Jet, Qwendi, Bebe, Harry And Dasco Are All Now Fully Qualified Operational Police Dogs

Also In This Blog Puppy Walking Homes Required For Roxy And Ronnie Coming From Germany This Week

Jet , Qwendi, Bebe, Harry And Dasco All Make The Grade

After 12 weeks of intensive training and 2 days of close scrutiny and assessment by Gloucester Police dog Instructor Mark Avery our 5 dogs all passed with flying colours. Mark was very complimentary about the very high standard of the dog teams. We are extremely grateful for Mark coming down to assess the dogs and I thought his calm easy going cheerful manner put everyone at ease and made the assessments much less stressful than they might have been.

We are all pictured here at the end of our assessments.

Front row left to right is Amanda and Jet, Me and Qwendi, Sue and Bebe, rear row left to right is Steve Dutton our criminal, Graham and Harry, Lee and Dasco, and our Assessor Mark Avery.

I would like to thank Steve Dutton who was our criminal for the 2 days who took all the bites without complaint and did an excellent job.

Here are the individual teams.

Amanda Swain and Jet ( Formerly Elvis )

Amanda Swain and Jet ( Formerly Elvis )who will be serving at Camborne dog section. Amanda is a novice handler and Jet is her first dog. Jet was puppy walked by Susannah Coffin who has successfully walked a number of dogs for us.

Graham Attwood and Harry.

Graham has been the course instructor for all of the dogs and also puppy walked Harry with his family. After the passing out parade next Thursday Graham will be handing Harry over to his new handler Chris Curnow who will spend a period bonding with Harry before  completing a 2 week re-handling course in the new year and they will be serving together in Ashburton.

Paul Glennon and Qwendi

I brought Qwendi over from Germany as a potential brood bitch in September 2014 but unfortunately her hip scores were not good enough for her to be bred from. As a result I joined the course approximately 6 weeks ago to train her as a General purpose Police dog and I am extremely proud of the incredible standard she has achieved in such a short time.

I had already completed a lot of training with her from a puppy particularly tracking but what she has achieved is still outstanding. After the passing out parade next Thursday she will be going to her new handler Ritchie Irwin in North Devon for a period of bonding before doing a 2 week re-handling course in the new year.

Ritchie’s current Police dog Archie has had to retire at the age of 6 with a back complaint. He will retire and live at home with Ritchie’s family and Qwendi.

Lee Adamson and Dasko

Lee and Dasco will be serving in North Devon together. Lee is an experienced handler whose current dog Vinny has been a very successful Police dog who has reached retirement age of 8 years. Vinny will be retiring and will live at home with Lee and Dasco.

Sue and Bebe

Sue is an experienced handler who will be serving in Dorset with Bebe. Sue’s previous dog Monty was from our puppy scheme and was puppy walked by Lin Parlour. Her new dog Bebe was puppy walked by Chris and Donna Highton in Exeter.

The teams had to undergo a 2 day assessment where they were assessed on a wide range of skills and abilities. This included their ability to search and track for offenders and missing persons, dealing with violent criminals and disorderly crowds, searching for outstanding items of property, their ability to negotiate obstacles ( agility ) their obedience and responsiveness, and above all else their temperament.

Here are some pictures of the teams undergoing some of the various exercises and disciplines over the 2 days.
DAY 1

Lee and Dasco dealing decisively with a disorderly crowd.

Jet

Jet is pictured above having located a key hidden in the grass and is freezing over it without making contact to preserve evidence and let his handler know that he has found it.

Here are the 5 teams all demonstrating their heelwork and general control.

Qwendi

Here is Qwendi staying in the down position for 5 minutes. This is a very important exercise for a Police dog who often has to remain in a stationary position while his/her handler carries out searching or other tasks.

Dasco completes the hurdle

Harry does the window jump

Qwendi does the scale with me making sure she can’t fall backwards

Jet chases after a criminal brandishing a gun. As you can see he is very fast across the ground.

DAY 2

Jet and Amanda locate the criminal they have just been trailing across country

Sue and Bebe

 Sue and Bebe are pictured tracking an offender across open country and

Sue and Bebe

Bebe locates and indicates an item of property dropped by the offender on the track by lying down next to it.

Graham and Harry successfully track and locate their offender hiding under a shed.

Lee and Dasco

Show the sequence of Lee and Dasco tracking and locating their offender who then run’s off which requires Dasco to chase and detain him. As you can see he  does it very successfully.

Qwendi

This shows the full sequence of tracking and locating the offender who then runs away. He is quickly detained by Qwendi who then watches while her handler searches the criminal before handcuffing him.

