A winning combination

FORT IRWIN — He is one of the best police dogs in the Inland Empire and reason enough to keep Sgt. Michele Estrada at Fort Irwin.

The Fort Irwin police officer and her working dog, a large 90-pound Belgium Malinois, took second place during the tough-dog portion of the Inland Empire Police Canine Show in Rancho Cucamonga last month. Estrada brushed off the achievement, even though Max beat out dogs from police departments across the area.

“It’s just what he’s trained to do,” she said.

In the competition, Max sprinted after and took down a decoy. Estrada said the dogs are judged on how fast and how well they perform.

The pair has been together for four years, a long time for a handler and dog to work side by side, Estrada said. They were first paired up when Estrada was an active duty soldier assigned to a canine unit. They went to Afghanistan together in 2005, where Max’s keen sense of smell was used to sniff out explosives and other dangers. Estrada was leery to go into much detail about what she and Max did in Afghanistan or do at Fort Irwin. No matter what their job, however, Estrada said that Max does a fair amount of protecting her when they are on duty.

“He picks and chooses who he likes,” she said. “He watches out for me.”

Estrada said the two have become close during their time together. She described Max as temperamental, picky about who and what he likes, but a good worker. When Estrada got out of the Army, she learned that Max was staying at Fort Irwin and decided she would stay too.

“I didn’t want to leave him,” she said. “That’s the only reason I stayed here is because I didn’t want to leave him.”

As a dog lover growing up, Estrada knew from an early age she would someday work with dogs. In the 4th grade, an officer came to a career day at Estrada’s school with his dog. She decided then she wanted to be a dog handler and years later, she was paired with Max.

Max looks like a lot to handle. Larger than his kennel mates at Fort Irwin, Max stands nearly as tall as Estrada’s waist. The dog pulled at his leash as Estrada lead him into a training area behind the kennels at Fort Irwin. When she unhooked his leash, Max bolted a few yards, only to turn around and wait for Estrada.

“He knows what I want from him, and I know when he’s tired and when he wants to get out and work,” she said. “I’m just really lucky.”

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(760) 256-4121 or aaron_aupperlee@link.freedom.com