I'm worried about my neighbor's police dog when it comes to mine and my pup's safety. Should I be?

Dear Ed,

I am writing you because you understand police K-9s and I want to know if my fears are ungrounded.

I have a 4-1/2-month-old bijon-peke and I live next door to a police officer with a German Shepherd police K-9. He has had the dog 3 years. I have seldom seen the dog because it has been trained not to bark and I don't know when it is out in their yard. However, since we got our first puppy, I've been in our backyard more often than before playing with the puppy and have heard the K-9 breathing hard at the fence. My puppy is very vivacious and runs around quite a lot. I sometimes think that the police dog may think my puppy is a prey toy.

Recently, I was talking to the policeman's fiance who lives with him and she opened the door to her house and the K-9 was at the door. I had been taking my puppy for a walk and quickly picked it up. The woman told the dog to sit, but it didn't listen to her until the third time she said it. That was last week.

Today, I was talking to the woman again and she opened her door and the K-9 bounded out. I just had time to pick up my puppy. She told her dog to stop and sit, but it did not listen to her. The K-9 dog came to me and smelled my puppy that I was holding. Because the K-9 was not listening to her, I became afraid and I was sure the dog must be able to sense that. The police officer called to the dog from inside the house to come, but the K-9 did not listen the first time. The police officer called to the dog again and finally the dog went inside.

My puppy is super friendly to all people, especially children, and likes other dogs if the other dog is not a barker. So my puppy was wriggling to get out of my arms and play with the K-9.

I had thought from reading your website that police K-9s were highly trained and so I wasn't afraid of my neighbor's K-9, because I thought it would respond very quickly to commands from the police officer or his fiance. The fact that the K-9 did not respond very well makes me very nervous. I'm not sure that my puppy nor myself was safe with an unleashed police K-9 darting from the next door house even though the dog did not seem interested in me and did nothing more than smell my puppy. The police officer has said that his dog is not "prey driven," but very "play driven." I didn't bother to tell him that that was the same thing really. He said his K-9 went to kindergartens and such because it was not an "aggressive" police dog although it is trained to attack people. He said his dog lived with two cats without hurting the cats. However, I know from reading your site that another dog is different from cats. Pack behavior drives dogs and if the police dog decided my dog was a threat to his rank or was invading his territory, he might attack her.

Was I right to be afraid of the neighbor's police dog? Can the police officer really control the animal? Do K-9s only attack when told to attack? Am I over-reacting in thinking it might attack my puppy?

Thanks,
Janeen