Police Dog Training 3, Agility

Here we are again, another video clip, this time with a look at agility. It is vital that a Police Dog can deal with any obstacles in his way when working. He may go over or under, around it or through it whichever is the most effective. If a criminal is hiding behind a fence the dog wants to join him as quickly as possible.

In the following clip you will see the first three obstacles we teach young dogs.

First, the three foot hurdle. This represents a normal height dividing fence which may be topped with barbed wire. In case of barbed wire the dog must not touch the fence with any part of his body to avoid injury. To ensure that there is no contact the top element of the training hurdle is a very light pole which is easily dislodged.

Second, the long jump. This is to teach dogs to clear obstacles such as ditches or excavations when searching areas such as building sites. By the end of training all dogs are required to clear an eight foot long jump but most will clear much more.

Third, the A frame. This is used to teach dogs to go over six foot fences into enclosed areas. In this exercise what is supposed to happen is that Acco should go over the obstacle when directed. He should then wait on the other side until called back by me. As you will see he realises that it is much quicker to just stroll around the side of the jump to rejoin me (bless him). I then go to his side of the jump to position him for a recall. Acco starts to negotiate the jump early but stops. I replace him in position and start to return to my side of the jump to recall him when he decides to take matters into his own paws. I just get back in time. As you can see Acco is very pleased with himself. I then realised that after a hard days training, tracking, searching, biting and a host of other things often the last thing we would do on return to the dog school would be to do a round of agility before feeding the dogs. Acco was effectively saying, “Can I have my grub now?” A lesson well learned.

The dogs are trained on a number of other obstacles, tunnels, wobbly bridges and catwalks to name but a few. Anything that they might meet operationally.

More clips to come, we’ll soon be at the biting part.