Police Dog Training 2 The Long Down

Welcome to this video clip, the second in an ongoing series. This one features an exercise known as the 'Long Down' and is without doubt the least action filled of any in the series. I thought I'd get the bits that appear boring out of the way first.

The purpose of the exercise is to allow a handler to leave his dog in the down (the safety position) while he goes out of sight. The dog must not move out of the down position. they are allowed however to make themselves comfortable, maybe lay on their side, but must not sit up or assume any other position. This is an important exercise because it allows the handler to enter a building or other area where it would not be appropriate or safe to take a dog. A Hospital, a food shop or processing plant or even a place of worship. The handler must be confident that when he returns his dog will still be in the same place. The only time that the dog can move of his own volition is if either he or his handler are attacked or threatened. The length of time that the handler will be out of sight for a trained dog is ten minutes. in the clip shown here it is very early on an initial course and the dogs are building up their time endurance. This exercise is around the five minute mark.

What will you see? Four handlers and dogs (I'm nearest the camera). We line up and are told to put our dogs in 'The Down'. Next we are told, "Last command to your dog". The dogs are given a hand signal and a "Stay". The handlers then leave their dogs and go behind the pavilion. almost at once the middle two dogs move. the black one second from the camera would, if this was a test or competition be removed from the field and would get a nil score. The second dog would have to hope for a lenient judge. The instructor tells the offending dog to get back into the down and, after some thought he complies. You then see the instructor walking through the dogs in a zig zag pattern just to tempt them into moving. There is a lot of background noise this is because the London to Portsmouth main railway line runs alongsde the field. There is also a lot of passing traffic both pedestrian and vehicular. All of this makes it much more testing and realistic for the dogs and stressful for the handlers. Remember all these dogs are in effect large puppies only a few weeks into basic training.

At the end of the allotted time the handlers are told to return to their dogs. This is a critical time because until the instructor utters the words "Exercise complete" or "Exercise finished" if your dog moves out of the down, nil points. You can be one second from completion and still score nothing. This is why you can hear some of the handlers frantically saying "Stay!" and "Down" as they approach their dog. I try to adopt a more casual approach because if you rush back you can give an impression, if not of mild panic then certainly not of being 'Happy and in Control' and as a result the dog is far more likely to get up to see what's bothering you. My dog 'Acco' as you can see is utterley chilled out and rolls over into 'cute mode' because he knows at the end of the exercise it is, as always, Playtime.

I hope that this is going to be an informative little series and can assure you that some later clips will be at least slightly amusing. I've not decided on number 3 in the series yet. Maybe a bit of agility or a bite or even what a criminal sees when a police dog finds him. Watch and wait!