Police k9 biography
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Man's Best Friend and Law Enforcement: The History of K9 Units
Animals have marched to war with man since before recorded history. Horses, donkeys, mules, camels, and even elephants have hauled men and supplies, while pigeons carried messages. However, no animal has maintained a place alongside man like the dog. The loyal companions tracked enemies, guarded prisoners, and protected soldiers.
The use of dogs for military purposes dates back to antiquity, and even today, the U.S. military retains a K9 Corps.
Truly the dog proved to be man’s best friend, even if the friendship wasn’t returned. The best-known example was during the Second World War when the Soviet Red Army trained dogs to be fitted with mines or other explosives and to run under enemy tanks to act as unwilling suicide bombers. However, the program quickly ended as the dogs tended to run toward familiar Russian tanks — likely due to the different fuel smells of the German vehicles!
While animals h
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An inre Look Into the Life of a Police Dog
Have you ever seen a police dog in action up close and personal? Recently, inom had the chance to not only see one of these heroes practice doing his job, but I got close enough to have him give my nose kisses. Gasp — you let a big, mean, police dog lick your face? Yup, and inom got to pet him and give his bum some loving scratches.
Sargent’s story
The pup who slobbered on my face, with my consent, of course, was Sargent, a 9½-year-old Belgian Malinois and senior grupp member of the Fontana police K-9 unit in Fontana, California. Sergeant Kurt Schlotterbeck, who commands the K-9 dog unit, explains, “The observation of a police dog is that of a vicious djur. Our dogs aren’t vicious. Every training, before they start, we walk up to them, shake the handler’s grabb, and husdjur the dog on the head. We want them [the dogs] to be social.”
I sat down with Sergeant Schlotterbeck and Sargent’s handler, Officer Mark Wyrick, to learn more about the
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Dogs have been used by the military and in wars as far back as Xerxes’ invasion of Greece in 479 BC. They have also been used informally by law enforcement personnel to guard piers and docks and track down outlaws as far back as the middle ages. Fun fact: in the late 14th century, bloodhounds were used in Scotland. These dogs were called “Slough dogs,” which later became the word we know as “sleuth.” However, it was not until the late 19th century that trained dogs were used as a formal part of law enforcement.
Modern-day police dogs can trace their training back to Ghent, Belgium, where a shortage of police officers led the police commissioner to ask the Mayor for dogs as there was no money for additional men. The policemen trained these dogs to support the force with local law enforcement; thus, the first canine training program was born. News of the Ghent program spread across Europe. As a result, Germany began experimenting with dog breeding and cr