korges, his professional goal to be a police canine handler came true. He is the partner for the new Los Altos police K-9 named Garry.
"I know we got the cream of the crop," said Korges, a 12-year officer, the last two spent in Los Altos. Garry, pronounced Jerry, is "not only beautiful on the outside, he's beautiful on the inside, too."
The two move comfortably together, Garry responding immediately to Korges' commands, leaning comfortably into him when at rest. Already the two are a pair and seem like they've been together much longer that just a week.
But for this father of two young children, not only has his work life changed, but so has his home life, because police canines live with their handlers.
So when Korges received Garry April 4, he immediately took the 95-pound 18-month-old German shepherd home to his wife and two little girls. Korges' job no longer "stops at end of a shift."
"Absolutely" it was a family decision for Korges to become a canine handler. "I couldn't have done it without (his wife) Pam's support," with the "time and dedication" needed to have a live-in K-9 partner. "I couldn't even think about it without talking to her. She has greeted it, and has been very supportive.
"When Garry came home, he spent time with Pam and the girls and immediately bonded with them," Korges said. "I feel totally safe with him around my family."
Garry greets newcomers with a lick and a nuzzle, without the wariness that some K-9s show. "He thinks of himself as a 95-pound lap dog," Korges said, and attributes that to Garry's "level of confidence."
But the bottom line is that they are to protect each other like partners.
"If I stood up, he'd key right on it. He's not lethargic," Korges said, "just very self assured."
After several weeks in April of getting acquainted, playing together and learning each other's ins and outs, Korges and Garry will spend May in training.
Garry arrived from Germany trained. But he and Korges need to continue learning to work together. Training with a police K-9 is ongoing.
Police Chief Lucy Carlton said she expects that the team will "be on the street" by June 1.
Part of the training will be practicing the "find and bark" philosophy of Los Altos. Some K-9s are trained to be very aggressive, to "find and bite."
"We want to arrest people, not bite people," Korges said. "Punishment is up to the courts, enforcement is up to us."
The extraordinary level of smell, sight and hearing make a trained dog "such a great tool for law enforcement, for finding a lost child to locating a suspect in a house," Korges said.
The average K-9 works about five to seven years on the job as a police dog. The first Los Altos K-9, Disco, spent about two years with the force. Then he and his handler, officer Craig Penley, retired in February to move on in another career direction.
The city owned the dog but allowed Penley to buy Disco.
And now Garry "is set to be another dynamic dog. He has great aptitude," Carlton said.
"We've got some big paws to fill," Forges said. "But I think we can."