(CNN) -- A Secret Service dog fell to its death Saturday night while doing a sweep of a multi-story parking deck near a hotel where Vice President Joe Biden was speaking.
The Belgian Malinois fell from the roof of the six-story deck adjacent to The Ritz-Carlton in New Orleans where Biden was speaking at a fundraiser for U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, reported CNN affiliate WWL.
Secret Service spokesman Max Milien told CNN the death was a "tragic accident."
The agency began its canine program in 1975 to detect explosives. It uses Belgian Malinois because they are small and have short hair -- making it easy for them to work in the heat. They are also very sociable.
Each dog and its handler has to complete 20 weeks of training before beginning work, the agency said.
When it's time for a dog to retire -- usually after about 10 years -- it is retired to its handler.
Has anyone else heard about this or know more information? I can imagine this simply being a tragic accident, but this makes me wonder what sort of training goes on to prevent things like this from happening. Is there balance work in service dog training?
I read this yesterday on CNN's news site. Very, very sad. I am confused about how this could happen. After all, I believe there are building codes in the entire US that require barriers on all levels of a parking structure to prevent humans from accidentally falling off or driving their cars over the edge.
I can think of a couple of scenarios of how this could have happened, but I don't want to speculate. I haven't heard a first-hand account, and I doubt we will.
Very tragic for the dog, and I'm sure the handler is devastated.
I've heard of something like this happening before with a USAR dog. Basically you have a high drive dog that jumps on/over a wall in the course of a search - they're environmentally stable and think nothing jumping up/over objects in the course of a search. Dogs climb over pretty high walls in sport venues so even if you've got got a 4 ft wall as a barrier in a parking garage it's not too much for an athletic, driven dog to jump it.
But it's still pretty sad.
I must say though - small and social are not exactly words I'd use to describe the Malinois breed as a whole..
Anne Jones Webboard User Reg: 04-29-2004
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Very high drive working dogs are so committed to their job...most don't have a lot of self preservation when in high drive. The will often act & react & not think. They are faster then we are to react & accidents happen when working them. No matter how careful the handler is to try to stay 1 step ahead of the dog's movements. Sad as that is. And yes it does happen in USAR & SAR work as well as K9/protection work.
We used to do a lot of PP work with my female in crazy venues like old buildings, upper & lower floors, fire escapes etc & I would not do anything near the end of a 2nd floor or over the 2nd level of a fire escape etc...because when she went in for a bite she was totally committed & if the decoy dodged or jumped she was still going after him or follow him. After an episode on the top of a school bleacher I learned that she was unstopable...she flew off there when the decoy jumped. I thought sure she was going to have 4 broken legs. She was only 15 month old at the time. Very crazy driven dog. I love her to bits!
Brian Couse Webboard User Reg: 04-23-2012
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When my dog Nala was about 1 I was walking her in a busy section of a village, working on her socialization and basically exposing to her to life, sights and sounds outside of the backyard. We crossed the street at a slight jog, and stepped up onto the sidewalk. On the far side of the sidewalk was about a 3 1/2 foot high cement block knee wall the acts as a barrier over a 150 foot drop over a creek. I wanted to take a look over the wall and I soon realized so did Nala. Without hesitation she jumped up on the wall and was standing there looking at me. I was pleasantly surprised to see her focusing on me but my knee jerk reaction was to pull her down from there. The lesson I learned was that dogs just want to please their owners and they don.t really care whats on the other side of a door, wall or other obstacle. I learned to do a better job of being aware of my surroundings to keep my dog safe.
Connie Sutherland Moderator Reg: 07-13-2005
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Loc: North-Central coast of California
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Quote: Brian Couse
When my dog Nala was about 1 I was walking her in a busy section of a village, working on her socialization and basically exposing to her to life, sights and sounds outside of the backyard. We crossed the street at a slight jog, and stepped up onto the sidewalk. On the far side of the sidewalk was about a 3 1/2 foot high cement block knee wall the acts as a barrier over a 150 foot drop over a creek. I wanted to take a look over the wall and I soon realized so did Nala. Without hesitation she jumped up on the wall and was standing there looking at me. I was pleasantly surprised to see her focusing on me but my knee jerk reaction was to pull her down from there. The lesson I learned was that dogs just want to please their owners and they don.t really care whats on the other side of a door, wall or other obstacle. I learned to do a better job of being aware of my surroundings to keep my dog safe.
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Secret Service dog falls to its death
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