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How are police dogs trained? | Training of Police K9s

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Police dogs are highly trained officers just like their owners. It can be envious sightseeing of a perfectly trained police dog obeying the orders of his owner and being happy about it. These dogs are trained for months or years to perform the complicated tasks that the police dogs are required to accomplish. Their training is rigorous and different from what your pet might need and that’s why we usually see just a few specific breeds being trained as police dogs.

How Are Police Dogs Trained?

The police canines meet their trainers for the first time when they are 7 weeks old where they are required to go through a basic test. This test is conducted to identify the natural ability of a dog to follow orders, holding them down, squeezing their paw, crunching paper, fetch, bowl bang and clash and ragtime to judge whether they have what it takes to enter the force or not. These dogs are taught to use their instincts on instruction and in a supervised manner.

Police K9s are rewarded for their good work. While on the training they receive good care, food, exercise, protection, and the training have an emphasis on safety, control, and efficiency. They learn obedience, following commands, search, attack, tracking, substance detection and how to keep focused on distracting situations so that they are prepared for any eventuality while on duty. Dogs are known to be a man’s best friend it is for us to see that they are not overworked. After all, a happy dog is a healthy dog.

How Police Dog Training is Special?

You must have wondered how police dogs are trained to be so disciplined, smart, and agile when on the job? The way these dogs are trained is important, when on duty these dogs perform several tasks like search for something, detecting drugs with their strong sense of smell, and protecting officers from criminals.

But before being promoted to patrol the streets, police dogs have the basic training they need to pass.

These K9s have been playing an active role in safeguarding the streets and citizens of the US along with the United States police for quite some time now. They are considered as one of the biggest resources available as a part of law enforcement agencies across the country. These dogs are vital to their security, as they save lives and deter crime on a daily basis. A lot of hard work and attention goes into training the police dogs from the time they are puppies until they retire.

As we just mentioned not all dogs are eligible to become police dogs, seven dog breeds are specifically trained in police agencies to be used as K9s. The police dog breeds are:

  • Belgian Malinois
  • German Shepherd Dogs
  • Bloodhounds
  • Dutch Shepherds
  • Labrador Retrievers
  • Rottweilers
  • Beagles

These are some of the finest dog breeds used as police K9s and are known for their incredible working ability. For police officers who are the handlers to these dogs, it is fun and challenging to take care of these dogs. They need to have completed a 2-year probationary period before being able to apply to join the Dog Section. Also, they need to learn about canine psychology, legislation, and veterinary practices before they start working together. But in the end, all the hard work and demanding training pay off as the bond between the handler and their dogs becomes very strong.

What happens to Police dogs when they retire?

Usually, these dogs are adopted by their trainers on retirement. They spent years together and are like family to each other, so this works out well for both the dog and the officer.

How are Dual Purpose K9s Trained to Combine Their Duties?

Multiple function K9s go through particular training which enables them to just as well carry out a set of selected duties. The training would teach the dogs to weave integration of multiple functions (drug detection and search and rescue operations) into one job. For instance, in the US, when a narcotics K9 smells evidence of drugs during a search, that material offers the law enforcement a reasonable suspicion to conduct a collective search of the vehicle or premises without a prior warrant in place. The training of multirole K9s is based on their competence to instantly outperform different tasks and duties enabling them to serve the purposes necessary for different cases.

What Are The Difference Between Single Purpose And Dual Purpose K9s?

It differs by the extensive training of the dogs for the performance on behalf of police. The dual-purpose K9s are allocated to both patrol and detection work while the single-purpose ones are assigned as either patrol or detection dogs. Some single role canines perform as tracking dogs, rescue dogs, ones that locate missing persons or cadaver dogs that detect bodies. Dual-purpose K9s, on the other hand, are taught to execute a combination of these responsibilities in the comprehensive treatment of a single dog.

What Are The Duties Of Detection K9s?

Detection K-9s means units of dogs who are specially trained for the purpose of detection. They are used to spot and identify different kinds of drugs or bombs. Thus, such dogs undergo determination into the dog that is meant for a single job and the dog that is meant to perform a dual task. For the multi-role dogs, one or more of these tasks can be combined or alternated. For the specialized dogs, each dog is dedicated to either patrol or detection duties. Many K-9 detachments are experienced in finding runaways, missing persons or corpses by tracking. In contrast, Tandem-purpose K-9s are trained to perform functions like law enforcement, search and rescue, and humanitarian tasks such as assistance to people with disabilities in a single dog.

What Are The Duties Of Patrol K9s?

The responsibilities of patrol K-9s comprise a grid of core duties for enhancing capability of police officers in numerous operational situations. This job does involve carrying out such guard duties as patrolling, for instance; capturing criminal suspects; conducting body searches of areas and buildings with suspected individuals, and working in critical or restricted zones, as well.

What is a Police Dogs and What is Its Roll in Law Enforcement?

A canine officer, or sometimes even a K-9 or K9, is a type of canine dog which has undergone a special training to help police officers with their job in more ways than one. Since the Middle Ages, dogs have been extensively used by police officers to do various work, with German Shepherds and Belgian Malinois being the most relied on breeds due to their intelligence and obedience. As the others kind of dogs like Basset Hounds, Bloodhounds, and Labrador Retrievers together are famous for their tracking skill, trailing, and detection.

The police department dogs spend an essential time in the process of law enforcement taking various roles in the field. There are two main classifications of police K-9s: police and detection dogs. Listen to the given audio and comprehend the key points discussed by the speaker. Next, summarize the presentation in your own words and provide your opinion on the main concepts presented. Sniffing dogs are trained to offer protection for the officer, apprehend a suspect, clear a specific area as well as a given building, and provide security at the sensitive or controlled state. While the detection dogs specialize in either narcotics or bomb seeking, the rescue dogs play a different role to that of a dog.

In addition, the police dogs could be undertaken as one specific K9 or dual purpose K9s. Individual purpose dogs are intended for patrolment or marker tasks while dual purpose dogs combine both in one single unit of K9. In the United States of America, if a drug-detection dog notifies its handler of drugs when doing a search, the police officer can, legally, carry out a search of the whole car on the basis of a dog’s scent without warrant. On the other hand, in most places, physical assault to police dog is a criminal offence with result of the national police force.

Summing-up

We at Shergroup understand the growing security needs of people and that is why we have partnered with the Vapor Wake K9 security specialists. VWK9 is the most innovative and forward-thinking K9 company in the world that supplies Vapor Detection Dogs that can sniff from body-worn explosives to a Covid-19 virus scent in the human body. For our clients across the world who are looking for a security solution to protect their vacant premise, ensure safety for a live event or double up the security standards for public places like airports, hospitals, stadiums, shopping marts and more, K9 security dogs are a perfect way to ensure it.

Drop us a mail at [email protected] or live chat with us on our website www.shergroup.com to discuss your requirements.

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Last updated | 19 July 2023

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