Cornwall, Devon and Dorset Police Dog Section: Borris, Blade, Buddy and Yogi looking very smart on their passing out parade

Three months after starting our Initial Police dog course in January this year we finally arrived at our Passing out parade which is a chance for the handler’s to celebrate with their families, guests and puppy walkers reaching the end of their course having graduated as Police dogs.

Boris and Yogi passed their licensing assessments on Tuesday this week after 2 days of close scrutiny of their ability to be Police dogs by John Salmon an independent assessor from Surrey Police dog section.

The assessment covers the ability of the dog team to track and search for offenders and vunerable missing persons. It also includes their ability to deal with violent criminals, disorderly crowds, searching for outstanding property, their standard of obedience, their agility and general control. John was very impressed with the very high standard of the two dog teams over the 2 days.

The final part of the assessment was to see how relaxed and safe the dogs were walking through busy pedestrian areas. He was particularly impressed with how social the dogs were closely interacting with each other and the public in Exeter city centre. He could see how all the work we do with the puppy walkers and their pups on our fortnightly development sessions pays dividends.

We are all pictured here with John having a coffee with all the dogs at Costa coffee at the conclusion of the assessments with Boris and Yogi. Anyone who reads my blogs will know how much I value good character in dogs. Dogs with good character should be able to go into places such as this and be a pleasure to live with.

Because Blade and Buddy sustained minor strain injuries during the course and missed a significant amount of training they will require 2 further weeks of training before they are assessed for their operational Police dog license. John will be coming back to assess Blade and Buddy after this additional training.

We received some excellent news 2 weeks ago when Bruno from our B litter successfully passed his licensing assessments in Gloucester and is now an operational Police dog with his handler Lenny in Gloucester. They started their initial course 2 weeks before us having purchased Bruno from us for Lenny. Lenny is pictured playing with Bruno on the course

and Bruno is pictured here with her drugs dog Police dog Lacey

Back to our passing out parade it was a gloriously sunny morning and we had an amazing turn out of puppy walkers, families of the handlers, guests and quite a few handlers who just came along to support the event.

Our first dog Boris is pictured with his handler Darryl and they will be stationed at Exeter.

Boris was puppy walked by Lin and her husband Ken from 8 weeks of age. Regular blog readers and members of our puppy walking community will know that Lin’s husband Ken died tragically last year and because Lin was waiting for a back operation Boris had to go to a new puppy walker. Boris is pictured here with Lin and her son.

It was lovely for all of to see Boris graduate and for Lin to be with us all. I have no doubt Ken would have been looking down making sure that Boris behaved himself.

Boris then went to experienced puppy walker Phil Rooks for a short time until he was allocated a new young pup from our C litter. Rob and Ali then looked after Boris until he was eventually allocated to his new handler Darryl.

Boris is picture here with Phil

and Rob and Ali

Finally Boris is also pictured here with Darryl and his family.

He is also pictured showing his wonderful temperament happy to play with young Ayla

Next up is Blade with his handler Mike a Police officer from Dorset.

Blade is also pictured here with Mike and his family.

Here is also pictured with his puppy walkers Emma and Steve.

Next is Buddy with his handler Rachael who will be stationed in Bodmin.

Buddy is also pictured with Rachael and her family.

Buddy was puppy walked by Lindsay and Anthony who are pictured here with him

Boris, Blade and Buddy are all from our B litter and so is Bruno who is now in Gloucester. Last but definitely not least is Yogi who is a very special dog. He is pictured here with his handler Stuart and they will be serving in Ashburton.

Yogi is also pictured with Stuart and his family.

Yogi is also pictured with his puppy walkers Terry and Jill.

Also Pictured here is Yogi with Dave and Lisa Fermer who bred him. It was nice for them to join us from their home in Dover. Yogi’s nice nature is there for all to see.

After the photographs the handlers and dogs put on a display of their obedience, agility and some criminal work for the watching crowd. Here are a few of the photographs of the action.