Police Canine Unit
The use of work dogs first came about in 1899, in Germany. The dogs that the German army used were early German sheepdogs. The German’s really used these dogs extensively during the First World War. The United States army did not begin to use dogs for protection/work until World War II. The armies though were not the only time these were used though. In the United States, police dogs broke into the scene in 1907, when South Orange County, New Jersey and the New York City Police Department each began to use German Shepherds to assist them in their police work. Throughout years more and more police agencies began to incorporate police dogs into their departments. This growing number of police dogs called, for a need in a central agency. On October 22, 1977; the North American Police Work Dog Association (NAPWDA) was formed in order to “assist police work dog teams throughout the world.”
The North American Police Work Dog Association is an organization that helps standardize the police dogs all over the United States. They set these standards in order to protect the public and make sure that the dogs are a useful tool in aiding in police work. The NAPWDA has a criteria of seven areas in which the police dog must be trained in. These areas include obedience, agility, building searches, area searches, article searches, tracking, and aggression control. These are the just the standard criteria that a police dog must meet. A police dog can also specialize in one three areas they include: narcotics, explosive, and cadaver. First though let’s look at how these dogs are selected and trained by the police department (The North American Police Work Dog Association).
The police departments today, tend to use male German Shepherds as their preferred dog breed. This is because German Shepherds tend to be very trainable, they have the ideal body type, and they are very well suited for different environments. For example, on Long Island they have hot summers and cold winters. The German shepherd has the perfect coat (fur) for this because it does make the dog too hot in the summer and it keeps the dog warm enough in the winter. Though German Shepherds are the ideal dog for most departments; the officers in the department must select these dogs themselves. The head trainer selects the dogs from a vender that travels to Europe a few times a month. The vender usually obtains the dogs from Slovakia, Hungary, and Germany. This is because these dogs are bred for work; on the other hand dogs in the United States are bred for show purposes.
The selection process of these dogs is usually made by the head trainer. The first thing the trainer is looking for the dog to be in generally good health and to have the proper drive. The drive in the dog can be defined as the cause of the dogs actions; the dogs natural instincts. In a police dog an officer is looking for a dog with high prey drive and a fair amount of defensive drive. A high prey drive is when a dog wants to hunt its prey and the defensive drive would how the dog would protect itself and its handler.
When the handler finally, receives his/her dog they must begin a bonding process with the dog immediately. The dog must come accept the handler as the leader and trust his leader. In order to bond with the dog properly the officers are given some advice on what to do with their dogs when they get them. The officer must be the sole caregiver for the dog and must have a supportive and positive attitude around the dog. In addition, the handler must learn about the tendencies that his new partner has by observing the dog, while you are not in contact with the dog. Finally, the officer is advised to correct the dog, but must always praise the dog after the dog fixes his mistake. This will give the dog reassurance. The next step after initial bonding would to begin training the dog for police work (Fuelbier).
The initial training that is required of all police dogs take place with the handler and his dog. This is generally a seventeen week course. This course allows the dogs and trainers to fulfill the requirements that the NAPWDA sets. When training these dogs it is important to understand that these dogs are motivated by instincts and not by their mental capacity. The dog does not understand the reason for his actions, the dogs actions are innate; a part of their drives. A dog’s drives can be broken down into six different drives and all of these drives must be utilized in order the help train the dog. The six drives that the dog has are fight, prey, survival, rank, guard, and protection (The North American Police Work Dog Association).
Ø Fight- drive to measure physical prowess
Ø Prey- chase/bite
Ø Survival- self-defense
Ø Rank- alpha displays (higher rank in pack)
Ø Guard-warn intruders
Ø Protection- defend pack
When training these dogs the officers will use various techniques in order to get the desired results from the dogs. The type of technique that is favored when training police dogs is a stimulus and reward technique. For example, the officer will tell the dog to sit and if the dog sits, they will either be rewarded with a toy or a praise command. All of these dogs begin with basic training with obedience on and off the leash. The officers use both verbal and hand signals to train these dogs. The verbal part of the training is usually in German. The reason that the officers use German for training these dogs is because dogs do not actually know the words; they just react to the tone of your voice. The German tends to cause a person to have various tones due to its harshness (the voice inflection of German is more stimulating to the dog). Additionally, this will allow communication to be between handler and the dog only. An outside would not be able to give the dogs commands. It provides both the officer and dog with safety as well. An example of a German command would be “Platz” (Pl-ah-tss) which means down. The reason that the handlers also use hand signals is because they may need to be quiet at times that way they do not give up their location to criminals or the dog may not be able to hear the officer, but can see the officer and the officer will still be able to communicate with his dog. The next step in training after obedience would be agility. The officers test the dog’s agility by making them complete an obstacle course. The obstacle course consists of various small spaces, cat walks, windows and many other things. This not only works on the each dog’s agility, but allows the dog to be ready for whatever situation that comes about while on the force. The picture below is the obstacle course for the Suffolk County Police Department Canine Unit. In the picture there are hurdles, tunnels, and a cat walk. This allows the dog to increase their agility and furthermore it enhances trust between the dog and his handler. The reason it enhances trust is because the dog learns that the handler will not do anything to hurt them (Fuelbier).
