The hotel we [... continue reading 'Australia']]]> Here I am back home after three weeks in Australia mainly spent on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland north of Brisbane. For those of you who’ve done the trip you’ll know just how far it is and what a huge country Australia is. I went with my wife Rosemary and we visited her sister and family who moved out there almost five years ago.

The hotel we stayed out was run by a man who bore more than a passing resemblance to Les Patterson, Dame Edna Everage’s alter ego or maybe it was him. Almost without exception we found the Australian people friendly and helpful. We saw so much out there, like Koalas in the wild, which many Australians say they’ve only seen in the zoo. It was while moving position to try to get a better picture of a Koala that I nearly walked at face level into a spider the size of a Pit Bull Terrier. I swear it curled it’s lips and growled at me. Ok, maybe it didn’t growl, but it certainly sneered in a really arrogant manner. The dingo was another animal I was pleased to see on it’s own continent. It was wolves in America last year, Dingoes in Australia this year. Maybe 2010 will be African Wild Dogs in the wild, although I have a policy not to go anywhere that requires me to have lots of injections, so perhaps I’ll make do with National Geographic channel instead. I’m certainly off to New York next year so maybe it’ll be hotdogs

We did visit Australia Zoo the home of the late Steve Irwin and his family. It’s a very well kept place and we watched the obligatory crocodile show in the ‘Crocatorium’ which was interesting and fronted by Steve Irwin’s widow and two children. The highlights for me though were discovering that they had a crocodile called Acco which was the name of my best police dog who had a similar bite. Also high on my list of favourites were the Tasmanian Devils who were dozing in the sun and looked really cute. Yes I know they’re not cute but I lived in hope that some of the people who tease animals might just find that out the hard way. Sadly it was not to be. And of course no mention of Australian animals would be complete without the Hairy Nosed Wombat. I felt a certain affinity with these creatures.

A major bonus on this trip was being able to meet Lynne and Jenny, two Australian colleagues, over a long lunch, during which we discussed all matters canine and how we saw Dog Listening developing across the globe. It was amazing that the same issues that were concerning dog listeners in Australia were being perceived in the same manner by many in the UK. A valuable meeting, email is a wonderful thing but you can’t beat being face to face with a beer in your hand to make a proper connection.

Things to do or not to do in Australia. Don’t buy confectionery it’s a ridiculous price. Don’t buy food to cook yourelf it’s a ridiculous price. Do eat out. The quality is very good, the portions generous, the service quick and friendly and the prices are very reasonable. We couldn’t understand why it cost so much for average groceries in a supermarket and yet you could go into a good restaurant get a superb meal with all the trimmings and then double check the bill because it couldn’t be that cheap. If I lived in Australia I would probably only use my kitchen to make drinks (coffee shops are dear) I would have all my main meals out. And on a closing note, in a bar or eating house if you ask advice on what Australian product they are very appreciative and give a little bit more care in their service. They are proud of their country and of being Australian and rightly so.

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit but was anxious to get home because I had a puppy to pick up.

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 [... continue reading '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.

This clip was shot on the end of course test for Acco. It is the ‘manwork’ element of the test and comprises four exercises.

1) The Stand-off or Stand-out. In this exercise a running suspect is challenged by the handler and when he doesn’t stop the dog is sent to detain him, note that Acco [... continue reading 'Police Dog Training 5, Manwork (Biting)']]]> I told you we’d get to some biting so here it is.

This clip was shot on the end of course test for Acco. It is the ‘manwork’ element of the test and comprises four exercises.

1) The Stand-off or Stand-out. In this exercise a running suspect is challenged by the handler and when he doesn’t stop the dog is sent to detain him, note that Acco always looks to me for confirmation before any aggressive exercise. When the dog is well on his way it transpires that the suspect is an innocent party. He maybe deaf, daydreaming or even using an ipod. he then sees the dog and stands still. the dog must not bite the suspect but just contain him by barking until the handler arrives. Once the handler has confirmed that all is in order then the now innocent man goes one way and handler and dog another. Acco is of course still curious and watches the man until out of sight.

