Two years ago, Jack, a K9 deputy with the LA County Sheriff's Department, was shot and killed in a shootout with a barricaded suspect.

Though Jack wasn’t wearing a protective vest, this incident that propelled the quest for a better bullet-resistant vest for police K9s, according to Jon Becker, president and CEO of Aardvark Tactical.

“We were in the middle of doing body armor for LASD officers when Jack was killed. I saw the impact it had on the team,” he says. “They say a K9 is just a tool, but it’s not just a tool for the team.”

Jack’s death sparked the conversation. But it wasn’t until a year later when Kjeld, another LASD K9, was shot, that things accelerated. The dog, wearing a vest, was saved when a bullet ricocheted off the vest's buckle.

“At that point we started working in earnest on a new K9 vest,” he says, noting they sought to make a vest that was Mission Specific, Athletic, Lightweight and Comfortable.

Vest Hesitancy

Becker mentioned that Aardvark Tactical started exploring the idea of creating a K9 vest five years prior to starting this project. However, their research at the time showed that “no one was using them,” he says. “The teams I talked to had K9 vests gathering dust in the back of their squad cars.”

Officers cited many reasons for not using the vests, including that they were bulky, too difficult to put on, and limited the movement of the dog, he says.

“The fact is most of today’s K9 body armor is too bulky and that really matters,” Becker says. “The dog’s ability to protect itself comes from agility. They need to be able to move fast and move well. If you put them in big, bulky body armor, they cannot do either.”

Massive R&D Effort

 PROJECT7 is an Aardvark Tactical research and development initiative that strives to produce top tier integrated tactical systems. The goal of this project is to produce body armor platforms that are: Mission Specific, Athletic, Lightweight, and Comfortable.

The main focus of this development program is to design armor that enables natural mobility. “Because if I inhibit the wearer’s movement, it increases the likelihood that they will need armor,” Becker says.

Next, PROJECT7 works to create scalable body armor. “For K9s, we wanted to make it as scalable as the systems we already produce for officers,” he adds. “We make that body armor scalable by making parts of it removable, such as protection over the arms, groins, shoulders.”

The first step here was to find out if scalable K9 body armor already existed. “The answer was ‘no,’” he says.

PROJECT7 also works to provide the right coverage for humans and dogs. Becker explains K9 officer, Jack, bit the suspect, who dragged him into a room and shot him in the chest. “Though Jack was not wearing body armor, he was shot in a place that would have been unprotected by existing products,” he says. “The upper chest is not normally protected, nor is the neck. The upside to protecting that is that it directly protects all the dog’s vital organs. If a dog gets shot or stabbed in the front of his chest, it’s really bad.”

To determine where police K9s needed protection, PROJECT7 did several tests. First, they looked at where dogs get stabbed, hit with an improvised weapon, or impaled as they work.

“We worked with some local K9 handlers and did a stabbing simulation,” he says. “We put the dog on a bite and gave the handler a Sharpie to ‘stab’ the dog with. Most of the simulated ‘stabbings’ were in the neck and throat area.”

PROJECT7 designers used this information to add a yoke to the K9 vest prototype. “The yoke covers the areas where the dog is most likely to get stabbed or shot, so all the dog’s vital organs are protected,” he says.

The company's R&D also focuses on developing athletic body armor for natural movement. For the K9 vest, Becker says a few facts emerged as they did their research. “It became clear that if we made the most comfortable, streamlined, athletic dog armor possible, we could make the dogs safer, more effective while not compromising their ability to move,” he says.

Departments also sought a vest that allowed dogs to move freely, float in water, and not hinder their actions, he adds.

To further assess mobility/agility, PROJECT7 researchers did movement, bite, and field testing.

PROJECT7 designers made the yoke detachable to meet these needs.

“The yoke looks like an Elizabethan collar and is positioned in a way that leaves room for the dog’s collars and e-collars,” he says. “The yoke snaps on and off with pivot buckles that allow the yoke to articulate and move separately from the vest, which allows the dog’s head to move up and down. If the yoke were attached to the vest, the dog’s head would have been inhibited.”

When designing body armor, adjustability is also a key concern to address, especially for K9 armor. Getting the vest on the dogs can be a real problem, according to Becker.

He mentions that it is common for companies to custom and non-adjustable K9 vests. If the dog gains or loses weight, the vest no longer fits. Other vests require the dog to step into them.

“It surprises me how many vests you have to put the dog’s front feet through the vest before you put it on,” he says. “Getting a Belgian Malinois that is wound up like a Swiss Watch to hold still long enough to put their paws through the vest was a recurring theme of frustration for handlers.”

PROJECT7’s team designed a vest that had multiple adjustments to fit it to the dog. “When handlers testing our design, they were able to get the dog in the vest within 30 seconds,” he says.

The P7K9 vest features a structured ballistic design that wraps around the dog, making it very comfortable for the dog to wear.

Credit:

IMAGE: Aardvark Tactical

A Modern K9 Vest

PROJECT7’s research and development efforts produced the P7K9, which features:

• A biomechanical design: Engineered to provide maximum coverage in vital high-threat areas of the chest and neck, the P7K9 includes pivoting fasteners, structured ballistics, and a contoured profile allowing for maximum coverage without impeding the dog’s ability to move, search, or bite. In fact, Becker says the vest is extremely comfortable for dogs to wear. “The structured ballistic design wraps around the dog’s complex shape, without  overlapping ballistics,” he says. “Because it curves around the dog’s chest, it’s much more comfortable for the dog. Better comfort helps the dogs move normally because it fits the dog really well."

• Scalability: Quick release, pivoting buckles allow officers to attach the P7K9’s ballistic yoke quickly to provide unprecedented protection when needed. This also allows the yoke to be easily removed for normal operations.

• Rapid deployment: With adjustable Fastex buckles, officers can easily don, scale, or doff the vest in less than 30 seconds, without their K9 stepping through the armor. “The vest can be adjusted in five different ways,” Becker says. “You have adjustability for the yoke in the chest, which lets it move up and down the neck. You can adjust the girth of the yoke as well.”

• Concealed low-profile fasteners: Stowable handles, concealed buckles, and a sleek profile prevent snags and hangups, and makes it nearly impossible for a suspect to remove the armor during a bite. The vest also is available in three different colors: black, OD and multicam.

• A better fit. The vest is available in three sizes (Medium, large, and extra-large) to accommodate dogs from 50 to 100 pounds. It is designed for a perfect fit on any K9, with enough adjustability to maintain fit as the dog gains and loses day-to-day weight.

Side profile of the P7K9 vest.

Credit:

IMAGE: Aardvark Tactical

The vest also uses the best ballistic materials possible, meeting the same National Institute of Justice standards as the bullet-resistant vests worn by human officers.

“We built the vest with the same attention and care we give our vests for human officers,” Becker says. “Our goal was if we were going to build a vest for K9s, we were going to make it the best possible vest possible out of the highest end materials with the best engineering available.”

The result is a vest that works as intended and improves the dog’s safety, Becker adds.

“If the armor inhibits the dogs ability to move, it increases the likelihood of the dog getting hurt,” he says. “We are trying to reduce that risk. If the armor is bulky and a suspect can grab it and hold on to the straps and fight the dog or remove the vest, you’re increasing the likelihood of the dog getting hurt. This vest is purposely designed to reduce the likelihood that a K9 officer gets hurt.”