The next step in training the dog after he completes his basic obedience and agility would to begin teaching the dog how to search and track. These next few parts of training go hand in hand. The dog is trained to track the freshest human scent, not the scent of the person they are looking for. Firstly, the officers usually do not know the scent of the person they are looking for. Therefore the dogs are taught to track the freshest human scent. The way in which the police department teaches this is by hiding fake guns and people in the woods or in boxes. This is the way in which they teach the dog to find lost individuals, felons, and lost/discarded evidence.
Finally, the dog moves onto step number seven in regards to the training for the NAPWDA. The dog then learns aggression control. This teaches the dog how to get a fleeing felon and how to protect the handler from a physical attack. In this section of the training course, the dog is taught how to bite properly. The dog is taught to bite with a full mouth and to grasp a limb. They are taught to hold on when they bite the felon and not to let go until they are told to do so. This prevents injury to both the dog and the officer. After all of this extensive training the handlers and their dogs must complete a certification test.
After the dog completes the initial seventeen week training course and passes the certification test the dog is then ready to work on the street. The dogs will then work on the street for at least six months that way the dog can acuminate. When, the officer and the trainer feel the dog is ready they will then put the dog back into a twelve week class. This twelve week class is when the dogs will become specialized as either a explosive, narcotic, or cadaver dog.
These dogs are then trained for their specific function. Each dog must react to what they find in a different way. An explosive dog is trained to give a passive signal to its handler (a sit). This is because a dog that reacts with a bark or scratching could set off the explosive device. The cadaver and drug dogs on the other hand react in a much different manner. These dogs are taught to dig at the source and to bark. This indicates to the officer to check that location. After the dogs complete this training course they then take a test in their specific area of study. These dogs must re-certify every year in their specialty area and must re-certify every three years in the basic training section.
Throughout their career these dogs go to work forty hours a week or more until they reach between the ages of nine to eleven years of age. Eight of the forty hours a week are dedicated to maintenance training. This keeps the dogs sharp and performing at their top level. These dogs are a tool for the patrol officers and detectives; they help apprehend criminals, find missing persons, recover proceeds, find drugs, find explosives, and recover remains of victims or discover a crime scene. These dogs have become essential to most police departments throughout the United States. The Suffolk County Police Department Canine Section as hole averages two-hundred and fifty apprehensions a year with numerous evidence recoveries. In addition, the unit finds about one to two million dollars in drug proceed per years. This really illustrates to the public how useful these canine units have become in keeping our society much safer. Since September 11, 2001; there has been a great increase in the usefulness of the explosive dogs in particular. They are now used for airport security, bomb sweeps for famous people and politicians and to search suspicious packages.
In these dogs careers, they do all they can to protect and serve us just like their handling officer. There have been dogs throughout the country that have been injured by criminals and in some cases even killed. Most of these dogs though tend to go off into retirement. When the dog retires he is only given to his handling officer otherwise the dog is put to sleep (officer almost always take the dogs unless the officer is injured and cannot care of the dog). The officer must sign a hold harmless release which absolves the police department of responsibility if the dog bites or injuries some one.
All in all, the canine is a useful tool to police departments around the United Sates and the globe. These dogs have really taken the police that they work with to another level. These police forces tend to have the lowest crime rates in the areas they patrol.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Capoeira
Capoeira! What is that? That is what I said to myself when my teacher said if your doing the Brazillian culture you have to take a class in it. Well Dustin Hoffman , was actually doing Capoeira in "Meet the Fockers" It is the art of Brazillian martial arts and dance. I went to this place called "arte capoeira" It is located in midtown manhattan. I took a class for two hours on a saturday. I really enjoyed the class a lot. I did feel out of place because most of the people that were there were really good, even if it was a beginner class. The first part of class was a fitness portion. We did push ups, sit ups, and stretching. It was very physically demanding.
We then started to do this thing gin sing. This is the base position of capoeira. It put a lot of strain on my knees. When you did this move you had to always have your face covered with one of your arms. Everything in this type of martial arts was a controlled movement I learned. It was very difficult to do .
The class then ended with people getting "Baptize" This is when a person moves up in ranking. All in all, I had a great time at this class.
We then started to do this thing gin sing. This is the base position of capoeira. It put a lot of strain on my knees. When you did this move you had to always have your face covered with one of your arms. Everything in this type of martial arts was a controlled movement I learned. It was very difficult to do .
The class then ended with people getting "Baptize" This is when a person moves up in ranking. All in all, I had a great time at this class.