I hope it was worth waiting for. In the next clip you will see some practical tracking exercises ending in a bite. You will also see some of the worst acting since ‘Crossroads’ and ‘Eldorado’ left our television screens!

It aims to give just a taste of what a hiding criminal sees when found by a searching Police Dog.

The clip starts with the ‘criminal’ climbing up a tree to hide. You will then hear me ‘challenge’ “Police Officer with a dog etc.” You will also hear Acco [... continue reading 'Police Dog Training 4, Hiding up a tree']]]> This is a very short video clip of fairly poor quality due to the ‘autofocus’ being too ‘auto’.

It aims to give just a taste of what a hiding criminal sees when found by a searching Police Dog.

The clip starts with the ‘criminal’ climbing up a tree to hide. You will then hear me ‘challenge’ “Police Officer with a dog etc.” You will also hear Acco ‘speak’. When the criminal doesn’t give up Acco is deployed to search and soon locates the offender and indicates his find by barking.

When this exercise is done ‘for real’ it is not unknown for the criminal to be so spooked by the barking that they lose their grip and fall from the tree. This often happens at night when the first indication they get that the dog has located them is the sudden outburst of barking from the base of the tree.

As with all of these clips it is very early in Acco’s training. As he became more experienced I trained him to use a chainsaw so that if the offender wouldn’t leave the tree he could deal with them on his own! Oh alright, I made that bit up!


The biting bits will be here soon.

In [... continue reading '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.

Read the story:- http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny–policedoglawsuit0728jul28,0,2519349.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/2007/07/28/2007-07-28_jury_nips_nypd_dogbite_suit.html

http://allpawsbulletin.blogspot.com/2007/07/police-dog-dj-in-court.html

This story got me thinking of violent and non compliant criminals that I’ve dealt with over the years. As with the above story almost without exception offenders, with no [... continue reading 'It’s Not Fair. I Was Only Doing A Burglary!']]]> My attention was drawn to this story from America involving two burglary suspects who were upset because a Police Dog was used to detain them. It must have very traumatic for them (I hope).

Read the story:- http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny–policedoglawsuit0728jul28,0,2519349.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/2007/07/28/2007-07-28_jury_nips_nypd_dogbite_suit.html

http://allpawsbulletin.blogspot.com/2007/07/police-dog-dj-in-court.html

This story got me thinking of violent and non compliant criminals that I’ve dealt with over the years. As with the above story almost without exception offenders, with no thought for anyone else break into innocent peoples homes, into shops or warehouses. They attack people often for no reason other than to spice up their own inadequate lives and then, when they lose the fight and get arrested, they complain! The Policeman wasn’t nice to them, the nasty Police Dog barked and frightened them. Indeed I remember one particularly unpleasant individual who, when told that he was being arrested for some serious offences, picked up a very large screwdriver in one hand and a metal bar in the other and told me that he was going to ‘stab me up’. he’d obviously paid a lot of attention in English lessons. When I told him that it would be a good idea to ‘moderate his behaviour or meet my dog on a more personal level.’ He did drop the weapons but complained that in challenging him I was ‘Out of order’ and ‘Over the top!’

Most of these criminals complain as a matter of course as part of their defence strategy. I’m sure that it’s coincidental but often when a suspect goes to a particular lawyer the Police Officer can be sure that a complaint will be made and even guess the line of the complaint. Some like to allege Police brutality, some prejudice of some sort, either racial, sexual, religious or something else that hasn’t become trendy yet. There are all manner of things that a suspect or his lawyer can do to muddy the waters. What the trial should be about is to find out if the defendant did what he is accused of doing. instead it becomes a game between lawyers with little thought for the victim. It certainly wouldn’t do to admit responsibility would it? If anyone’s to blame it must be Society.

I said earlier ‘almost without exception.’ Let me tell you about just one such exception. This is a true story and happened in the town of Aldershot in the County of Hampshire.

