K9 Police Service Dogs

Today, police departments around the world use police dogs to locate criminals, sniff out illegal drugs, search buildings, bomb detection, and other jobs human police officers can't do as well as a dog. There are thousands of police dogs on the job each and every day and sadly hundreds of them are killed in the line of duty each year. I thought it was about time to shed some light on these valuable members of our society.
During the 18th century, European police forces used bloodhounds, along-side their human counterparts. Belgium and Germany formalized their rigorous training programs during World War I and this practice continue on into the end of World War II. Soon, police dog programs started appearing all over Europe. It wasn’t until the 1970’s that police dogs were introduced to the United States. Today, police dogs are recognized as a vital tool of law enforcement around the world.
The majority of police departments use German Sheperds as their dog of choice. However, Labrador Retrievers and Belgian Malinois, are a close second when it comes to intelligence, aggression, strength and keen sense of smell. Other breeds such as beagles, schnauzers, bloodhounds, jack russell terriers and even mixed breeds are widely used for drug and bomb detection, as well as cadaver dogs.
Police dog training is pretty much done the same way as any other dog training. However, their training is extremely intense because people’s lives are at stake so, these dogs must be highly skilled. Once the police dog has completed their basic skills training such as obedience, endurance and agility, these dogs are then put through a series of tests to make sure their suitability as a K9 Police Service Dog.
K9 Police Service Dogs are the best of the best and their handlers are carefully selected to ensure the K9 Unit is a well-matched team. Becoming a K9 Unit officer is not for the faint of heart. Many of these dedicated officers put in excess of 60 hours a week. Not only do they work a regular 8 hour shift, the K9 officers must practice their training routines on a regular basis to keep their K9 partner sharp. The officer will groom and exercise their dog and of course, make sure their devoted partner has plenty of down time. Most of these K9 Units are together 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year.
Some of these K9 Police Service Dogs are given verbal commands in a different language, such as, German or Dutch. Many civilians think the commands are given in a different language to prevent the dog from answering to a criminals command. The truth is, many of the dogs have already been trained in the language of their country and It is much easier for the handler to learn a few phrases in German or Dutch, than having to re-train the dog in English.
So, the next time you see a K9 Unit, think for a moment how valuable these K9 Police Service Dogs are to our communities. Without them, our brave police men and women would not be able to serve and protect us from people who break the law in our society.
Come back soon to read about the fascinating skills of Hearing Dogs.