Irish in New York
In America today, there are many different people from all over the globe. It is normal to see this in the United States. The late 1800’s and early 1900’s was when there was the first great influx of immigrants; in the early days of the United States this was not common. This first influx of immigrants would be the Irish. Today, when people see an Irish person in the United States it is considered normal and not out of the ordinary, but this was not always the case. The first flux of Irish Immigrants came to the United States in the early 1800’s and there was only an increase in the number of immigrants from Ireland since then.
When these Irish immigrants came to America they were not welcome with open arms. These Irish immigrants faced many hardships and throughout this paper we are going to explore these hardships and analyze the effects it had on the Irish and their moral. Through Irish music we are going to be able to see some of the hardships they faced and how they felt about these hardships.
These immigrants all had to get up and leave their country for various reasons. In Ireland, these people were facing many hardships at that time. During this particular time period in Ireland the Irish were facing many prejudices: they included prejudices towards Catholics from the protestant church and also political subordination. The only thing these people could do was immigrate to another place in search of a better life. The years, in which Irish immigration was greatest to the United States though, was in the 1840’s. This was due to the Irish potato famine that occurred in 1845. This led to millions of Irish people starving and because they had no crops to sell it led to great poverty throughout the nation- in addition to a food shortage. These people had no choice, but to get up and move to another place. Millions of these people wound up coming to America, in particular New York City. (The Journey to America: The Irish).
The Irish people’s journey to America usually consisted of them coming over on the steerage class of a ship. They would make the journey to New York City with everything that they had or could carry. This usually was very little because most of these immigrants coming over from Ireland were very poor. When they finally, did arrive in New York they would receive a medical inspection. If the immigrant failed the medical inspection, they would be shipped to Staten Island and the ship would be quarantined for thirty days. If they were to make it through the medical inspection, they would then face a legal inspection. This would a series of questions that inspectors would ask to the immigrants to see if they lied on their legal papers. If the immigrant made it past this inspection they would then be granted admission into the United States (Irish Potato Famine).
When the Irish finally, arrived in New York City, they were usually greeted by people called, “runners.” These people known as runners were able to speak both Gaelic and English. These runners promised to help the Irish immigrants, but this was not the case. The runners wound up being con-artists, which would take advantage of the Irish immigrant. They runners would tell the Irish immigrant about good places to stay in the city. Furthermore, the runner would tell the immigrants lies in regards to these shelters. They would say, “It is a boarding house operated by a friend, with good meals, comfortable rooms, affordable rates, and free storage of any luggage.” This was not the case of these shelters at all. The housing that these runners were actually talking about was tenements on the lower east side that were in horrible living conditions (Irish Potato Famine).
These tenements that were located on the lower east side of Manhattan were not fit for people to live in. The cellar tenements were unsuitable for any human being to live in, yet the Irish had to adapt and were basically forced to live there. These conditions led to weakness and death in the Irish community. These terrible living conditions that the Irish found themselves in led them to be even more ostracized by main stream America. They lived in areas with a lot of sewage and waste is the streets. This led to many diseases spreading throughout the Irish community. As one can see these were not the same conditions that the runners described to these immigrants that had just got off the boat. They were not provided with meals or comfortable rooms. People would cram into three rooms sleeping wherever they could find room. The apartments tended to be dark with very little light at night. There was only one window in the entire apartment and wall would prevent light from getting into the other two rooms. The owners of the apartments would also overcharge them for the rent of these apartments.
The men in these families would be forced to work long days in order to support their families and pay their rent. In Ireland, most of these men would have been farmers, but here in America they did not have the capital and land to be farmers. They were forced to work jobs as unskilled laborers. These jobs usually consisted of working at the docks, digging canals, and working on the railroads. All they had to do was move dirt from one place to another. These jobs consisted of long hours with little pay and were very tiring. The women would also have to obtain jobs outside of the home in order to help support the family. This led to deterioration in the home life for the Irish immigrants (Irish Potato Famine).
The children of the immigrants would be left to fend for themselves at home. The children of these immigrants in New York would be forced to help out their parents at a young age if they were healthy enough. The Irish immigrant’s infants had a high mortality rate. This was due to the infants drinking swill milk. Swill milk is milk that is contaminated because the farmers were feeding the cattle leftovers from the brewery. This would cause the milk to lose its nutritious value; in turn the infants would get sick and die from this. The children that stayed healthy though, would work in order to help support the family. The boys would help with manual labor and the girls would help mothers make dresses or the girls would work in a clothing factory. When the Irish, were not working though we are able to see that they are able to enjoy themselves (Meagher).
