Police Canine Unit

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.