After 23 Years of 'Stay,' Police Dog Trainer Moves On

Police officers across the Washington region, along with their dogs, have benefited from his decades of experience and knack for canine police work.

But after 23 years in the police canine business, Prince William County Master Police Officer Wayne Stewart, head trainer in the department, has decided to move on.

"I've been on the night shift for 23 straight years," said Stewart, who joined law enforcement as a Prince William sheriff's deputy in 1979. "I'm ready to be a regular human being."

Stewart, 49, is one of a handful of people certified by the U.S. Police Canine Association as Level III trainers, the group's highest designation, reserved for those with 15 or more years of experience training or handling police dogs. Level III trainers are also judges in national police canine competitions.

Over the years, Stewart has worked countless cases that have called for the unique talents and senses police dogs bring: tracking and chasing suspects, holding them without injuring them and, most important, entering dangerous situations without hesitation so a human does not have to.

"We'll send a dog in to do something that has the capability . . . officers don't," Stewart said. "These dogs are fearless."

Stewart said he gravitated toward the canine unit for the reasons most officers do: "You grow up around dogs. You have dogs all your life. For me, it's just a fun thing to get into."

He transformed his passion for dogs into a sought-after talent, and law enforcement agencies in Alexandria, Arlington County, Leesburg and Greenbelt, to name a few, have had officers trained by him.

Stewart joined the Prince William police department in 1980 and got his first police dog, Thor, in 1986 -- a canine not to be reckoned with, he said. That's because back then, police dogs were trained to be friendly only to their master and their master's family.

"If someone came up and started petting him . . . he just didn't want anybody messing with him," Stewart said.

Stewart said one night in the early 1990s, he and Thor earned a valor award after tracking down a suspect who had drawn a shotgun on police officers following a car chase and then fled. Thor found the man in a Manassas subdivision, fatally wounded from police gunfire, hiding behind a wooden fence.

Modestly, he said the award "probably should have gone just to the dog."

Stewart said police dogs started being trained differently around the late 1980s and early 1990s, when trainers realized dogs didn't have to be mean all the time to be effective, he said.

"We started seeing you could have a dog that was sociable, got along well with people, and could do the job," he said.

After Thor retired in 1993, Stewart teamed up with Henry, whom he remembers as friendly when not in "business mode." When Henry retired in 1998 -- around the time Stewart became an assistant trainer in the department -- he was replaced by Justice, who served until 2005.

In 1999, Stewart became the department's head trainer, though he still worked the streets when he was not teaching, and in 2005, he was paired up with his final police dog, Zeus. Zeus was since retired from the department because of arthritis and now works in a Maryland prison, Stewart said.

Stewart will retire Aug. 1 and plans to take some time to enjoy his family. But he said he will probably return to the canine law enforcement world in some capacity and has applications out to several federal agencies.

"I'd like to stay in the canine community," he said.