K-9 Police Dogs

I decided to write a hub on K-9 police dogs due to my Citizens Police Academy, an 11 week 2 hour class where the citizens of the community get to learn about certain aspects of the police department. Last night we learned about K-9 police dogs and even got to pet and greet one. After learning about the strong intelligent of the police dog, I wanted other people to learn about these amazing animals.

Dogs in General

Dogs in general are simply amazing if not the best animal. They're smart, fun, loving, cheerful, playful; the list goes on and on! You may have a dog as a pet, but do you really know how smart that dog is? First, dogs use incredible sense through their nose. As many may know, they use their nose for a lot of things; this is useful for being a police dog.

Also, all their emotions are displayed through one body part: their mouth. When dogs are happy, they will bite; when dogs are mad, they will bite. When dogs are playing, they will bite; when dogs are serious, they will bite. Dogs bite to show emotion.

What does it take for a dog to become a Police Dog?

When I say police dog, what jumps into your mind? Probably a German Shepard, right? That is not the case any more. Police are not using German Shepards anymore, they are using a type of dog called the Belgian Malinois, a dog that partially looks like a German Shepard. In the city in which I live, Arlington, Texas, the Arlington Police Department has 3 dogs which have been trained to the fullest. Here are some steps in which police departments go through to find the right dog:

1. Most police dogs are imported from Holland in Europe. In Europe, they train their dogs to bite. How do they do this? Wel in America, when a dog bites us, we say something like "NO! BAD DOG!". Well in Europe when a dog bites someone, they say to the person that was bite "Well, why were you messing with the dog? Did you now know that dogs bite?". You can see the difference in training methods and why America buys dogs from Europe.

A dog company from Europe will come over, bring about 50 dogs. The police department will go through each dog. Each dog will get a 4 hour evaluation period. If the dog fits the needs of the police department, the city will buy the dog. Usually, a police department will buy only one police dog out of 50-100. You don't want your city dropping a check for $8,000 dollars and then find out the dog has cancer. Police dogs aint cheap!

2. After the buying process, the police department will immediately take the dog to the vet, put it to sleep, and the vet will check the dog's joints, organs, etc. to make sure the dog is clean and harm-free. Once checked, its on to meet and greet the department.

3. Soon, the dog is put into training. Training a dog to be a police dog is hard and long work. It takes 2-5 months for the dog to be trained adaquetly enough. After these months, the police dog will be put out onto the field for some real action.

How Police Dogs do their work

So, a crime happens. The guy robs a bank and runs into a wooded area and hides. Now its up to the SWAT, police officers, and the K-9 police dog to bring the guy into handcuffs. So the police officers give a hat the suspect dropped to the police dog's handler and lets the police dog smell it so he can go smell out the suspect right? NO! Police dogs are specifically trained to smell one thing: humans. Not a person that smokes, not a person with body odor; they are trained to smell out humans.

So how do they smell humans? The answer is simply stunning. Humans have dead skin cells falling off of their bodys all the time. When these dead skin cells fall off, a bacteria is produced on these dead cells. The bacteria eats away the dead skin cell and that produces an odor. The dogs are then immune to that odor and sniff out that odor. Is that not amazing!

Usually the dog will be sniffing out infront of the team of 4 officers. The front officer is watching and listening to the police dog. When the dog picks up and starts to smell out something, you can tell in the dog's sniff. When the sniff stops and the dog stands straight up almost on his tiptoes, the officers motion that that dog has found something. The dog keeps sniffing and hunting and will start hinting where the suspect is. The officers will shout something like "Police Department. Surrender your position or we are sending in the K-9 unit". That gives the suspect time to surrender. If not, the dog goes in, finds the actual position, then the cops make the arrest.

So as you can see, dogs are amazing animals, not just as pets, but saving human lives and catching criminals. Thanks for reading!

JohnB0127

My website: www.NorthTexasLuxury.com
Twitter: @JIBurg4