It was a dark and stormy night (well there had been moderate showers). I was working a late shift from 1800 to 0200 and it had been a very busy evening. It was a little after 0130 and I was looking forward to a warm bed. I had just finished arresting two suspects who had broken into a building site. To gain access I’d had to slide under a fence and so had a coating of wet mud all over my back. And then, when my mind was already in bed, the radio went and sent my body to another call.

The call was an alarm activation at the Argos store. This is now located in the local Mall but at the time of this incident it was in a basement now occupied by the Aldershot Bowl. The alarm at this premises was a regular and I had never known it to be anything other than a false activation. There were two sets of doors some yards apart so when I pulled up I let my dog, Acco, out of the van and left him to check one set of doors while I did the other. My doors were secure as I knew they would be. I turned to call Acco so that we could get on with the serious business of going to bed and there he was, gone!

I went to his door and found that the bottom pane of glass had been carefully removed and was propped against the wall. Acco had gone in and was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs. I joined him and then found that the glass in the internal doors had also been removed. Being very perceptive I realised that there was something not quite right here! I stuck my head through the gap where the glass should have been and ‘challenged the building.’ A deep breath and a loud bellow. “Police Officer with a dog! come out or I’ll send the dog!” I then instruct Acco to ‘speak’ to let any offenders know that I’m not bluffing, and then a final challenge. “This is your last chance! Come out or I’ll send the dog!”. No response from within the shop so it’s ‘Game On!’. I sent Acco in to search for anyone in the premises. Contrary to popular belief Police dogs do not rush about shredding innocent members of the public. They locate the hidden person and then indicate to their handler by barking. If the offender is compliant then there is no problem. If they want to fight then the world can end in pain.

Acco searched the shop and indicated to me that there was nobody still in the shop but that the offender had been to the jewellery counter. The glass display cabinets were all smashed and the complete collection of watches, necklaces, bracelets and rings had been stolen. A haul amounting to several pounds in value!

Acco then indicated the doors to the warehouse, and once again I challenged with no response. The warehouse was in complete darkness. I sent Acco to search and very quickly I heard cries of pain from within. When I followed the sound of the screams I saw a suspect laying on the shelving, hanging onto the uprights trying to resist, as Acco who had a firm grip on his calf was encouraging him to let go and come and join him. Subsequently the suspect told me that when Acco had located him he had given him ‘a little shove with his foot to discourage him!’ A very bad move, in that moment the suspect moved from compliant to non compliant. The consequence of that action? Pain, lots of it.

I called Acco off and escorted the suspect into the shop area where there was more light and the following conversation took place.

“Are you injured?”
“I don’t know, I think so.”
“Let’s have a look, pull your trouser leg up.”

On pulling up his trouser leg I could see a very substantial bite injury to his calf.

“When we get to the nick we’ll get you medical treatment for that”

So far the conversation was nothing out of the ordinairy and I imagined him plotting the wording of his complaint or compensation claim but then his reply left me speechless.

“No, it’s alright. Fair does, he’s a police dog and I’m a burglar. He’s only doing his job. If I hadn’t kicked at him he wouldn’t have bitten me. It’s my fault but if I’d managed to scare him off I’d have been ‘Jack the Lad’ down the pub when I told all my mates about it. I tried it on and I lost so its fair enough. You’ve got a good dog there.” (I already knew that)!

The prisoner was taken to the police station so that I could finish the search of the warehouse in case he wasn’t on his own. Having concluded the search I went to the Custody Suite to deal with my prisoner. On my arrival he was being documented and a Doctor had been called to deal with his injuries. Our conversation continued:-

“How’s your leg?”
“So so, quite painful but it’s an occupational hazard isn’t it?”
“The Doctor will be here soon to see you.”
“Thanks. Do you know, there’s only one thing that pisses me off about you and your dog?”
“What’s that?”
“Well, when he bit me, he tore my new jeans.”
“I’m very sorry about that.”

And then with a huge grin he said,

“Yeah, do you know I only bought these jeans a couple of weeks ago with a stolen credit card?”

When he appeared at Court he pleaded guilty and apologised “For upsetting the Police Dog.” If all criminals were like that life would be a lot b
etter for Police and offenders alike. Even better Lawyers wouldn’t be so rich.

