CONTINGENCY OPERATING SITE MAREZ, Iraq - Capt. Mark Hardy, assistant logistics officer for the 4th Advise and Assist Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, takes a running start from Titan, a military police working dog from the 89th Military Police Brigade....

CONTINGENCY OPERATING SITE MAREZ, Iraq - Staff Sgt. Titan, a military police working dog from the 89th Military Police Brigade, lunges at Capt. Mark Hardy, assistant logistics officer for the 4th Advise and Assist Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division. The M...

CONTINGENCY OPERATING SITE MAREZ, Iraq - Staff Sgt. Titan, a military police dog assigned to the 4th Advise and Assist Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, takes down a demonstrator wearing a 'bite-proof' suit in a training exercise Oct. 22 near Mosul, Ira...

CONTINGENCY OPERATING SITE MAREZ, Iraq - Members of the 89th Military Police Brigade, attached to the 4th Advise and Assist Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, demonstrated dog training to Iraqi Security Forces as part of the Long Knife brigade's support of Operation New Dawn, Oct. 22, near Mosul, Iraq.

Geared more towards allowing a Belgian Malinois, named Titan, to practice some of his different security, bite, and guard techniques, the training demonstrated the U.S. military working dog's capabilities.

Capt. Mark Hardy, assistant logistics officer for 4th AAB, volunteered to get into the "bite-suit" dog handlers use for training.

"I wasn't too sure what to expect," said Hardy. "It was very exciting! I was actually surprised with how quickly the dog was able to gain control of me and put me onto the ground."

"We are responsible for advising and training the Iraqi Security Forces in the area on how to set up a force protection perimeter, conduct gate checks, conduct large scale health and welfare inspections, and perform counter-insurgency operations such as bomb detection," said Sgt. Shane Kanady, a member of the 89th MP Bde.

Both the handlers and the dogs are extremely disciplined and proficient at their job, and the bond that they share is unique.

"The dogs are always given a rank that is one pay-grade above their handlers, so technically, Titan is the boss of this partnership," Kanady said in jest.

The role that these dogs play in the mission of the MPs is absolutely crucial to the accomplishment of their mission and to the success of the ISF as well. After working and training with the MPs, the local ISF will have the ability to utilize dogs in a large scope of missions and daily tasks. They will be used by ISF to conduct cordon and search missions, find weapons and explosives caches, and run checkpoints. The training the ISF will receive from 4th AAB's MPs on dog handling will ultimately allow the ISF to conduct security operations more efficiently and keep the local population safer.