By: DOGeNEWS
A police dog is a dog trained specifically for the purpose of
assisting police officers and other people in law enforcement
with their work. Police dogs are commonly known in the United
States as police K-9's.
German Shepard's are the dogs that come to mind the most when
someone is speaking of a police dog. This is because of the long
history of service that the German Shepard has with the military
and other law enforcement agencies. Many forces use no other
dogs except for the German Shepard. It is possible for almost
any dog to be trained for work as a police dog these days.
The most common uses for a police dog is for the dog to guard
their handler and to track down, chase and detain suspects that
are eluding the police. There are other trained police dogs that
are trained to detect drugs in places like where houses as well
as in luggage at airports. Modern day police dogs should not be
looked upon as vicious creatures. They are extremely well
trained animals that really enjoy their work.
Police dogs are trained to think of their work as a game that
is played by commands given by their handler. Dogs that are
trained for police work are trained to never bite only to grab
onto their target and not release whatever it is that they are
holding until their handler tells them the command for release.
So although it is not their intention to bite if a police dog is
given the command to grab a suspect if that suspect puts up a
fight he could be bitten when the police dog takes him down.
Normally police officers give a suspect one opportunity to
surrender then they are given a warning that if they do not then
a police dog will be set loose to apprehend them.
Many police dogs teams use the bark and pursue method of
catching suspects. This is a great method as it allows the
police dog to take off after a suspect and hold them until
assistance arrives while barking to let the police officer know
its current location.
Most police dogs live with the police officer that they have
been teamed up with and spend a lot of time interacting with
them as well as the police officers family outside of doing
police work. This helps the police dog team trust each other to
be able to work better as a team and also keeps the dog from
becoming mean as it is allowed to be social animal, which makes
for a happy friendly dog.
Good training is essential for the police officer to be able to
properly work with his police dog and be able to take complete
control of the dog whenever the is a situation that calls for
him to do so.
About The Author: Gray Rollins is a featured writer for
DogTeachers. Learn more dog training tips at
http://www.dogteach ers.com/tips/ and
http://www.dogteach ers.com/obedienc e/