Criminals have a saying, “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime”. I would add “If you can’t take the bite, you’d better do it right!”

The purpose of the exercise is to allow a handler to leave his dog in the down (the [... continue reading '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.

The clip in this segment shows Acco walking to [... continue reading 'Police Dog Training, Heelwork and Distance Control']]]> This post is the first in a series of short video clips of me training Police Dog ‘ACCO’ back in 1984. The quality is not great, it was shot on VHS throughout the course and includes rare footage of me with hair. A client kindly put the tape, which was showing it’s age, onto DVD for me.

The clip in this segment shows Acco walking to heel both on and off the lead. This is very early in Acco’s training and although not the most exciting footage it makes several good points for owners struggling with this basic but very important skill.

We start out with Acco on the lead. Things to notice, the lead is not tight. Anyone can can get a dog to walk next to them if the lead is only three inches long and the dog is unable to breathe. Note my style of walking, like ‘Del Boy’ from ‘Only Fools & Horses’ . The bounce and swagger make me more interesting to Acco and keeps his focus on me. If, when you walk your dog you move as so many people do, like an undertaker with depression, then your dog will either, act in the same manner or take complete control and drag you all over the place. Throughout the exercise my left (or kind) hand is used to give affection at every halt. You cannot train a dog successfully without mutual respect and affection as well as a huge amount of patience. If you want a well trained dog and can’t do patience then keep your money in your pocket and get a goldfish instead.

After a short period on the lead we go off the lead. Again it is noticeable that Acco happily walks alongside me. He regularly checks with me to see that all is well but he is still alert to what is going on around him. You will hear in the background an instructor giving instructions about pace, turns and positions for Acco to halt in. As you will see Acco is very happy at ‘normal pace’. Watch what happens when the pace changes to ‘slow pace’. almost at once he displays signs of boredom, he walks in front of me, sniffs the ground and jumps up at me. This is exactly how millions of dogs get their ‘exercise’ everyday. We then change to ‘double time’ , what a difference, he perks up, his whole body picture changes ‘Wow, this is fun!’ The pace you see here is the pace that wolves and dogs in the wild would set out on their walk or should I say hunt. At one point in the double time Acco does jump up at me but he is still a puppy and it is just an expression of enthusiasm so I wasn’t too upset. These things take time to perfect, I did mention patience didn’t I? We are in an age where we think we can always have instant gratification, it doesn’t work with a dog, if you don’t put the work in then you will suffer the consequences.

During the double time section you will see me put Acco in the ‘Down’ and carry on running. This is a safety feature, he must learn to drop into the down at once and remain there until I give him a further command. This is early in his training and so needs a repeat down command but then is rock solid as I run past him again without stopping. He stays firmly in the down until I rejoin him and put him in the sit before continuing the exercise.

The section finishes with a very basic introduction to distance control starting with me only 10 yards from Acco. Over a period of a few weeks the training will progress until I am able to control him over a period of several hundred yards. The intention is to enable me to get Acco to move into a number of positions by voice command and/or hand signals. The positions are the sit, down and stand. Once those are well established further commands are introduced to enable a dog to be sent away from the handler a considerable distance and then to go left or right as directed. For now we are dealing with early days and basics. Acco does very well for a novice. The hardest of these positions to teach is the stand because it requires them to make a forward movement to get into position. This means that they are moving towards their handler and sometimes the desire to re-unite is too great. At this point a ‘traditional’ trainer would drag the dog back to his start point and do a fair bit of bellowing, making a negative connection with something that should be fun. How much better and less stressful for both dog and handler just to tell the dog to stay and back up a short distance to have another go. Remember this is very early days. I don’t know about you but I didn’t do advanced calculus at kindergarten so why should we expect dogs to?

And of course at the end of every training session, particularly obedience, a game and a love in!

I hope you enjoyed this little clip, there are more to come and some will involve biting and other gratuitous violence!

Watch this space for the next exciting episode, coming soon to a PC near you!