Guest Post: All About Police Dogs
October 5, 2009 by doggymom
Filed under Dog Heros, Guest Bloggers
All About Police Dogs
While most of us think of our dogs as the family pet and ourselves as the people who hold down jobs, some dogs actually do work for a living. Among those are police dogs. Police dogs, also known as K9s (because K9 sounds like canine) are specially trained to work in law enforcement in a variety of capacities, as listed below.
Cadaver dogs – Dogs can be trained to detect the specific odor of a decomposing body, even if that body is underwater. This is often used when there is a hurricane, earthquake or other natural disaster where bodies may be trapped under debris caused by the storm.
Tracking dogs – These dogs are excellent for finding missing people or suspects and Bloodhounds are especially good at this because you can let them sniff an article of clothing of the missing person and they can track that specific scent. A dog’s sense of smell is nearly 50 times more powerful (and accurate) than is the human nose. Dogs can catch running suspects faster than can a human and because dogs have strong jaws, they can clamp down on the suspect and keep him there until their human police officer companions arrive to make the arrest.
Drug-sniffing dogs – Some dogs are used to sniff out special things such as drugs or explosives. The specialization is broken down even further as some dogs are marijuana sniffing dogs, some are cocaine sniffing dogs, and so forth. You’ll often see these dogs around the airport sniffing luggage or people. Police use beagles a lot in airports because the larger sniffing dogs, like German Shepherds, tend to scare people.
Public order enforcement dog – This is the dog you see in movies riding around with a police officer who uses him to chase bad guys and even hold them down. Police believe that dogs are a good deterrent against fleeing suspects because suspects won’t generally try to run away if they know a dog is going to be released after them. This is where you’ll see breeds like German Shepherds, Doberman Pinschers, and Boxers being used. Officers say that just having the police dog there prevents physical confrontations.
Police departments throughout the United States (and in other countries) use police dogs to track criminals, search buildings, and sniff out drugs or other illegal substances. On a daily basis, there are thousands of police dogs on duty to help police officers serve and protect their communities. Dogs in some jurisdictions wear bulletproof vests just like police officers because unfortunately they too are subject to the dangers of police work and many have been shot and killed in the line of duty. Killing a police dog is a felony in some states and some departments give a fallen K9 hero a full police funeral.
Not all dog breeds are meant to be police assistants, so the most common breeds used in police work are German Shepherds, Labrador Retrievers, and Beagles. Most police dogs are male. Many police departments get their dogs from people who donate them and then they are sent for a long training program to prepare them for the work they will be doing. Other police dogs are bred and trained in Europe and imported to the United States, but that cost is approximately $7,500 per dog, which is more than most police departments can afford.
Both the officers who will work with police dogs and the dogs themselves are carefully selected because they are expected to be the best of the best. K9 officers are paid more than non-K9 officers, but it’s because they work 60 hours per week instead of 40 because there’s ongoing training and care associated with the human/dog partnership. A police dog usually can work about 5 years before he is retired.
Provided by Abbie Briteman of www.pet-super-store.com: Where you can find great deals on dog gates and dog car seats.
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