Buzz and Vinnie qualify for the National Police Dog Trials

This week has been eventful to say the least. I spent the week helping PC Tim Goodwin and Police dog Buzz from Camborne dog section and PC Lee Adamson and Police dog Vinnie from North Devon dog section to prepare for the National Police dog assessments which are being held in South Yorkshire in mid May this year.

Left PC Tim Goodwin and Buzz. Right PC Lee Adamson and Vinnie

The National Police dog assessments are held annually and are hosted by a different Police force each year. The best Police dogs from the whole of the UK are assessed on all of the operational skills required of Police dog teams.

To qualify both teams had to win through the Devon and Cornwall Police dog assessments and then the Regional Police dog assessments recently held in Gwent where they competed against the best Police dogs from Avon and Somerset, Gloucester, Wiltshire, Dorset, Gwent and South Wales.

Police dog assessments are held to assess the operational standards of Police dog teams. They assess a wide range of skills and abilities which include the ability to deal with a  large violent crowd,  apprehending violent and fleeing criminals,  searching for vunerable missing persons, agility skills, obedience skills, tracking skills, searching for outstanding property and assessments of the dogs individual temperaments to make sure they are trustworthy and safe moving in amongst groups of innocent people.

Organising and running the week was hard work but it was well worth it to see two dogs from our puppy scheme performing at such a high standard.

Both Lee with Vinnie aged 6  and Tim with Buzz aged 4 are working their first operational dogs  and should be congratulated for the hard work they have obviously put in to get to the exceptional standard that they have achieved. You do not get to this level without devoting a lot of time working and training your dog with a large majority of it in your off duty time.

What really impressed me was the fantastic bond both handlers have with their dogs and for me it was a pleasure to see 2 dogs who clearly adore their handlers.

I have included some pictures of the week.

Tim and Buzz prepare to search woodland to try and locate a couple of dangerous individual fugitives.

Buzz locates one individual up a ladder and alerts his handler to tell him he has found him by barking

Vinnie locates the second male who is sitting down offering no violence and so Vinnie alerts his handler

Lee prepares to go and search the individual for any weapons he may be concealing and Vinnie watches intently ready to launch to his handlers defense if the offender tries any funny business.

Tim and Buzz tracking an offender who has made off across country.

Tim sending Buzz over the long jump

Vinnie stops the fleeing criminal in his tracks.

This criminal is going nowhere

The handlers have now gone back to their areas with their homework to prepare over the next 6 weeks and I will give you all an update as to how they get on in their assessments in May. We all wish them the best of luck but whatever happens they have done our force proud by qualifying to get there.
Well done Tim and Buzz .
Well done Lee and Vinnie.


Paul Glennon