POLICE DEPARTMENT: Quality canine downtime

Metro Malinois relaxes at home but is always ready

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By LAUREN ROMANO

VIEW STAFF WRITER

Rico lounges around the Layton family's home in northwest Las Vegas. Just like any family dog, he loves playing with toys, getting treats and being petted by DuWayne and Rebecca Layton's five children.

This is only half of the 4-year-old Belgian Malinois' life.

"He's still a police dog," said DuWayne Layton, a Metropolitan Police Department officer. "He bites and we treat him like a police dog. When he knows it's time to be loved he's lazy. At work he's a different dog."

Police dogs go through training at about 2 years old. After they pass tests and are certified they are paired up with a handler based on their personality and the lifestyle of the officer.

"If the handler has kids he's not going to bring home a non-social dog," DuWayne Layton said.

To build a strong bond between the dog and handler, the dog is only fed and touched by the handler for the first two weeks he is in the home.

When DuWayne Layton is not home, Rico will listen to his wife or his children.

"I can give him about three commands and he will generally listen," said Chris Layton, 13.

Chris, along with his brother Austin, 10, both know some of the commands given to police dogs in German. The commands are given in German because it's tradition and because the officer wants to get a different reaction from the dog than from a perpetrator.

The dog always will listen to his handler regardless of what others are asking the dog to do.

Rico doesn't mind when the five Layton children play rough or if they are rough with friends, but he will step in when friends are rough with the Layton children.

"They know he's a police dog," DuWayne Layton said. "They know their friends can't play with him. The rule in the unit, for the most part, is that if the dad's not there, the dog's in the kennel."

The children's interaction with Rico is usually calm, quiet and loving. If the kids are watching TV, Rico will lay with them and they pet him.

"I like to be off when I'm home and so does he," DuWayne Layton said.

Layton's wife laughed about the fact that Rico doesn't listen to her, even on the rare occasion her husband is not around.

"We're not really here alone with the dogs," Rebecca Layton said. "People always ask if it makes me feel safe to have a police dog living with me. When DuWayne leaves, so does Rico."

Austin said he is training his own police dog, Trixie.

"I am training her to sit and lay down," he said. "I haven't started to train her to work with other dogs. I want to be a K-9 trainer. This is practice."

The three other children, Elyssa, 7, Bryce, 4, and Delaney, 2, are very comfortable playing with Rico, who doesn't seem to mind when they climb and sit on him.

"At home I give him a little freedom but he still has to do what I ask," DuWayne Layton said. "We rely on our dogs. This is my partner. We treat them very well but don't let them get away with anything. He can hurt someone."

At work Rico is on search and rescue duty. Each of the 16 Metro handlers has one dog that looks for people and a second dog that is trained to search for explosives.

"In the '60s and '70s police dogs were mean. They were trained that way," Layton said. "We don't do that anymore. They are search tools. They look for people. Their main objective is to find the bad guy, and then my job is to get him out."

It is legal for police dogs to perform abstractions of perpetrators, but "Putting a dog in there is just adding to the problem," he said.

Layton is Metro's K-9 unit trainer. He oversees the other handlers and their dogs during their 12-week initial training and nightly standard training. The dogs also are recertified every three months.

Each night the handler and dog are put in a simulated real life situation and Layton watches how they respond and react.

"I'm in charge of making sure the training is up to standard," he said.

The North Las Vegas Police Department and the Henderson Police Department each have three handlers and dogs and Boulder City has one handler and one dog. They all did initial training at the Metropolitan Police Department's academy. Boulder City now has its own trainer and the Henderson department is working on getting its own.

Layton said K-9 units usually try to keep their bite ratio at 35 to 37 percent but Metro's is at about 12 to 13 percent. Rico has found 68 people and has bitten only four.

Police dogs generally work until they are about 10 or 11 years old.

Layton said usually their bodies can't keep up with the hard job although their minds are still there and they want to work.

Once retired, the handlers have the option to keep their dogs. Layton said Metro has not had a case where the handler has not kept his or her retired canine partner.

"I trust him with my life," Layton said. "We have been through some scary situations together. There is a strong bond between us."