The Irish as a group of people in general tend to enjoy their music. When exploring Irish music, we can see this is what they would do during their leisure time. The Irish would play jigs, reels, and songs in order to express themselves. They would usually play in the parlor of their homes and enjoy singing and dancing. When examining Irish song lyrics we can see that the Irish tended to be a happy group of people despite the hardships and prejudices they faced when they got to America. For instance, a song that was published in 1874, by E.H Harding and that was written and sung by Ed Harrigan is a great example of the Irish immigrants’ moral while in New York City. When I observed this song, one of the lines went like this, “in a tenement house with me brother Dan.” This shows us the location of the Irish at this period in time. Then when looking at the chorus we see the mood of the Irish at this time. The lyrics from the chorus go like this, “So come with me I will treat you dacint, I’ll sit you down and I will fill your can, And along the street all the friends I meet, Say there goes Muldoon he’s a solid man.” The authors, J.J. Lee and Marion Casey, of Making the Irish American: History of the Irish in the United States, then go on to say that Harrigan portrays the Irish in a positive sense in his song lyrics. Harrigan brings out the positive achievement that Irish made and allows the listeners to see the character of the Irish in America (New York) and additionally it allows the listener to see their Irish pride (Lee and Casey 381-393).
Through these lyrics we were able to that the Irish were able to maintain there culture in America despite their hardships. In the United States of America today, Irish people are very common. They are part of mainstream America and there have been many different great influxes of immigrants from all over the world since the Irish. These immigrants all tend to go through the same cycle. The Irish just happened to be the first very large group of immigrants to go through this process.
The Irish did survive this process in America and now there is a great influence of Irish culture in New York City today. There is great influence of Irish pubs, music, and food in New York City. We can back to the tenements that the early Irish lived in and we get a sense of what it was like for them during this time. We now know from these experiences of visiting the tenements and listening to Irish music; what the Irish went through and how reacted to it. From our experiences we saw how bad the conditions of where they lived were, but we were also able to see how they kept a positive attitude through their musical lyrics. Today, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated by all the people in the United States; that is how great Irish influence has become in this country, particularly New York City.
When these Irish immigrants came to America they were not welcome with open arms. These Irish immigrants faced many hardships and throughout this paper we are going to explore these hardships and analyze the effects it had on the Irish and their moral. Through Irish music we are going to be able to see some of the hardships they faced and how they felt about these hardships.
These immigrants all had to get up and leave their country for various reasons. In Ireland, these people were facing many hardships at that time. During this particular time period in Ireland the Irish were facing many prejudices: they included prejudices towards Catholics from the protestant church and also political subordination. The only thing these people could do was immigrate to another place in search of a better life. The years, in which Irish immigration was greatest to the United States though, was in the 1840’s. This was due to the Irish potato famine that occurred in 1845. This led to millions of Irish people starving and because they had no crops to sell it led to great poverty throughout the nation- in addition to a food shortage. These people had no choice, but to get up and move to another place. Millions of these people wound up coming to America, in particular New York City. (The Journey to America: The Irish).
The Irish people’s journey to America usually consisted of them coming over on the steerage class of a ship. They would make the journey to New York City with everything that they had or could carry. This usually was very little because most of these immigrants coming over from Ireland were very poor. When they finally, did arrive in New York they would receive a medical inspection. If the immigrant failed the medical inspection, they would be shipped to Staten Island and the ship would be quarantined for thirty days. If they were to make it through the medical inspection, they would then face a legal inspection. This would a series of questions that inspectors would ask to the immigrants to see if they lied on their legal papers. If the immigrant made it past this inspection they would then be granted admission into the United States (Irish Potato Famine).
When the Irish finally, arrived in New York City, they were usually greeted by people called, “runners.” These people known as runners were able to speak both Gaelic and English. These runners promised to help the Irish immigrants, but this was not the case. The runners wound up being con-artists, which would take advantage of the Irish immigrant. They runners would tell the Irish immigrant about good places to stay in the city. Furthermore, the runner would tell the immigrants lies in regards to these shelters. They would say, “It is a boarding house operated by a friend, with good meals, comfortable rooms, affordable rates, and free storage of any luggage.” This was not the case of these shelters at all. The housing that these runners were actually talking about was tenements on the lower east side that were in horrible living conditions (Irish Potato Famine).
These tenements that were located on the lower east side of Manhattan were not fit for people to live in. The cellar tenements were unsuitable for any human being to live in, yet the Irish had to adapt and were basically forced to live there. These conditions led to weakness and death in the Irish community. These terrible living conditions that the Irish found themselves in led them to be even more ostracized by main stream America. They lived in areas with a lot of sewage and waste is the streets. This led to many diseases spreading throughout the Irish community. As one can see these were not the same conditions that the runners described to these immigrants that had just got off the boat. They were not provided with meals or comfortable rooms. People would cram into three rooms sleeping wherever they could find room. The apartments tended to be dark with very little light at night. There was only one window in the entire apartment and wall would prevent light from getting into the other two rooms. The owners of the apartments would also overcharge them for the rent of these apartments.
