Three-hundred suspects nailed, two brushes with death, and a hall of fame induction.
These are just a few achievements that help to sum up the life of Teak, a retired Vancouver police dog who died on Saturday.
Coverage of police dogs on Globalnews.ca:
Vancouver police announced Teak’s death on Sunday, calling him a “true guardian of the night.”
Teak, a German shepherd, was known as “probably one of the toughest dogs we’ve ever had here,” Sgt. Derrick Gibson, the dog’s partner and the one with whom he lived out his retirement, told Global News in December.
The pair were together for some dramatic arrests.
READ MORE: VPD’s toughest canine cheated death twice before and after retirement
Teak entered the Purina Hall of Fame in 2013, after an arrest that nearly killed him.
Gibson and Teak had been called to an armed robbery at an East Vancouver gas station on Jan. 11, 2013.
Kyle Scott Martin, the suspect, took off after Gibson threatened to send in his canine partner, who then brought the 20-year-old down after chasing him for about 50 metres.
Martin stabbed Teak repeatedly, leaving a 25-centimetre stab wound. Still, the police dog would not let his suspect go.
“He didn’t stop,” Gibson told Global News. “He fought through, did everything I asked of him until I released him from the suspect.”
Teak bled from the neck and received emergency surgery. The stabbing would have hit his jugular if it had gone one centimetre deeper, Gibson said.
Teak was named the 2013 Purina Service Dog of the Year, and was inducted into the Purina Hall of Fame.
He retired that same year, and lived out his post-work life with Gibson’s family.
Dogged pursuit
Gibson received a 2012 Police Honours Meritorious Service Award after a dramatic chase involving Teak that resulted in the arrest of an ex-football player in connection with sexual assaults on women that happened in public places.
Teak gained a hold of the suspect’s leg after he resisted arrest, but he tried to pull the canine’s jaws apart.
The suspect subsequently took off but Teak caught up to him and bit his arm. But this, too, didn’t stop him, as the man kept running with a dog attached to him.
READ MORE: Vancouver police’s Mr. September snags piggy bank-stealing thief
The man fought Teak off, but still, the dog wouldn’t give up. He once again took hold of the man’s leg, but the suspect wouldn’t stop running.
Finally, the pursuit ended up in a dead-end lane, according to police. The suspect tried to climb a 10-foot wall as Teak gripped his left thigh.
Gibson then entered the lane with a firearm at the ready.
But the suspect charged at Gibson and a struggle carried on before more officers joined the fray and the man was arrested.
Cancerous growth
Teak’s struggles didn’t end with his retirement from the Vancouver police, however.
A cancerous growth was found in his bowels as he recovered from the stabbing incident; he beat it after six rounds of treatment.
Then, in 2014, he hurt his left front leg as he spun on it, and veterinarians recommended that it be amputated. He lived the rest of his life with three legs.
Tributes to Teak poured out on social media on Sunday:
— With files from Kristen Robinson