I was thinking more along the lines of a sniper who’s a member of a street gang. A police dog is a serious threat to this bunch, and they’ll take it out.
I agree, though, that nobody is about to shoot a cop’s dog while they can be seen doing the deed. It’s suicide. Dorner level suicide-by-cop. And the cops will get a *lot* of leeway from the citizens as they start cutting though them. But if the State doesn’t take out millions of people overnight, I think you’ll start seeing Regulators coming back. But they won’t be targeting lone ranchers minding their own business this time.
If the penalty for taking out the dog is the same as for a human cop, the gang bangers may decide to just take out the handler. This would result in the cops deciding that hassling the gang bangers is too risky.
If the gang banger sniper is really smart, he'll do it when the cop is hassling one of his gang's rivals. That way the rivals get the heat, but the intimidation effect on the cops is the same.