I think it is about time Police Dogs got the recognition they deserve. I am a Police Puppy Walker. I look after two Police German Shepherd bitches. I train them to become very good Police Dogs teaching them to track, chase and bite and search for items etc. The Police own the dogs but they are in my care. I keep the dogs at home with my husband, two children and other dogs.We have litters occasionally and care for the puppies until they are 7 weeks old when they are moved on to other puppy walkers to do basic training. I have been doing this for just over a year and really enjoy every minute. The puppies are moved on to their new police dog handler at around 9-12 months of age to graduate to fully working police dogs.

gsd walker:

I think it is about time Police Dogs got the recognition they deserve. I am a Police Puppy Walker. I look after two Police German Shepherd bitches. I train them to become very good Police Dogs teaching them to track, chase and bite and search for items etc. The Police own the dogs but they are in my care. I keep the dogs at home with my husband, two children and other dogs.We have litters occasionally and care for the puppies until they are 7 weeks old when they are moved on to other puppy walkers to do basic training. I have been doing this for just over a year and really enjoy every minute. The puppies are moved on to their new police dog handler at around 9-12 months of age to graduate to fully working police dogs.

hi, think they are brilliant and so intelligent, watched a programme the other night on the work of police dogs, but just wondered what happen to them when they retire? do the handlers keep them?..kendra

Hi kendra,

Yes most of the police dog handlers keep their dogs once they retire they usually live with them at home.

gsd walker:

Hi kendra,

Yes most of the police dog handlers keep their dogs once they retire they usually live with them at home.

thanks for that, xxxx

what a wonderful programme to watch  those dogs and their handlers perform so hard, i cannot imagine  the loyalty the dogs have ,and how they are so well trained! i cried tonight watching the west yorkshire police on itv. and the way the dogs reacted to their handler what  awesome animals, and what a credit to the  police force and the trainers.  keep up  the good work, we need you, and we need those wonderful dogs.all the best from Rita in leyland lancs.

Its great to hear that people in the majority enjoy to see the work of the dogs.

The dogs both General Pupose (German Shepherds) and Specialist (Springers, etc) absolutely love the job they do, they are well cared for, well rewarded and live a full and exciting life both whilst working and retired.

I am sure that decent honest hardworking people believe that Police Dogs are an excellent deterrent and feared combatant of the Criminal fraternity. A fraternity that does not hesitate to smash down peoples doors during the hours of darkness and terrorise families in order to take their hard earned possessions. Remember, when the Criminals decied to run from the vehicle they have stolen or make off after terrorising householders during the course of a burglary, it is the dog and the handler who hunt these people down, confront these desperate violent individuals and are ultimately responsible for putting them before the Courts to be released on bail to do it again.

I may sound bitter, well I, as a resident in the Greater Manchester area, have every reason to be. A force, probably the biggest and busiest outside of this countries capital (the Met which boasts a dog strength of 300) was once 120 dogs strong a little over two years ago. In the ensuing period the dog section has been cut to 35 General Purpose Dogs and 10 Specialist Dogs - outrageous.

 

landshark:

Its great to hear that people in the majority enjoy to see the work of the dogs.

The dogs both General Pupose (German Shepherds) and Specialist (Springers, etc) absolutely love the job they do, they are well cared for, well rewarded and live a full and exciting life both whilst working and retired.

I am sure that decent honest hardworking people believe that Police Dogs are an excellent deterrent and feared combatant of the Criminal fraternity. A fraternity that does not hesitate to smash down peoples doors during the hours of darkness and terrorise families in order to take their hard earned possessions. Remember, when the Criminals decied to run from the vehicle they have stolen or make off after terrorising householders during the course of a burglary, it is the dog and the handler who hunt these people down, confront these desperate violent individuals and are ultimately responsible for putting them before the Courts to be released on bail to do it again.

I may sound bitter, well I, as a resident in the Greater Manchester area, have every reason to be. A force, probably the biggest and busiest outside of this countries capital (the Met which boasts a dog strength of 300) was once 120 dogs strong a little over two years ago. In the ensuing period the dog section has been cut to 35 General Purpose Dogs and 10 Specialist Dogs - outrageous.

 

I agree,these dogs do a fantastic job and are so dedicated and loyal, I hail from your neck of the woods and would love to see more dogs on the street with officers, these feral yobs are not scared by police presence but a snarling dog,well they dont want to get bitten do they??bring back the dogs.

The Police dog handlers and puppy walkers are constantly training their dogs to make sure they are the best they can be. They are also assessed to make sure they meet the grade. I do not think members of the public are really aware of the training and time that goes into each and every police dog from a very early age. I have trained a 14 week old police puppy to track, it is in their blood it is incredible to see such a young dog tracking, nose down and off they go. Most of the German Shepherd police dogs are all working pedigree's and they enjoy nothing more than going to work, if they didn't enjoy their work they wouldn't make very good police dogs.  

