Police dogs: Still proving their worth every day

Miska, one of the original dogs from England in action.

Police dogs do something amazing every day to prevent crime, the head of the Police Dog Training Centre says.

Inspector Brendan Gibson and the dog handling team in Trentham, Upper Hutt, this week commemorated 50 years of service with the unveiling of plaques and a bronze police dog, and tomorrow a formal dinner.

The police dog section was introduced to New Zealand in 1956 when Prime Minister Sid Holland went to Britain and saw working police dogs in action.

Surrey Constable Frank Riley was brought out for two years to start the police dog section. Mr Riley brought with him trained police dogs Dante and Miska and a number of brood bitches and other dogs - and the police dog section was born.

Since then, the department has seen a number of changes such as bringing in uniforms for handlers and realising the importance of a healthy diet, Mr Gibson said.

But what had not changed from the early days, he said, was the lifestyle that came with being part of the dog section. It was not just being a police officer, working with dogs.

"Having that bond that you have with animals ... does not stop at the end of the day's work.

"It's 24/7 and that dog is a part of your life and your life is the dog section. There's some downsides to that, but mainly benefits. It's still a very, very good job. It is very satisfying."

Mr Gibson said the german shepherd dog breed was perfect for police work.

"The german shepherd dog is a dog that is all round in terms of size, temperament, trainability, how the dog looks - how it is perceived by the public - and how it performs tasks that we want it to do.

"It's the obvious choice of dog for police work."

Mr Gibson added that german shepherd dogs were also naturally suspicious of people. "It's very hard to make a labrador suspicious of people."

The section has roughly 130 dogs, with about 30 dogs graduating from the centre each year. Mr Gibson said the training at the centre was based around positive reinforcement.

"The right hand holds the lead, the left hand pats the dog.

"And that's how you train a dog, through positive reinforcement."

Mr Gibson reckoned the dogs were happy in their work.

"You can't make a police dog work - a police dog has to want to do the work.

"If you are asking a dog to use its nose to smell and find things to work, the dog has to want to do that - you can't make the dog do that," he said.

"And I think the dogs have a very fulfilling life, not only in terms of they are out working, but also in terms of a balanced life, such as having down time and family time."

They were also given the best medical care, and best food available, so they were well looked after, Mr Gibson said.

Sadly though, some dogs fail the training.

For a dog to make it through training they had to be confident, not afraid of anything, happy to be taken places, have a strong retrieve drive and a desire to chase things.

"So if they've got those attributes, then we're looking," Mr Gibson said.

"What we want is a well balanced dog with a sound temperament. We don't want a dog which is both dangerous to us and the public."

The dogs that did not make it through were mostly adopted out or sold to an ex-handler or suitable family, except if they were too vicious in which case they were put down.

But Mr Gibson said that very rarely happened.

Complaints from the public bitten by police dogs were inevitable, but relatively rare, Mr Gibson said.

"Safety and control is a very big area of focus for us both in our training and our ongoing management of police dogs.

"Our teams are assessed quarterly in terms of making sure our dogs are under control and are safe to deploy."

He said there was always a potential in police work for things to go wrong, but overall they were doing a "pretty good job".

"And in the end people need to realise it's not the dog's decision to bite, the use of force is a police decision."

He said the dogs were an invaluable part of the police force.

"It doesn't matter if you're talking explosive detection, narcotic detection - there's nothing more versatile, portable and capable as a police dog or a detector dog in being able to find target substances. And that's why they're still proving their worth throughout the world."

Mr Gibson said since September 11 2001, there had been a huge growth in demand for detector dogs, particularly explosive and narcotic detector dogs.

For that reason, he said, the centre was looking to be more self-sufficient in producing their own quality police dogs through a breeding programme that was being developed.

"In the last five years we've taken a more strategic approach to our breeding programme."

He said the force wanted to be able to produce at least 80 per cent of their own dogs.

- NZPA