Police Dogs

Police Dogs

Police dogs are a group of dog breeds that are used to assist in law enforcement work of policemen and other such personnel. In the United States, there is a special police force unit known as K9s. The term is a play on words, K9 being a homophone of canine.

However, police dogs are not only used in the United States alone. In fact, the term "police dog" is a common parlance in such countries as Germany and other Romance countries.

The most common breed of dogs used as police dogs are German Shepherds. As a matter of fact, some countries use the breed name, German Shepherd, interchangeably with "police dog." This is because the German Shepherd dog has a long history of serving the police and the military. There are even countries that only use German Shepherds as police dogs.

However, police dogs can also include such breeds as Rottweilers, which are another common breed used in law enforcement. Yet, however varied the police dog breeds might be, it is a noted fact that almost all of them are descended from Germanic and Romance countries.

Training

Police dogs undergo rigorous training, which nevertheless is treated as a form of play for the dog. Guarding, finding, chasing, intimidating, and holding suspects result from tricks or games.

From the beginning, it is instilled upon police dogs to begin "playing" only upon word from their handler, who is usually a member of the police force as well. The police officer will first give the appropriate command before a dog will chase after a suspect, for instance.

Law Enforcement Uses

Police dogs are not trained to bite. However, they are trained to hold on at all costs until the handler gives them the command to release. As such, when a suspect is running and the police dog is chasing after him at full speed, there is a likely chance that the suspect may get injured as part of the dog's attempt to grab the suspect.

Usually, handlers would give the suspect a verbal warning. For instance, they could warn the suspect that the dog would be set loose if he tries to run away. Often, this is sufficient to prevent the suspect from eluding captivity and thus prevent the dog from being set loose and perhaps injuring the suspect.

Other Uses

Besides chasing suspects and holding them until the handler arrives, police dogs are also trained to track suspects, find missing persons or objects, or sniff for drugs or explosives. When it comes to tasks involving skill with scent tracking, bloodhounds are often used. However, some breeds of police dogs that are not bloodhounds, also have excellent sense of smell that enable them to follow trails by scent.