Participants in this year’s “Iron Dog” competition in Dickerson, Maryland, faced overcast, windy and cold conditions as the fundraiser for Spike’s K-9 Fund kicked off.
Their challenge: Run a course with their dog over and under obstacles, wading knee-deep, or sometimes waist-deep, in icy cold water, and hoisting their dogs to their shoulders to carry them for a set distance.
When it was all over, participants were soaking wet, covered in mud and enjoying the comradery before getting lunch under tents.
Montgomery County Police corporal and K-9 handler Phil Brower created the event, first for fun, and then as a fundraiser for Spike’s K-9 Fund, which supports working dogs.
“The first year we brought in Spike’s, we raised about $5,000. Last year, we did $15,000, and we should be in around the $30,000 range this year,” he said.
Brower designed the course himself: “I tried to make it as fun as possible for the dogs, and as miserable as possible for the handlers.”
There was a method to the design that included steep hills and mud-slicked inclines.
“Everything on the course is relatable to what you might encounter, what a police dog or a military dog might encounter on a real deployment,” he said.
Brower completed this year’s event without his K-9 partner Monte, who died in December. But his arm now bears a tattoo of Monte, with the dog’s characteristic slight head tilt.
“I had his ashes actually tattooed into my arm, so he’s always with me,” said Brower, who explained the tattoo artist mixed the ink with a sprinkling of his late dog’s ashes.
Brower said he knew it sounded “weird,” but recalled when he was first matched with K-9 Monte, he was told by several trainers that he’d never have another dog like the Belgian Malinois again. Monte, he said, was that rare police dog who was all about the mission at work, and a goofy, good-natured pet at home.
He had, Brower said, “an off switch.”
This year, Brower competed with his new K-9 partner Bud, and his daughter competed with their pet dog, Balou. He said he sprinkled just a few of Monte’s ashes in both of their shoes before the competition.
“It helps me run faster,” Brower’s 13-year-old daughter, Katelyn, said.
And Brower, a proud father, said his daughter ran a personal best in the competition, “and she ran it a lot faster than some of the guys.”
Montgomery County Police Sgt. Steve Wells stood caked in mud with his dog, K-9 Odin, who’s trained as a patrol, explosive and gun detection dog.
“It challenges the dogs. The dogs have to swim, the dogs have to go under obstacles, and we’re just along for the ride,” he said. “I always tell people being a K-9 handler is like you go out, and give 100% of the time and it’s only 50% of the equation,” because each handler is part of a team.
“You’re only as good as your team,” he said.
Dave McBain, assistant chief of the Field Services Bureau for the Montgomery County Police Department said of the fundraiser, “We make sure that all of our officers, our humans, have a bulletproof vest, but why wouldn’t we ensure that our dogs do as well?”
That’s what makes Spike’s K-9 Fund so important, McBain said, so that all police and military K-9 units can provide for their dogs’ well-being.
McBain said a lot of recruits indicate they want to be part of the K-9 unit, but getting on to that unit isn’t easy. There are a limited number of slots, he said.
“It’s quite a bit of responsibility to have something like a patrol dog with you at all times,” he said.
He said while K-9’s are a tool in one sense, they are a companion that becomes part of an officer’s life.
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