The men in these families would be forced to work long days in order to support their families and pay their rent. In Ireland, most of these men would have been farmers, but here in America they did not have the capital and land to be farmers. They were forced to work jobs as unskilled laborers. These jobs usually consisted of working at the docks, digging canals, and working on the railroads. All they had to do was move dirt from one place to another. These jobs consisted of long hours with little pay and were very tiring. The women would also have to obtain jobs outside of the home in order to help support the family. This led to deterioration in the home life for the Irish immigrants (Irish Potato Famine).
The children of the immigrants would be left to fend for themselves at home. The children of these immigrants in New York would be forced to help out their parents at a young age if they were healthy enough. The Irish immigrant’s infants had a high mortality rate. This was due to the infants drinking swill milk. Swill milk is milk that is contaminated because the farmers were feeding the cattle leftovers from the brewery. This would cause the milk to lose its nutritious value; in turn the infants would get sick and die from this. The children that stayed healthy though, would work in order to help support the family. The boys would help with manual labor and the girls would help mothers make dresses or the girls would work in a clothing factory. When the Irish, were not working though we are able to see that they are able to enjoy themselves (Meagher).
The Irish as a group of people in general tend to enjoy their music. When exploring Irish music, we can see this is what they would do during their leisure time. The Irish would play jigs, reels, and songs in order to express themselves. They would usually play in the parlor of their homes and enjoy singing and dancing. When examining Irish song lyrics we can see that the Irish tended to be a happy group of people despite the hardships and prejudices they faced when they got to America. For instance, a song that was published in 1874, by E.H Harding and that was written and sung by Ed Harrigan is a great example of the Irish immigrants’ moral while in New York City. When I observed this song, one of the lines went like this, “in a tenement house with me brother Dan.” This shows us the location of the Irish at this period in time. Then when looking at the chorus we see the mood of the Irish at this time. The lyrics from the chorus go like this, “So come with me I will treat you dacint, I’ll sit you down and I will fill your can, And along the street all the friends I meet, Say there goes Muldoon he’s a solid man.” The authors, J.J. Lee and Marion Casey, of Making the Irish American: History of the Irish in the United States, then go on to say that Harrigan portrays the Irish in a positive sense in his song lyrics. Harrigan brings out the positive achievement that Irish made and allows the listeners to see the character of the Irish in America (New York) and additionally it allows the listener to see their Irish pride (Lee and Casey 381-393).
Through these lyrics we were able to that the Irish were able to maintain there culture in America despite their hardships. In the United States of America today, Irish people are very common. They are part of mainstream America and there have been many different great influxes of immigrants from all over the world since the Irish. These immigrants all tend to go through the same cycle. The Irish just happened to be the first very large group of immigrants to go through this process.
The Irish did survive this process in America and now there is a great influence of Irish culture in New York City today. There is great influence of Irish pubs, music, and food in New York City. We can back to the tenements that the early Irish lived in and we get a sense of what it was like for them during this time. We now know from these experiences of visiting the tenements and listening to Irish music; what the Irish went through and how reacted to it. From our experiences we saw how bad the conditions of where they lived were, but we were also able to see how they kept a positive attitude through their musical lyrics. Today, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated by all the people in the United States; that is how great Irish influence has become in this country, particularly New York City.
Job Fair
Today I went to the job fair for one of my two activities on campus. The job fair was very interesting to me, but at the same time it was almost useless to me. The employers that are at the job fair are not interested in freshmen. They are looking mostly for juniors and seniors because they are looking to hire people. There are two companies that I talked to. The first company was the Internal Revenue Service. The second company was Margolin, Winer & Evens LLP.
The Internal Revenue used the approach of salary to try to reel me into their company. They discussed the starting salary for a person with an accounting degree with no CPA and with a CPA. The salaries were significantly different; though I was not very amused by this company.
The second accounting firm I spoke with, Margolin, Winer & Evens LLP, took a different approach to recruiting their future employees. They recruited on a personal level. The woman spoke about being able to have a career and family life at home. She also spoke about how the firm handles large companies, but you work in smaller groups and feel as if you contributed.
All in all, I felt as if this was a great stepping stone for me. It allowed me to see what companies are offering and I can get a better sense of what I would like for my future.
The Internal Revenue used the approach of salary to try to reel me into their company. They discussed the starting salary for a person with an accounting degree with no CPA and with a CPA. The salaries were significantly different; though I was not very amused by this company.
The second accounting firm I spoke with, Margolin, Winer & Evens LLP, took a different approach to recruiting their future employees. They recruited on a personal level. The woman spoke about being able to have a career and family life at home. She also spoke about how the firm handles large companies, but you work in smaller groups and feel as if you contributed.
All in all, I felt as if this was a great stepping stone for me. It allowed me to see what companies are offering and I can get a better sense of what I would like for my future.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Interview Police Officer
Interview
Ralph Fuellbier (head trainer)
History of officer: 20 years in police department, 12 in canine. 48 years old wife four kids. Trainer for 10 years. Patrol and bomb dog handler.
1) Where do you get the dogs from?
