City Council Celebrates Dog's Heroics as a Cop, Family Pet - Patch.com

Sponsored By ‹ Back to Article View full size Embed | Share      Dani became the family pet when he retired. He was great with Sgt. Barry's children, Liam and Quin. Courtesy Santa Cruz Police

A police dog is put through months of training so it can track bad guys, sniff out drugs and find bombs. But it turns out those skills that make a K-9 officer so indispensable on the street come in handy at home, too.

Santa Cruz police Sgt. Warren Barry and his family know this first-hand.

Before he was promoted and stopped pushing a patrol car, Barry had one of the most coveted jobs in any police department: K-9 handler. He was teamed with Dani, a German shepherd, and for four years, the pair caught crooks.

But one of Dani's best finds wasn't on the job. Rather, it happened at home with the Barry family after the police dog retired in 2003, and Quin, the sergeant's daughter, had lost a toy in some ivy at their house. She was pretty upset.

Sgt. Barry recounted how Dani saved the day:

"Dani had been retired for a while, and Quin asked if I could have Dani look for it. I put Dani on a 'down' and simulated (that) I threw something into the ivy, and commanded Dani to search. Within a few minutes, he lay down, alerting me he found something. He located Quin’s toy. He was Quin’s hero."

On Tuesday afternoon, Dani will be a hero to all of Santa Cruz. The City Council is expected to proclaim July 26 "Dani Barry Day" in honor of the former police dog. Dani died two weeks ago at the age of 13.

"We're extremely touched and we're honored," Sgt. Barry said. "Dani was a huge part of our lives, and he was a dedicated police dog."

Dani's police career started in 1999 when the city purchased the Czech Republic-born dog, then 2, and assigned Barry as his handler. For Barry, it was a dream come true.

"It had been something that I had wanted to do ever since I had gotten hired by the police department," he said.

Barry had twice been rejected for a K-9 handler position, then took matters into his own hands by buying a German shepherd and starting the police dog training process. That seemed to tip the scales in his favor. Four months later, Barry was given Dani, and he sold the other dog.

It proved to be a good investment all around. Dani had a good average of catching bad guys, and once, at the end of a long swing shift, he nabbed a burglar who was breaking into the Barrys' garage.

The sergeant shared how the late-night capture went down:

One night I was coming home and I lived on the East side of Santa Cruz, and my house had alley access. Being in the K-9 unit and on-call, I had a take-home car. It was about 3 in the morning, and as I was pulling into my driveway I found a person attempting to get into my garage.

"I lit him up with my spotlight and yelled at the guy. Dani began to bark. The guy ran past the passenger side of my car north down the alley. I put the car in reverse; however,  the alley is partially a dirt road, and dust was being kicked up. I could not see behind me. I went forward and began to put out on the radio what was going on. Other officers began to arrive and began looking for the person. I began to go into my neighbors' backyards, and I found the hat the person was originally wearing. I went back and pulled Dani from the car, and began a track. Using the hat as a starting point, Dani led me from the alley to the street down through front yards to a house where the suspect was hiding on a front porch. The subject was arrested and found to be in possession of items that were from a car that had been previously stolen."

Police K-9s, though property of the police department, live with their handlers. Sgt. Barry's family learned some of the German commands the dog obeyed, but Dani paid them little attention while he was on the police force.

Barry said after the dog retired "he mellowed out" and became the family pet. He had a special bond with Quin, who was just a baby when Dani joined the family. When she broke her arm badly and underwent surgery, the dog slept at the foot of her bed to make sure she was OK.

"Dani and Quin were extremely tight," Sgt. Barry said. "He was real protective of her. He always gave her a break." 

His wife, Jana, and their 14-year-old son, Liam, also were close with Dani.

Two weeks ago, the family decided it was time to euthanize the dog. Dani's sight was fading, his hearing was gone and his hips were failing. Still, it was a hard decision, Barry said. Dani was their only dog.

"It's a pretty fresh wound," Barry said Tuesday.

Barry no longer is a K-9 handler for SCPD, though the department has two other police dogs on its force.

Barry said if his family gets another dog, he'll take the lessons he learned from Dani to train the new pet, and he suggests other dog owners do the same.

"You are really going to enjoy your dog a lot more when it's trained and obedient," Barry said. "Take the time to train with it. Spend time with it or go to a trainer. It'll increase the bond between you and the dog a lot.

"All they want is to be loved," he added.

The Dani Barry Day proclamation is on the 3 p.m. City Council agenda. Dani will be the first retired K-9 to be honored by the city.

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