After the police dog Quanto was shot dead while chasing a suspect in 2013, development work to produce a body protector for dogs began. Several employees at LOF had some kind of personal relationship with Quanto and/or his handler, and the development work quickly became a heart issue for the company. A basic criterion in the work was that the body protection should be so light, flexible, airy and cool that a dog wear it for an entire work shift. This is especially important as it is often in a hurry when the dog has to get out of the car and start his work. Another aspect is of course that the dog should not get overheated, therefore they also chose to add a heat-regulating material - the same one used in LOF's body protection for humans, namely Outlast Thermal Management Systems™.
The result of the work was the K9 StreetFighter Vest. LOF chose to adopt the same principles used in the manufacture of body armor for humans. That is, body protection that primarily protects vital organs, while being minimalistic in its design. This makes the body protection light and airy, and thus also fulfills the criterion that it should be able to sit on the dog during an entire work session. Another advantage of StreetFighter is that the body protection can be easily taken in and out of the vest. If you just want to use the vest as it is, that's fine. You then have a really good harness/vest for the dog, StreetFighter comes with thin panels that give the dog buoyancy if it ends up in water. If you need body protection, you simply add it, you then also have the flexibility to switch between body protection or not. Worth noting is that the body protection also provides buoyancy if the dog ends up in water, it does not weigh the dog down.
Watch the highlights of StreetFighter below, and listen to LOF's Duncan Horner talk more about the background and development work behind StreetFighter. Unfortunately, the one feature cannot be embedded, but click on the link and the clip will open in a new window.
It is not Quanto on the cover photo of this blog post.