The dogs are obtained through a vender who travels to Europe two or three times a month and mostly deals with breeders in Slovakia, Hungary, and Germany.
2) What kind of dogs do you use? Why?
German Shepherds because very trainable and the body type is ideal for this line of work and our environment.
3) What are you looking for in a dog when you go to pick them out?
First we look at their confirmation and health. We look for their specific drives. A drive is the dog’s reaction to outside stimuli. They look for dogs with high prey drive. It means they want to hunt their prey. They also look for a fair amount of defensive drive. Which means the dog will protect itself and the handler. The dog will fight if he or the handler is threatened.
4) What type of commands do you use? Why?
We use German commands because of the sound/inflection of the words and how the dogs react to them. As an example, to track we use the German word “such” (zoo-chuh)
5) How long do you train a dog for?
The initial training is seventeen weeks. This consists of obedience, agility, tracking, building searches, evidence search, area searches, and handler protections (or bite work). After the initial patrol training we prefer that the dog spend at least 6 months on the street to acuminate. Then they back go back in specialty training class. Explosives, drug, or cadaver: this additional last from 8-12 weeks. After their initial train maintence training is on going for at least 8 hours per week.
6) What type of techniques do you use when training them?
In general we use operant or instrumental conditioning. Which is were the dog is presented with a stimulus and rewarded for a trained response. An example would be the dog is given the auditory stimulus of the word sit and physical stimulus of being pushed down and pulled up by the lead into a sit position. Immediately there after the dog is presented with a reward or toy/praise.
7) How are the officers selected?
The officers need to have a minimum of 5 years street experience and have a good a resume being active on patrol with little sick time. The officers then must complete a physical fitness test and oral interview with the commanding officers.
8) Do you have any specialty training with them? How long is that training?
9) What the purpose of the obstacle course?
The obstacle course gets the dog ready for obstacles that he may find in real street work (hopping fences), but trained in a controlled environment.
10) Is there a certain way, in which the dog is supposed to bite?
Yes, the dog is taught to bite with a full mouth and grasp either an arm or leg. They are taught to hold on and not release the bite until commanded. The reason for this is to prevent undo injury to the perpetrator or to allow him to escape.
11) What is the function of these dogs?
The canine is a tool for the patrol officer or detective division to use for a variety of reasons. Whether it is to apprehend criminals, find missing persons, recover proceeds or lost articles, find drugs, search for explosives or recover remains of victims or discover a crime scene.
12) How do they respond when they find explosives and drugs?
When the dogs find explosives they are taught to give a passive indication (sit response) because trigger off the device. If a dog finds drugs a cadaver they are taught to dig at the source.
13) How long does a dog work for?
About 8 years this depends on the health and physical abilities of the dog. Some dog can work up to 11 years of age and some dogs have only worked up to 9 years of age.
14) What happens to the dog when they retire?
The dog is then given to the officer where it then lives at home with the officers family. The officer must sign a hold harmless release which absolves the police department of responsibility if the dog bites or injures someone.
15) How do you become a trainer?
I had to apprentice under the prior trainer and attend various seminars and certification courses sponsored by various state agencies.
16) How are the dogs certified?
The dogs are certified through the Suffolk County Police Department and through New York State division of criminal justice services. (BMP) Bureau of Municipal Police. This certification is done at the end of the basic training or specialty training and the dogs are reevaluated yearly for specialty training and once every 3 years for patrol training.
17) How are the dogs with the officer’s family?
18) Have any dogs been injured? Do they recover?
Yes, we have had some dogs killed (shot), some stabbed and injured during apprehensions, but generally those are rare occasions and the dogs tend to make full recoveries.
19) What is the average amount of apprehensions/ drug finds?
The Unit as a hole averages 250 apprehensions per years with numerous evidences recovery and approximately 1-2 million in drug proceeds per year.
Ralph Fuellbier (head trainer)
History of officer: 20 years in police department, 12 in canine. 48 years old wife four kids. Trainer for 10 years. Patrol and bomb dog handler.
1) Where do you get the dogs from?
The dogs are obtained through a vender who travels to Europe two or three times a month and mostly deals with breeders in Slovakia, Hungary, and Germany.
2) What kind of dogs do you use? Why?
German Shepherds because very trainable and the body type is ideal for this line of work and our environment.
3) What are you looking for in a dog when you go to pick them out?
First we look at their confirmation and health. We look for their specific drives. A drive is the dog’s reaction to outside stimuli. They look for dogs with high prey drive. It means they want to hunt their prey. They also look for a fair amount of defensive drive. Which means the dog will protect itself and the handler. The dog will fight if he or the handler is threatened.
4) What type of commands do you use? Why?
We use German commands because of the sound/inflection of the words and how the dogs react to them. As an example, to track we use the German word “such” (zoo-chuh)
5) How long do you train a dog for?
