Police Dog Training 6, Tracking, Catching & Biting a Burglar

A video clip of a practical police dog tracking exercise ending in a bite and some very bad acting.

The scenario is as follows. An offender has been disturbed tampering with vehicles and breaking into a garage. The victim calls Police and I attend with Acco. On our arrival I speak to the aggrieved and get as much information as possible about the offender, what he did, where last seen and of course a description.

Contrary to popular belief a Police dog does not need an item of clothing from the offender to sniff before he can track. In 35 years police service I never once had a criminal thoughtful enough to remember to leave his hat behind before decamping just to help my dog. Just an oversight on their part I’m sure.

Having located the area that the offender was last seen I place Acco in his tracking harness. This is used only for this exercise and acts as a word of command. I ‘cast’ him in the area that the offender was last seen and his nose goes down. He is looking for ground disturbance, shoe leather, crushed insects, bruised grass all overlaid with offenders personal scent. Personal scent is made up from a host of smells, gender, diet, occupational odours, fabrics worn, toiletries used (or not) to name but a few.

Once Acco ‘locks onto’ the track he will stay with it until he either locates the person he is tracking or the track for some reason, becomes non viable. A little tip to criminals here. Crossing water or walking along stream beds does not put the dog off. What it does do is make you wet and uncomfortable. It also leaves you with the job of giving an innocent explanation to account for the fact that you are soaked through and have a German Shepherd hanging off your arm.

Acco tracks across a variety of terrains including through traffic and with pedestrians passing. At one stage a helicopter landed less than 100 yards away, a test of concentration for a young dog still in training. Whenever the criminal changes direction you will see Acco ‘cast’ as he searches to pick up the track again. It is quite an experience to be on the other end of the tracking line and not only see, but feel, the dog work it out. The speed that a dog tracks depends on a number of factors, terrain, weather, disturbance by outside sources amongst many others.

The ‘criminal’ (a dog handler from The State of Jersey Police) had been briefed to lay a track including going through a housing estate and hiding up in the shed of one of the houses. The plan was that I would track and find him and that when that happened the criminal, depending on the amount of space he had, was to either, attack me or run off and try to escape. My brief was to track and locate the criminal and expect a bite on a non compliant offender at the conclusion.

We tracked and, after three quarters of a mile located the offender and called him out from his hiding place using ‘controlled aggression’. I am now ready to leap into action, will he run, will he try to hit me? No. He does a credible impression of a stunned herring and just stands there and talks about his auntie because he’s forgotten what he’s supposed to be doing! The instructor off camera is giving him frantic ‘run for it’ signals. I look at the instructor in a ‘where’s our bite?’ kind of way. Eventually the penny drops when the instructor indicates his displeasure to the criminal and Acco gets his reward. None of the human participants get an Oscar.