Human > Dog

It must be understood and accepted that a working dog is a tool. Human life trumps the dogs life. In nearly all aspect of working dog operations, we employ dogs to do tasks that we cannot do as humans or that are safer for us if we send the dog first.

This fact is not meant to be callous or insensitive. Working dogs may certainly be the best partner in the world and we should never needlessly sacrifice our canine partners by any means; quite the contrary. A handler must be an advocate for their partner. However, there are clear priorities of life in law enforcement operations. In order to effectively use a working dog, the handler must accept this reality or risk not using the tool correctly or worse, potentially creating more dangerous situations than not using in the first place.