The initial training is seventeen weeks. This consists of obedience, agility, tracking, building searches, evidence search, area searches, and handler protections (or bite work). After the initial patrol training we prefer that the dog spend at least 6 months on the street to acuminate. Then they back go back in specialty training class. Explosives, drug, or cadaver: this additional last from 8-12 weeks. After their initial train maintence training is on going for at least 8 hours per week.
6) What type of techniques do you use when training them?
In general we use operant or instrumental conditioning. Which is were the dog is presented with a stimulus and rewarded for a trained response. An example would be the dog is given the auditory stimulus of the word sit and physical stimulus of being pushed down and pulled up by the lead into a sit position. Immediately there after the dog is presented with a reward or toy/praise.
7) How are the officers selected?
The officers need to have a minimum of 5 years street experience and have a good a resume being active on patrol with little sick time. The officers then must complete a physical fitness test and oral interview with the commanding officers.
8) Do you have any specialty training with them? How long is that training?
9) What the purpose of the obstacle course?
The obstacle course gets the dog ready for obstacles that he may find in real street work (hopping fences), but trained in a controlled environment.
10) Is there a certain way, in which the dog is supposed to bite?
Yes, the dog is taught to bite with a full mouth and grasp either an arm or leg. They are taught to hold on and not release the bite until commanded. The reason for this is to prevent undo injury to the perpetrator or to allow him to escape.
11) What is the function of these dogs?
The canine is a tool for the patrol officer or detective division to use for a variety of reasons. Whether it is to apprehend criminals, find missing persons, recover proceeds or lost articles, find drugs, search for explosives or recover remains of victims or discover a crime scene.
12) How do they respond when they find explosives and drugs?
When the dogs find explosives they are taught to give a passive indication (sit response) because trigger off the device. If a dog finds drugs a cadaver they are taught to dig at the source.
13) How long does a dog work for?
About 8 years this depends on the health and physical abilities of the dog. Some dog can work up to 11 years of age and some dogs have only worked up to 9 years of age.
14) What happens to the dog when they retire?
The dog is then given to the officer where it then lives at home with the officers family. The officer must sign a hold harmless release which absolves the police department of responsibility if the dog bites or injures someone.
15) How do you become a trainer?
I had to apprentice under the prior trainer and attend various seminars and certification courses sponsored by various state agencies.
16) How are the dogs certified?
The dogs are certified through the Suffolk County Police Department and through New York State division of criminal justice services. (BMP) Bureau of Municipal Police. This certification is done at the end of the basic training or specialty training and the dogs are reevaluated yearly for specialty training and once every 3 years for patrol training.
17) How are the dogs with the officer’s family?
18) Have any dogs been injured? Do they recover?
Yes, we have had some dogs killed (shot), some stabbed and injured during apprehensions, but generally those are rare occasions and the dogs tend to make full recoveries.
19) What is the average amount of apprehensions/ drug finds?
The Unit as a hole averages 250 apprehensions per years with numerous evidences recovery and approximately 1-2 million in drug proceeds per year.
Friday, April 13, 2007
DNY
I am sitting here thinking of ideas on how we should present what we discovered in our DNY class to the other DNY classes. I am thinking that being we did the Irish in New York City that maybe we have a piece of oaktag that is made into the Irish flag. Then we could put pictured of the Irish tenements in the middle because that would show the New York part of the Irish. Then we we could have pictures with captions of some Irish instuments surrounding the tenements. Maybe the captions could be in the form of musical notes because we really focused on the Irish music in New York City. We saw an Irish concert and maybe we could have some of the lyrics to their songs on the poster.
Well to be completely honest I am out of my bad ideas. I am not that creative and I tend to do things by the book. If anyone has any suggestions please leaves some comments with ideas. Thanks!!
Well to be completely honest I am out of my bad ideas. I am not that creative and I tend to do things by the book. If anyone has any suggestions please leaves some comments with ideas. Thanks!!
Reflection on Handbook
I'm taking today to reflect on the handbook project that we did in class. This is one of the best projects that an Enlgish class do if you were to ask me. When, students are forced to learn information becuase they must present it, is always a great way to foster teaching to me. It allows the students to see what other students do not understand. The students that are presenting the information, knew a lot about the information, but were able to learn more because of the questions the other students asked. It was also nice to have the teacher there for further explaination. It allowed for a nice mix of knowledge. For me getting the knowledge from all these sources was much better because it kept me more focused becuase there was more variation.
All in all this was a great project for the class. It seemed to me as if everyone was involved and that all students in the group partcipated. It also allowed us to know one another much better, which is always good to start friendships with your classmates.
All in all this was a great project for the class. It seemed to me as if everyone was involved and that all students in the group partcipated. It also allowed us to know one another much better, which is always good to start friendships with your classmates.
