GERMAN
SHEPHERD STILL TOP DOG FOR POLICE WORK
Pagan enjoying the sun at Venator Kennels
(cutting Daily
Telegraph By John Steele, Crime Correspondent Feb 2001)
What makes a working police
dog?
Association of Chief Police
Officers Metropolitan Police UK Police Dog home page
[unofficial]
Victim of conman claims that
fraud is being ignored
On the beat A GROWING number
of voices have questioned the quality of German shepherds as police dogs.
Some forces have flirted with dobermanns and rottweilers and handlers have
travelled abroad to examine breeds including the Belgium Malinois, an
adaptable shepherd in use on the Continent. The case against German
shepherds states that too many are now bred as pets and show dogs and they
have lost the fearlessness needed for police work.
The criticism was most
recently articulated in Police Review magazine. Pc Phil Tyson, of West
Yorks, said the influence of dog shows "meant German shepherds have had
the suspicion and boldness bred out of them". He added: "Dog shows don't
look for aggression but for dogs which look nice and which are subdued.
But working dogs need to be alert."
Insp Howard Norman, of
Hampshire Police dog section, said: "Breeders have made an effort to breed
out some of the dogs' faults, but in doing so have lost some of the
characteristics that made the dogs what they were."
There are about 18,000
registered German shepherds in Britain. Police forces in England and Wales
have about 2,500 dogs, the bulk of them German shepherds, on general duty.
The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has suggested national
seminars of experts to consider the extent of any problem with German
shepherds, and also to look at possible regional breeding centres. ACPO
says it thinks there is a "potential", rather than a real,
problem.
The unsuitability of show
dogs is widely accepted. However, a leading canine geneticist, who has
advised Northumbria Police, believes police have only themselves to blame
if they cannot find acceptable German shepherds.
Dr Malcolm Willis, who
lectures at Newcastle University, said some forces were "trying to get
dogs on the cheap" - relying on gifts from the public of often unsuitable
animals and not investing in their own breeding programmes.
Dr Willis suggested that
police required athletic dogs capable of being trained to obey their
handlers and only display aggression when instructed.
It was wrong, he said, to
characterise the problem for police as more cowardly animals. "The problem
is in the police hands. They are saying German shepherds are getting
nervous. But I have been in German shepherds since 1953. When I started,
if you looked at 100 dogs you would probably find 20 which were nervous.
Now you would look hard to find two.
"Police have to realise that
95 per cent of the dogs they are given as police dogs fail because there
was something wrong with them when they were given."
Despite experiments with
other breeds, he added, the German shepherd remained the best police dog
in the world.
Chief Insp Graham Morris, of
the Metropolitan Police's dog section, which breeds German shepherds for
use in London and elsewhere, said: "We are picking dogs that have a good
temperament and don't go round biting the public but prove to be very good
at their job. "It's got to be a bold dog. It's got to be quite courageous,
not timid. But the Met is not looking for dogs to bite
people."
Despite a public perception
that German shepherds are essentially tools for maintaining public order,
Mr Morris said this was not their main skill. At the top end of skills, he
said, was firearms support.
"Most shootings occur in
buildings, where the police or the suspect are surprised and it all goes
wrong. A firearms dog is trained to find someone in a building and report
to its handler. That saves people being shot. We are going to put a camera
on its head, so outside people can see it. Dogs also find dead bodies for
the CID. Like a Pc, in certain circumstances they will have the courage to
use force. But that's not their main skill. That is to find.
"If we can find property from
burglars, or the knife the robber has dropped, or a coat that was dropped,
and can get the DNA from that, then they make a valued contribution to
fighting crime. Their success rate is quite amazing." He added: "We will
look at everything else, but we have got no plans to move away from German
shepherds."
The Met spends up to £3,000 a
year on each of around 200 working dogs. //Cutting ends
*WALK note Dr. Willis has written
a number of books of interest to GSD enthusiasts.*
These available from Amazon
uk
• The Bernese Mountain Dog Today ~ Malcolm B.
Willis (Hardcover - 15 December, 1998) Our Price: £16.96 • The Bernese
Mountain Dog Today ~ Malcolm B. Willis (Hardcover - January 1999) Our
Price: £18.68 / Avg Customer Review: • The Pet Owner's Guide to the German
Shepherd ~ Malcolm B. Willis PhD (Hardcover - 13 September, 1993) Our
Price: £4.24
Music: Sex Bomb.....Tom Jones
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