Colorado Springs Gazette
November, 2003

Mean streak helps top dog leave mark

By TOM ROEDER - THE GAZETTE

This German shepherd doesn’t act like the most obedient dog in the U.S. Air Force.

One look at Taint on patrol at the Air Force Academy is enough to make most people back away.

Taint bites people for fun. This dog is so mean, he nearly chewed his tail off. So ornery that at his last job he came close to removing an important part of his Marine handler.

“He almost got put to sleep down at Lackland Air Force Base for being too aggressive,” said Taint’s handler, Staff Sgt. Jeff Weale.

“He’s still a mean dog.”

Taint channeled all that aggression, however, and turned it into gold medals at a competition in Arizona for military and civilian police dogs this month.

Taint won the obedience category and took a second gold medal in a competition to test searching an area for possible crooks.

That doesn’t mean Taint has changed much since Weale’s first encounter with the dog nearly three years ago.

“He’s still Cujo,” Weale said, making reference to a rabid dog depicted in a Stephen King horror book. “He’s just not Cujo with me.”

Taint has been a military dog for nearly seven years. Unlike pets, the military expects its canines to be aggressive and willing to attack on command.

Taint had the aggressive down pat. It was following orders that brought trouble.

The Sept. 11 attacks saved Taint from a date with euthanasia. The Air Force Academy had to step up security, including the addition of police dogs. Officials were willing to take a chance that Taint could change.

Taint was shipped north from Texas and became Weale’s responsibility.

“I didn’t know what I was getting into at first,” Weale said.

The first week, Weale interacted with Taint by shoving hot dogs into the canine’s chain-link cage. The second week, Weale went in the cage, but only after fitting Taint with a muzzle.

After a month, Weale learned to work with Taint, and the two have formed a solid partnership that has resulted in more than seven drug busts.

Taint now wags a stump where his tail used to be. The dog got a sore, which handlers attempted to treat, but Taint kept chewing.

Taint has patrolled football games and helped protect President Bush during his June visit to the academy.

Weale said the key is to know when Taint will turn from obedient to enraged.

“Sometimes a marble shifts in his head a little bit and he loses it,” Weale said.

Weale is moving to an air base in Guam next year, but Taint is staying at the academy and probably will be on the job for another three years.

Weale has a warning for crooks who might look at Taint and see a friendly pooch.

Taint doesn’t bark or growl, Weale said. He just bites.