Police dogs, also known as K9, are dogs trained to assist police and other law enforcers in their work. Thousands of police dogs are used in major cities around the world to help police in searching buildings, tracking criminals, sniffing out illegal materials and in doing other jobs that dogs can do better than the human police officer.
Dog’s sense of smell is more than fourty times that of human beings. As such, they can sniff out criminals, weapons, drugs and bombs better than human police officer. The search for bombs and other explosives can also be deadly when human police officers are used in search. Besides being more sensitive, the dog sense of smell is very selective, as such, it can discern a specific scent even when there are many different scents in a surrounding. A well trained police dog will sniff out drugs concealed in a perfume jar as it is able to pick the smell of drugs from that of perfume.
Besides the sense of smell, the frightening growl of a well trained dog make many criminals to surrender rather than engage in a running battle with the dog. Dogs are stronger and faster than an average human being. They easily catch a fleeing criminal and use their strong jaws to clamp down the culprit until police officers arrive. Again the presence of a police dog makes it hard for criminals to engage police officers physical confrontation.
There are varieties dogs breed, coming in different sizes and shape but not all of them are suitable for training and use in the police force. The most preferred breed is the German Shepherds. Other dogs which meet the main attributes for successful police dogs are Labrador retrievers and Belgium Malinois. These attributes are sense of smell, aggressiveness, intelligence and strength. Male dogs are the most preferred in the police force which are specifically reared for police wok right from the time of birth. Europe is famed as the main source of police dog, where they undergo rigorous training before they are exported to other countries.
The first basic training of a dog is known as obedience training. In this training, the dog is trained to respond and to obey command from the handler without any hesitation. This helps in maintaining the dog aggression level and also allow the handler control how much force the dog can use against a suspect.
After the obedience training, the dog undergoes agility endurance training. Here the dog is trained to work in the midst of a big mass of people without being intimidated. They are also trained to jump over high heights like walls and climb stairs. When the dog masters all these training, it undergoes specialty training depending with the kind of work it will be doing. Many dogs are usually trained to such drugs, weapons like guns and bombs. A general purpose dog is trained and used in searching and tracking people.
In drug and bomb training, the dogs are trained to associate a smell with a specific kind of drug or chemicals. This association coupled with the sensitive nature of the dog smell, make it easier for dog to sniff out drugs and explosives even when they are concealed in places where there are numerous scents.
Reference
Alice B. McGinty.1999, Police Dogs: Helping to Fight Crime, New York, Rosen Publishers.
Police Dogs: Keeping Your Family Safe, Web.
Steven R. Lindsay. 2005. Handbook of Applied Dog Behavior and Training, London, Blackwell Publishers.