By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Every Monday evening, Matt Bostdorff willingly becomes a chew toy for K-9 cops. He puts on a bite suit and acts as a decoy for 14 dogs trained to track suspects.
“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” Bowling Green Police Sgt. Gordon Finger said about someone volunteering to be gnawed on weekly. “There’s a natural apprehension. You don’t want to be hunted by an animal.”
Bostdorff, the tech director at Eastwood School District, decided about five years ago that he wanted to get more involved in his community. One day while talking with his friend Finger, who handles BG Police Division’s K-9, Bostdorff expressed interest in the training.
“I’ve always loved dogs,” said Bostdorff, who grew up with boxers. “I told Gordon I wanted to get in that bite suit.”
To which Finger replied, “that can be arranged.”
Bostdorff showed up at the training site held that night at an old building at the Wood County Regional Airport. Instantly, he had second thoughts.
“What have I gotten into here?” he recalled thinking.
But that apprehension disappeared and it was love at first bite.
“I’ve been doing it ever since,” Bostdorff said. “This is my outlet.”
When the other K-9 handlers from the region first met Bostdorff, they had questions, Finger said.
“Who is this guy?” Finder said they asked. “The decoy can really make a difference with a dog.”
But Bostdorff quickly became a vital part of the team, and was fitted for his own bite suit.
“We all treat each other like brothers,” he said.
Bostdorff is part of the group text between 15 K-9 handlers from law enforcement agencies in Bowling Green, Findlay, Hancock County, Putnam County, Fostoria, Kenton, Wyandot County, Hardin County, Upper Sandusky, CSX and ODNR. They all work together to train and solve issues their dogs may be facing.
On a recent Monday evening, as Bostdorff was being attacked by Deke, a German Shepherd-Belgian Malinois mix, Deke’s handler talked about the value of having a consistent decoy for the dogs.
“He’s the first guy I call,” when Deke performs well on the job, said Jake Atkins of Findlay Police Department. “That stuff we do makes all the difference. It makes the dogs confident.”
Several of the dogs are dual-purpose, trained to find narcotics and people. The ODNR K-9 has a third skill of finding cadavers, and the CSX dog sniffs for bombs.
Some of them have quirks that Bostdorff helps get rid of.
For example, one of Deke’s first jobs was to find a domestic violence suspect hidden in an attic. Deke struggled with the insulation in the attic, so the next training session worked on getting the dog more comfortable working in an attic, Atkins said.
Deke also used to be scared by buzzing drones overhead – but that is no longer the case.
The trainings use different scenarios in different settings – to prepare the K-9 officers for a variety of situations they may encounter. With Bostdorff as the decoy, they train in tow yards, fairgrounds and jails. Bostdorff sometimes plays “hide and seek” under vehicles, or bails out of a vehicle to try to escape the dogs.
Some dogs don’t like being backed into a corner, and one was afraid of buckets. Some dogs don’t like training in the dark – but if the lights are on, they tend to rely on their eyes rather than their noses, Finger said.
During the recent training in Bowling Green, one of the law enforcement officers wanted to work on his dog pursuing a suspect on a bicycle. The week before, his dog, named Oz, was tracking a domestic violence suspect who was getting away on a bicycle, when the officer fell, yanking the leash and leading the dog to believe he had done something wrong.
“The first thing we do is go to ‘Boz’ (Bostdorff) and say is that something you could do,” Atkins said. And Bostdorff accommodates.
Acting as a decoy does not come without some injuries. Bostdorff has been bitten on the hand and bicep.
“I get bruised up quite a bit,” he said, explaining that the impact of the dogs charging at him is very forceful.
“I’ve been doing it so long that I think I’ve become acclimated to it,” Bostdorff said. “You have to have your wits about you. It is inherently dangerous.”
Occasionally the training doesn’t go exactly as planned. Bostdorff attended a “blessing of the animals” at a church, where the K-9 officers performed a demonstration. The dogs are particularly intense when the scenarios involve their handlers being harmed by the decoy.
In this particular demonstration, the dog walked off with Bostdorff’s bite sleeve as a reward. But then he came back and clamped on Bostdorff’s unprotected arm. That required some stitches and a tetanus shot.
On one Monday when Bostdorff couldn’t attend the training, a Kenton police officer stood in as the decoy. One of the dogs ripped into Officer Melvin Yoder’s ear, requiring stitches to repair it.
Bostdorff has gotten to know each of the K-9 officers.
Bowling Green Police Division’s dog named Arci is the smallest of the group, but is known for his speed and tenacity. A Belgian Malinois, Arci can reach speeds of 35 mph, his handler Finger said. Raised in Holland, Arci followed commands in Dutch.
“He is by far the fastest of the bunch,” Bostdorff said. “All that dog wants to do is play. In the case of me, I am the toy.”
“He comes in so hot that he knocks me down,” he said.
Belgian Malinois are nicknamed “fur missiles.”
“They will fly at you and take you down. They are fearless,” Finger said, adding that Arci can clear a 6-foot high fence.
Then there is Kristo, a 135-pound German Shepherd with Kenton Police Department.
“He’s gigantic,” Bostdorff said. “My whole arm goes in his mouth.”
And Deke, with Findlay Police Department, is the hardest charging. He follows commands in German.
“Deke is one of my favorites because he really likes to bite,” Bostdorff said.
The K-9 officers don’t bite out of anger or with intent to harm, their trainers explained. They bite to get rewarded by their handler by playing with their favorite toy when they complete a job.
But suspects are often more afraid of a K-9 officer than a cop with a gun, Bostdorff said.
“The guy shows up with a dog, and sometimes they will give up,” he said. “Just the dog barking – no one wants to get bit by a dog.”
Bostdorff has to take care during training to not hurt the K-9s or make them lose their confidence.
“This should be fun for them,” he said. “If it’s not fun, then they don’t want to do it anymore.”
During the recent training in Bowling Green, as Deke latched onto Bostdorff’s bite suit near his armpit, the dog’s jaw was all business but his tail was wagging furiously.
“He’s loving it,” Bostdorff said.
