I am going to burn in hell on this one, K9 handlers, is you dog your partner or a tool that you would sacrifice to do the job needed. The reason I ask is before I punched out(retired) I had a situation where a dog handler, called his dog back at the threat of it being shot by a suspect, now I am not suggesting its life be thrown away uselessly, but I felt the handler had grown attached to his dog, and forgot the purpose of it being deployed. That of protecting human lives, do you guys get any training on how to detach yourself from the emotions having the dog as a partner or is that something left up to the individual officer to decide. Inquiring minds want to know.///I have two German Shepherds that I love dearly, but they are not working dogs, they are my pets, so I know how you can get attached to a dog, that is why I ask. Also I have no training in K9 procedures, so this may sound like a dumb question.

There is a difference between sacrificing your dog and deploying it in a tactical manner, all of our dogs were bullet proof vests but because of that we are not going to send them in to a situation that would be better served by the swat team. Yes it is a tool but yes it is my partner I do know the difference and if it meant his life or another humans the choice would be easy, but a needless sacrifice is also out of the question.  I hear of horror stories were they send in the dog to draw gunfire and so forth.  Just my 2cents

as a k-9 handler I must say that a k-9 is NOT deadly force and when confronted with a deadly force situation are we not to esculate the continuim and meet force with appropriate force?
Would you confront a subject with a gun with a baton? after all use of a k-9 is eqivalent to the use of a baton.I dont believe emotions play a role here as much as tactics and common sense I heard of a story about a dog being sent in from behind a suicidal subject with a shotgun who ultimately turned and killed the dog and then was shot by officers I think it's like all other scenerios, it's a judgement call to be made at the time.The handler you spoke of made a judgement call as we all do at nearly every call for service we handle. my dog is my partner and a member of my family,yes he is a tool used very effectively and efficiently but he is not by any means a throw away tool.again for me it depends on the situation at the time.
What happened in the situation you were in?
did all go well,even after the handler recalled his dog?

No,yes, and I will  try to make a long story short, bad guy wanted for attempted murder of Deputy Sheriff(his gun jammed), bad guy hiding in woods, dog  finds bad guy, bad guy has more than one gun, bad guy says if you let that dog loose I will shoot it, to late , handler has turned K9 loose, bad guy shoots at dog as it returns to handler, so at one point the handler is taking cover behind a tree with his K9 and taking fire, finally I get a shot, as I am about 140 yards away from all this with a scoped rifle , situation is over, and I get to do all the merry shit, afterward, bad press, shooting review, psycho exams(god I hate those guys) Anyway all went well , end of story.