The Sun Valley Police Department is keeping a tighter leash on Cpl. Dax, a police drug dog that attacked and injured a 6-month-old border collie mix near Bellevue last month.
Kerry Renner, the border collie's owner, alleges that Dax is vicious and unpredictable and has attacked other dogs in the past. Sun Valley police, who agreed to pay medical bills for the border collie, say that Dax's behavior was unusual on the day of the attack, that he is normally mellow and friendly and is often taken to kindergarten and elementary schools as a police ambassador.
"We feel really bad that the dog got hurt, but we don't feel that Dax is a danger to society," Sun Valley Police Chief Cameron Daggett said Monday. "I don't want to take anything away from those people—they had a bad experience with our dog—but he is a nice dog."
Dax seemed friendly enough on Tuesday morning at the Sun Valley police station. He greeted this reporter with a few sniffs and friendly wag of his tail. He seemed to enjoy being petted and receiving attention.
Daggett described Dax as a "working dog who is still young and rambunctious."
But Renner tells a different story of Dax in a letter to the editor she submitted to the Idaho Mountain Express last Friday.
Renner wrote that she was walking her dog in Slaughterhouse Canyon near Bellevue on the morning of Nov. 15 when she was approached from the opposite direction by a woman walking three dogs. One of the dogs, later identified as Dax, "came running at my dog and viciously attacked her," Renner wrote.
"She was walking by my side and had not approached the dog that attacked her," Renner wrote. "I had to carry her out of the canyon. The attack resulted in three surgeries, 15 stitches, two broken bones that are stabilized with metal rods and pins screwed into her leg, and what will be two months of recovery time for my puppy."
The woman walking Dax was Lisa Abaid, the wife of Sun Valley police Cpl. Mike Abaid, who is Dax's handler. The Abaids live near the canyon and frequently took Dax and their own two dogs for walks in the area.
Dax is a dark-colored German shepherd who is almost 3 years old. He is a native of Slovakia and was imported to Sun Valley some two years ago. He has served as a drug dog for the Police Department for about two years. He is trained to sniff out methamphetamine, heroin, marijuana and powder or crack cocaine.
He and his handler are members of the Blaine County Narcotics Enforcement Team and Dax is credited with finding large amounts of drugs during a major county drug bust last April.
Dax is also trained to find missing people and locating evidence at crime scenes. He is not trained as a patrol or attack dog.
Cpl. Abaid said Dax loves children and is frequently taken to kindergartens and elementary schools.
"I've been on a million walks with him around other dogs and he's never done this before," Cpl. Abaid said Tuesday.
But Dax now finds himself in the doghouse.
Daggett said that since the attack Dax is kept on a leash when he's in town. Also, Cpl. Abaid is the only one permitted to walk him now. Daggett said Sun Valley police are bringing in a trainer to help Dax "work through these issues."
Daggett acknowledged that Dax has been in two other scrapes with dogs, but said "the other two incidents were like mutual contact where two dogs were fighting each other."
Cpl. Abaid described the other two fights as similar to children scuffles. They started out as friendly canine roughhousing and then turned nasty. He said the Slaughterhouse Canyon incident is the first time that Dax has hurt another dog.
Renner, meanwhile, is not so optimistic about Dax's behavior.
"It scares me to think that this dog is out in our community—a community he is trained to protect," she wrote.
"I understand that the city of Sun Valley has invested a lot of time and money in training their dog, but I wonder if it is worth the liability?" Renner wrote. "What if his next unpredictable attack is aimed at a person? I feel the community has a right to know the risk of this unpredictable dog living and working here."
Cpl. Dax, a Sun Valley Police Department drug dog, poses for a recent photo on Trail Creek Road. Dax, a normally mellow and friendly dog, finds himself in the doghouse after he injured a border collie while on an off-duty stroll last month in Slaughterhouse Canyon near Bellevue.
Sun Valley Police Department courtesy photo
