An Officer and a Pooch : Policeman Recalls Life With His Partner--a Workaholic Canine

He was a dog who loved kids and hated crooks. During his career, he bit more than 30 suspects. But he is best remembered by police for the time when he went out of his way to avoid biting a small child.

On top of that, he had the best nose on the Oxnard Police Department when it came to sniffing out cocaine and other illegal drugs.

But now a 9-year-old German shepherd named Champus Von Hallbachgrun is stepping down from active duty after 8,800 backup calls and five years in Oxnard’s K-9 program.

As Champus formally retired from the force this week because of hip problems, his longtime partner spoke lovingly of a canine workaholic with a dual personality.

On off hours, Champus was always a sweetheart, flopping over for a quick stomach scratch and gleefully chasing tennis balls, Officer Cliff Troy said.

But once he hit the police car, Champus was all business, Troy said.

“Once he’s given work commands or he’s in the car, he’s unapproachable,” Troy said. “He becomes very defensive.”

The dog’s main duties were to sniff out suspects. He also was trained to chase people trying to escape police and to protect his partner.

When Champus found a suspect, he was trained to initially sit and bark. If the suspect began to run, however, Champus--nicknamed Chompus--was allowed to grab him, Troy said.

“Champus will grab whatever body part is closest if they try to run,” he said.

Since 1985, Champus, one of four department police dogs, found 47 hidden suspects and helped in 86 felony arrests and 64 misdemeanor arrests, police said. The dog also participated in 480 narcotics searches, 400 building searches and 185 area searches.

But Champus is most famous for an August, 1987, case that involved the chase of a man who had just injected heroin at Oxnard’s Colonia Park, Troy said.

Troy received a call that suspicious people were in the park’s bathroom and found two men and a woman injecting heroin, Troy said. Two stopped but the third began running and Troy realized that he was not going to catch him. So Troy commanded Champus to chase the man.

As the dog closed the gap, the man grabbed a child playing in the park and swung the child around as a shield between himself and the dog.

Troy said the dog was extremely close to the child and Troy did not think there would be time to give Champus a stop command to prevent injury.

But Champus stopped short, avoided the child and ran around the pair to grab the man from behind.

“That’s nothing you can train for,” Troy said. “It shows the dog’s natural intelligence.”

Also, Troy said that growing up around his children--Laura, 7, and Melissa, 3--may have contributed to the dog’s care for the child.

“I try to take him home and to the station to play with the guys so he realizes not everyone’s a criminal,” Troy said.

Champus was born and raised in Germany, where he competed in sporting events, earning top awards in protection, obedience and tracking. He was then sold to a Bakersfield kennel for dog training and subsequently bought by the Oxnard Police Department.

The animal’s main asset while on active duty, Troy said, was his nose. The typical German shepherd has 225,000 olfactory senses compared with the 2,500 in a human being’s nose, the officer said.

Over the years, the dog was responsible for sniffing out two three-pound seizures of cocaine--one hidden in a closet and the other in a box in a garage, Troy said.

Going to work was a game for the dog, Troy said. Also, Champus will occasionally be recalled to duty because of his special talents on drug searches.

Troy’s main concern now is whether those occasions will be enough to keep Champus from boredom. Troy said he is worried how Champus will adjust to retirement.

“He gets up grumpy when I take a vacation,” Troy said.