Hi there, I was wondering if you would be so kind as to give me some advise? I would absolutly love to do your job, and was wondering how you go about becoming a Police Puppy Walker or even a trainner ? I do have a lot of experience with dogs but no proffetional qualifications as such, but am enrolling in a canine behavior course. Any advice will be greatly recived.

Many thanks. 

I'm pleased to see Israel are going to use dogs to be able to search out explosive instead of blowing up areas where they think terrorist are. I hope this can be part of a more attitude of restraint

 I am working in my local community to believe for a better place where we are looking to have a community sniffer dog to detect drugs to be more focused  in reducing the fear that is real and understandable. Our work is about the young people believing for a better community and saying on the whole they are fed up of the drug culture they live within. One of our hopes is to build a private/public partnership that provides a detection dog that can be in our community at least once a week

I think Send in the Dogs is a fabulous programme in terms of illustrating how wonderful, intelligent and loyal german shepherds are, however I think the message they send out about pit bulls is simply wrong. If I didn't know much about dogs I would be left terrified by pit bulls by the end of the show. The shows fails to get the message across that it is not the dogs fault, they are simply doing what some idiots have trained them to do. It takes a good handler to bring up a strong willed breed and put into the wrong hands it leads to utter disaster, but again this isn't the dogs problem, it is the owners. People need to realise it is not the dogs, it is the owners who are always at fault. 

People still pass comment about my german shepherds, simply assuming they are aggressive because they are big, but my shepherds are not aggressive, they are loving, loyal and obedient. Had I wanted to train my dogs to fight I could have easily done so....it is always the owner who has the choice of how to bring up their dog, therefore the owners who create fighting dogs or viscous dogs should be held responsible, not simply labeling one breed, like a pit bull, a danger to all of society.

 People should have to have a license to own a dog, make it more difficult to get a dog and only those who actually care for the animals will have them. Tighter control on owners then you wouldn't need tighter controls on dogs!  

I have to agree with gsd devotee:

I was very disappointed with the handling of the "Pit Bull situation" in the last episode of "Send in the dogs". Yet again an entire breed of dogs was tarred with one brush and some of the comments made on the show were simply ignorant to me.

I was especially annoyed about the female handler stating, that she had no problem with those dogs being put down and the way she made it out as if ALL Pits in Britain were only trained and kept for the purpose of dogfighting. With that, in my eyes, she disqualified herself as a proper "dog person". The Red Nosed Pit Bull, she had confiscated was anything but aggressive anyway: The poor soul was still wagging his tail when the cage door shut before him.

Then, there was the case about the stray "Pit Bull" (I'm not sure whether it was an actual Pit Bull): The poor dog had not eaten for three days, he was cornered in a dark tight spot, before being caught with two wire slings. All the while the voice over and the police officer spoke about a dangerous and aggressive dog. I hate to say it, but that dog was more terrified than anything and anyone with a little knowledge about canine body language would have recognised that:

Nervous wag of tail,  barking while keeping the head low and avoiding eye contact and when caught the tail was tightly stuck between the legs. But it was probably down to ITV's poor editing that the focus lay on the bleeding mouth, after the dog had tried to snap at the wire slings. I would have thought that a dog handler, who works with dogs nearly everday, would be an expert in body language...

Both dogs were unfortunately not claimed and therefore put to sleep. What would have been wrong with handing them over to a rescue organisation where there could have had the chance to find a nice home?

Discrimination against certain breeds is absolutely wrong and it makes me wonder, what would happen if certain thugs had discovered the "potential" of for example Malinois or German Shepherds and because they are legal had started using them in dog fights. Would that be "the end" for those breeds, too, and we would wind up only seeing Labradors and Poodles on our streets or would their "lobby" protect them?

Doeas anyone know when Send In The Dogs will be back on. Press Release about the show says 8 episodes but its not on this week or next week and we have only had 4 episodes.

 Thanks

 James

just couple of comments:

a police dog handler (who handles a mali) will understand a dog's body language! i can tell you, otherwise she wouldn't be able to handle her mali!! have you ever owned one?? they are NOT the same as GSD! not anywhere near with their working drive and ability to work! what i've seen, some of the GSD English police uses are pretty useless, very low working drive. there are exceptions (like Riley) of course.

what comes to pit bulls, just destroy them all. there's no place for them in today's society. however "cute and scared" they might seem.treat them as weapons, having one reguires a licence (common practice in many European countries, e.g Germany, Switzerland etc) also licences for all dog owners are now a common practice all over Europe., highly recommended in the UK too. just a shame the police wouldn't have any resources to control this...

dog fights with GSD or malis...? ha ha :D you made my day! it would take a very long time to produce a "fighting" GSD!