HOW POLICE DOGS ARE TRAINED.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 May 1920, Page 4

HOW POLICE DOGS ARE TRAINED.

(By Reginald Arundel, Ex-County Police Superintendent and Author of “Police Dogs and their Training.”) For some time now the public have been made familiar (by means of the kinema and magazine articles) With the fine work' achieved abroad by these trained dogs, and signs are not wanting that the police authorities in this coun-

try are beginning to realise that a welltrained dog is one of the most valuable aids that a policeman can have to assist him. Some of the counties have already made a start, and successful results have been recorded in West Sussex, Wiltshire, and the North Riding of , York, shire. Police dogs were used to assist in bringing the breaker of laws to justice before the word “police” was even known. In olden days bloodhounds were used on the borders of Scotland in certain districts infested by murderers and robbers, and a tax was laid on the inhabitants for maintaining them; also, there was a law in Scotland that whoever denied entrance to one of these dogs should be treated as an accessory to the crime. In later days, but still before the establishment ot police forces several associations for the prosecution of felons procured and trained bloodhounds, prin-

cipally for the detection of sheep-steal-ers. But after the “peeler” came into existence the canine “hobhv” suffered eclipse lor a time and it was on the Continent that his valuable services were first rediscovered. The training of these dogs calls for a large amount of patience intelligence, and resource, far removed from the old idea of dog-breaking, which was usually to beat the animal mercilessly into the observance of a few sot rules. It is step by step in his daily lessons that a dog gradually becomes a tracker of criminals by 7 their scent, pursues escaping prisoners, discovers missing people, or finds suspected ones in concealment.

He learns fearlessly to seize and pull down any aggressor, whether his master or himself be attacked, and to do it with the least possible damage, ceasing at once when the enemy gives in. Valuable to the trainer also aro these lessons, for, in order to help the dog and rectify the animal’s mistakes, he must learn to perfection signs of identification in the form of footprints, a missing nail, a nail standing out or driven in deeper than the rest, a patched sole, or something specially attracting attention in the width or length of the boot or manner of putting it down.

The popular conception of the police dog is a wild, savage brute, which probably accounts for the antipathy to his use displayed in some quarters, .and it is well that the public should realise that the properly trained dog is at all times perfectly under control and never makes a move except at his master’s bidding. Such a weapon to aid law and order is too useful to he neglected in these days.