The patrol dog instructor’s dog attacked a child.
The dog had previously been aggressive and attacked both people and dogs.
Nevertheless, he continued to compete with the dog.
– He didn’t bite, he bumped into the child with his mouth open, says the instructor.
The patrol dog instructor has for decades owned Belgian shepherd dogs, Malinois, a dog breed used by both the police and the Armed Forces.
In addition to his assignments for the defense, the dog instructor is also a judge in the Swedish Working Dog Club, a national instructor for service dogs and a trained mental figure.
A mental figure participates in mental tests for dogs where the dogs’ psyche, reactions and behavior in different situations are measured.
He also competes himself at an elite level in the competition branch IGP – track, obedience, protection – and has received top positions in, among other things, SM.
THE ARTICLE IN BRIEF
• The patrol dog instructor’s dog attacked a child last spring who was seriously injured.
• However, the instructor continued to compete with the dog. Last autumn, during a competition, the dog attacked a person in the audience and was only then suspended.
• However, the instructor continued to defend his dog and believes that the dog did nothing wrong.
• A few weeks ago the dog was euthanized. According to the instructor, it was because the dog suffered from an illness.
Gets a deep wound – forced to sew
Last spring, the patrol dog instructor was out resting his two dogs, both on leashes. They passed some playing children running around a house.
One of the children appeared near the dog trainer and his two dogs. One of the dogs then attacked and knocked the child to the ground.
In a report from the county administrative board, it appears that the dog bit the child, who suffered a deep wound – so deep that even the leg was visible.
The dog, owned by a patrol dog instructor, attacked the child. It was still a deep wound down to the leg.
Photo: PRIVATE
The parents took the child to the emergency room, where it was also determined that he had an infection in the wound due to bacteria from the dog’s oral cavity, and several operations were required to heal the injury.
“He bites me”
It was not the first time that the dog attacked a human.
As early as 2018, it was established that the dog had higher aggression than normal during a mental description.
In a film that Expressen has seen, you can see and hear how the dog then bites the extra who participated.
– Oh, he bites me. The dog has bitten me twice, says the helper.
The mental description was carried out by dog judge Peter Forsberg, who gave the dog 4 out of 5 in aggressiveness. The normal value for a Malinois is 1.9.
But Forsberg did not report this to the Kennel Club, which had been required for them to go ahead and have it suspended.
– I don’t remember very well, but apparently I didn’t report the dog. When the dog is on trial, a lot needs to be done before reporting. It sometimes happens that there are bites in tests, the dogs are stressed, says Forsberg.
Suspended from competing
In addition to the child attack, the dog has also bitten another dog so that it had to be stitched up and now last autumn the dog bit a person at a competition in Umeå and was banned.
However, the owner believes that the patrol dog was not aggressive. He provides explanations for the events and believes that the dog did not bite the child at all, despite the deep wound.
– I’m out walking my dogs, who are on a leash. A child jumps forward and screams. The one dog reacts instinctively, that’s what dogs who defend their pack do. He does a job, but he doesn’t bite, he pushes the child away but with his mouth open and not with his nose which is sensitive and it is probably a tooth then that causes the child’s injury.
– If he had bitten, you wouldn’t have managed to pull him away because then he would have bitten and wouldn’t let go, says the patrol dog instructor.
“No wonder”
He explains the attack on a person in the dog competition in September this year as follows:
– When he gets his result, the audience reacts with applause. Applauding half a meter in front of a dog that is trained to go to bite when someone raises their hand is not strange.
Dog expert Fredrik Steen thinks that dogs that show aggressiveness should not be approved.
Photo: SVEN LINDWALL
“Error not to reject”
The dog expert Fredrik Steen is very critical of the fact that a dog owner who is also a dog judge did not react more to his dog biting a helper.
– A dog that behaves in this way should absolutely not even be trained in protection work. And not suspending, failing or reporting the dog is completely wrong. Why it doesn’t happen in this case, I can’t comment on because I wasn’t there.
– But there is a big risk in our organization, as elite competitors are also judges and elected officials in the organization, that something that can be called friendship corruption can occur. Maybe that is exactly what happened here, but I want to emphasize that it is a guess on my part. A judge who judges himself, maybe next week will be assessed by that judge, alternatively sits on the board and must make decisions that affect me and so on. Almost inhumane demands are placed on morality and ethics here, says Fredrik Steen.
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FOOTNOTE. Shortly before the report is to be published, the dog trainer contacts Expressen and tells them that he had removed his dog due to illness.
Expressen’s digging reporter In several reports, Michael Syrén examines how dogs are treated within the Armed Forces, the Swedish Working Dog Club and the Swedish Kennel Club.
The reporter has spoken with around 30 people in the dog world – in several cases connected to the defence. All of these people testify that an elite of trainers and competitors use illegal training methods such as electric collars and stagels, a collar with metal spikes that penetrate the dog’s neck.
The review also builds on documents and notifications and shows that there is a culture of silence both within the Armed Forces and in the working dog club. Few dare to report because they are afraid of the consequences.
