Dogs are perhaps the most common pets in the world over. However, it is not always that dogs are kept as pets. Dogs are on several occasions exclusively reared for their strength intelligence, temperament and ability to perform assorted tasks. It is the attributes of a particular dog that warrants its categorization as a working dog to perform a specific task. This paper is aimed at describing some of the most common police working dogs while also highlighting the factors influence their training as well as what the trainers look for while selecting these dogs.
Types type of working dogs
Rescue dogs
Trained to detect human scent, rescue dogs are peculiarly trained dogs that help humans in rescuing operations (Dashfield and Woodard 8). The dogs receive training on trailing and tracking human beings. This assertion underscores that human being are by all means in capable of controlling disasters that incessantly struck. Such dogs help in rescuing people stuck in debris, submerged in water as well as avalanche. The selection of a rescue is most commonly based on a dog’s ability to detect human scent. With in mind that there two types of scent detecting dogs, scent discriminative and non-scent discriminating dogs, most trainers opt for non-scent discriminating dogs over scent discriminative on the grounds that the scent discriminative dogs only detect a specific human after being given a sample scent. The Labrador retrievers, German shepherds, Malinois and border collies are the most commonly bred dogs for rescue purposes (Dashfield and Woodard 17)
Cadaver Dogs
Cadaver dogs are almost related to rescue dogs except that cadaver dogs are utilitarian detecting dead human bodies. The qualities of cadaver dogs and rescue dogs are always similar; cadaver dogs should be able to detect scent (Rebmann, David and Sorg 15). Cadaver dogs are specially trained dogs to detect decaying human scent (Rebmann, David and Sorg 15; Dashfield and Woodard 8). The singular variation that these dogs have from rescue dogs is that they are specially trained to detect the smell of a decomposing human body. This warrants that a dog suitable for this purpose to should have very discriminative nose. The German Shepherd, the Labrador and Golden Retrievers (Rebmann, David and Sorg 74), are some of the breeds of dogs that have known to make exemplary cadaver dogs.
Police Canines
Police dogs are working dogs that help the police in law enforcement. Conventionally known as K9 dogs, the dogs have special abilities to detect criminals making them one of the integral components of the police department globally. In some cases, the dogs double up as search and rescue dogs. The dogs, as a requirement, should have overly discriminative noses, run fast as well as the ability to display intimidating characters such as growling and barking (Ensminger 6). Additionally, as Ensminger asserts, the dog should be reasonably intelligent and quick to learn besides being able to work for long hours (6). The German shepherd is indubitably the most common police canine (Ensminger 6) perhaps because of its ability to intimidate people and emblematic sense detection abilities.
Seeing Eye Dogs
Visually impaired people experience a lot of difficulties navigating through the streets, in the room or around obstacles. In most cases, such people require assistance with regards mobility. Seeing Eye Dogs, conventionally called guide dogs, are trained dogs that assist people with visual impairment to navigate around obstacles (Rafferty 190). Assertively, any dog can be trained to become an efficacious Seeing Eye Dog since the training of such dogs basically involves positive reinforcement and not any specific dog abilities. Rafferty, on his part, affirms that the most common breeds that make dependable guide dogs are Doberman pinschers, German shepherd, Labrador retrievers and Golden retrievers (190).
Bomb sniffing dogs
Bomb sniffing dogs are carefully trained dogs that help in the detection of bombs. The dogs, according to trainers, are carefully trained to detect explosive materials that are commonly used to make bombs. Because their work overly involves sniffing, symbolical whiffing ability is the most important attribute of consideration while selecting bomb sniffing dogs (Ensminger 221). This perhaps explains why Belgian Malinois and German shepherds are always the preferred candidates for bomb sniffing purposes.
Concisely, dogs find wide usage as works dogs. As seen above, police working dogs are valiantly used in law enforcement to perform various tasks such as bomb sniffing, detection and arrest of criminals and detection of cadavers, among other functions. Other working dogs that have not been discussed above include hunting dogs, sled dogs, guard dogs and herding dogs.
Works Cited
Dashfield, Karen and Woodard Sherry. Selecting Shelter Dogs for Search and Rescue Training. Kanab, UT: Best Friends Animal Society, n.d. Print.
Ensminger, John. Police and Military Dogs: Criminal Detection, Forensic Evidence, and Judicial Admissibility. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2012. Print.
Rafferty, John P., ed. Carnivores: Meat-Eating Mammals. New York, NY: Britannica Educational Publishing, 2011. Print.
Rebmann, Andrew., David Edward and Sorg Marcella H. Cadaver Dog Hand Book: Forensic Training and Tactics for the Recovery of Human Remains. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2000. Print.