Monday, April 9, 2007
A-rod
Ever since Alex Rodrigues has come to the New York Yankees, he has been under a ton of pressure. The man is probably the greatest player to ever play the game and yet he is still not good enough for the Yankee fans. In his second year with the Yankees, A-rod won the American League MVP. Supposedly last year A-rod had a bad year. Well if you ask me anyone in the MLB hit .290 with 35 home runs and over 100 rbi's thats a great year for them. Since, it is A-rod they expected .330 with 50 home runs and 200 rbi's. In addition, they say that he is not clutch and cannot hit with runners in scoring position. That is a blatant lie, because in order to drive in over 100 runs, he would have to have hit with runners in scoring position.
This year though A-rod has been off to a red hot start. He did make an error in game one, but he stole a base to get into scoring position then socred the winning run. He also gave his pitchers some insurance runs by hitting a home run. To top that though the other day A-rod hit a walk off grand slam. There were 2 outs in the 9th with the bases loaded and the Yankess trailed 7-6. There is nothing more clutch then that... So Yankee fans get off A-rods back and just let him play ball because he is going to break the home run record, with out cheating.
This year though A-rod has been off to a red hot start. He did make an error in game one, but he stole a base to get into scoring position then socred the winning run. He also gave his pitchers some insurance runs by hitting a home run. To top that though the other day A-rod hit a walk off grand slam. There were 2 outs in the 9th with the bases loaded and the Yankess trailed 7-6. There is nothing more clutch then that... So Yankee fans get off A-rods back and just let him play ball because he is going to break the home run record, with out cheating.
Birthday Weekend
This past weekend was both of my parents birthdays. I felt bad that I was not really able to spend anytime with my parents on their birthday beccause of work and when I got home from work on Sunday they were an hour away from me. I was happy though that the presents my brother and I got my parents made them happy. We got my father an ipod and a navigation system for his birthday, being the man owns more cds than anyone I else I know. My mother we just got her a gift certificate to the mall so she can pick out almost whatever she wants. On Sunday night we celebrated both of their birthdays at like 10 because they did not get home from my aunts house until around then. We got a really good canoli cake from this bakery in town. It was soo good!!! Anyways that was the extent in which we celebrated their birthday's I feel bad, but they know I needed to work and they didn't mind too much.
Work
This week off was dedicated all to work to no play. The only thing I did this week was work for money and do school work. I started thursday off working 4-12 at night I then had to wake up at 7 ti be in for work at 8am. I worked 8-3 then I had a 2 hour break and then went back in from 5-12 midnight to cover for another manager that was sick. After that I then had to work from 8am to 12 pm. Finally, I had some time to work on my handbook project and DNY paper. I did watch a lacrosse game though. Then I worked Easter Sunday from 8-4. That was basically my entire break...very exciting. Anyways, I want to go away this summer so I need the money in order to do the things that I want to do being my parents can't give me money like they used to because they have to pay for college for me and my brother.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Ellis Island
This morning just started off great. I had to go to Ellis Island for Discover New York. I went by myself, because this was one of the independent parts of Discover New York and everyone else had class today, except me. I woke up at 6 and i left my dorm room by 6:30. I then had to find a metro-card. I could not find one anywhere!! Finally, I got one and I hopped on the Q46 bus to Kew Gardens. From there I took the E train to Penn Station. I then had to go walk a block over and get onto the 1 train. I took the 1 train all the way to the end which is South Ferry. From there I had to walk through Battery Park to the Circle Line ferry. The line was soo long for the ferry and it was only 8. I still was able to make the first ferry at 8:30. It was then a 30 minute ferry ride to Ellis Island. When I got to the Island at 9 I got right to work and flew through the whole Island. I explored most of the rooms and got a good sense of what the immigrants went through and felt. I then looked up my families name and found it on the wall. It was actually very interesting. I then caught the 10:45 ferry back and I was able to make it back to St. John's by one. It was then time for me to go home for break. Thank Goodness.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
I Miss You Kid
This day is April first, to most it is April fools day. To me though this day this day has meaning. This day I will remeber forever, since April first, 2005. This is that day a great friend of mine lost his battle with cancer. I remember the day like it was yesterday. At the end of 8th period I here an announcement will the Boy Varsity Soccer Team please report to the little theatre. I get down there wondering what is going on. I look in the room and see a non-soccer teacher there and I knew. I fell to the floor crying and refused to believe it happened. I then went for a long walk on this day, with a counselor. We walked and talked for 30 min. I then went to the locker room to talk to my tennis coach because I had a match this day. He told me I didnt have to play, but I knew Ryan would want me to. I could not let the team down. The match was not until 4:30 though. I got back to the little theater and I a teacher gave me a water bottle of dasani. I then walked out crying again and I saw my best friend alyssa. Alyssa and I then walked and talked until 15 min before my tennis match. I played the fastest tennis match of my life I won 6-0 6-0, to be honest I didnt even realize I won until the other kid told me. I dropped to the ground and just cried. That night I had me and my closest friends over and we just ate a pizze and reminisced about the good times we had with Ryan. I will never forget Ryan and he taught me to live my life to the fullest.
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