This sequence shows Graham and Harry performing a sendaway. This is where Graham indicates to Harry where he wants him to go to before sending him to a spot in the distance and to wait for his next instruction.

Dasco with offender

Jet with offender

Above Dasco and  Jet are sent after a fleeing criminal who turns and gives himself up as the dog approaches. In these circumstances the dog should not bite but should keep the offender there until their handler arrives. Performed perfectly by Dasco and Jet.

Qwendi

Here Qwendi is sent after a fleeing criminal and is then recalled back to the handler and must immediately stop the chase. This is one of the most important exercises because it could save the dogs life if for instance the offender is running towards a busy main road.

All of the dog teams will be taking part in a passing out parade next Thursday 3rd December at Police Headquarters Middlemoor starting at 10am when the public and the puppy walkers together with the handlers friends and family will give them a rousing send off.


I would like to thank all the puppy walkers for their time and dedication, without them our dogs would not be so good.

Puppy Walkers Required for Ronnie and Roxy our German Imports Arriving this Week.

Roxy

Ronnie

This weekend I am travelling to Germany to collect 3 possibly 4 puppies from a breeder called Alfons Schumeister who bred Qwendi who successfully licensed today.

We have had one puppy walker drop out and so I am looking for 1 possibly 2 puppy walkers for Ronnie and Roxy who are now aged 15 weeks old. Ideally anyone interested should reside in Devon and Cornwall or should live within a reasonable traveling distance to our borders.

We prefer a home where there are no other dogs so the puppy can grow up standing on its own 4 feet and therefore does not end up romping with other dogs during this crucial period of physical development for the puppy.

Transport is crucial to enable the puppy walkers to attend our fortnightly development sessions which are usually held at Exeter and Plymouth. An enclosed garden is required and also someone always at home so that the puppy is never left on its own beyond 2 hours.

Food, equipment, veterinary care, is all provided by the force but unfortunately we cannot fund travelling costs to our fortnightly training sessions.

Anyone interested should contact Jen our kennel person on 01392 452410 who works Monday to Friday 8am to 4pm. She is often out of the office but if you leave a message on the answer machine she will take your details and forward an application form to you if you leave your name and address.

If you cannot get through then I can be contacted on my mobile 07494407037. I will be in Germany until Monday so you will not be able to get me before that.

My next blog will update you on my German trip and our passing out parade next Thursday.
Bye for now.
Paul

Fun and Games at the Farm with our Gsd/Mali Crosses Reggie, Dexter, Riggs and Cato

Before we left HQ for our visit to the Saundercroft farm I decided we would do some tracking training just to see how they were progressing and to get rid of some of their energy making them less likely to misbehave with the animals.

"Think I've found something!"

Pictured above is Riggs following the trail left by the tracklayer.

"I'm going to go straight to the source, I need that bag"

Dexter as always showing his boundless enthusiasm

"No Dexter, nose to the ground that's how you do it"

Above shows Cato really pulling strongly into his track.

I am quite worried about Cato’s ears because I see little sign of them coming up properly. That will be a shame because he looks to be one of the most determined tracking pups I have seen in ages.

If he turns out to be as good a tracking dog as I think he is going to be then I am quite sure most handlers would still be prepared to work him as a Police dog even though he might not have the deterrent effect a dog with upright ears would have. There is no doubt he is going to be a big powerful dog.

Then it was down to the farm and as I watched them pulling down the farm drive as if on a mission I had a feeling the visit was not going to be without incident.

I wasn’t wrong on that score. In fairness to the boys they were all very good with the animals it was more a problem with each other because they all clearly love a bit of a tear up with their litter mates.

This was very apparent on their first port of call the sheep where they were very well behaved with the sheep but took exception to their litter mates getting too close to each other. Here are a few photo’s of the boys getting to know the sheep by trying to share their food.

"Wonder what sheep's food taste like?"

"uhmmm, well, you can live on it, but it taste like ....!"

Dexter is pictured here having some extra tuition having been expelled from the classroom after picking on his litter mates.

"Yay a sheep. I didn't start it, not fair..."

I must ask the breeder Drew whether the mother of these pups Shark was with them and had access to them up until 7 weeks of age because my gut feeling is she didn’t. The mother is so important to install discipline into the pups particularly with the Malinois who comes with a high degree of aggression.

"Aggression! hello strange white thing"

"What did they say it was?" ... "Not what, who.. this is Jack"

Above is Riggs, Cato and Reggie meeting Jack the rescue Pony who is always so good with the pups.

"Can I get some of that food?"

Above is Reggie with Andi being introduced to Bella.

As always we are grateful to Andi and her mother for allowing us to use the farm. We are doubly indebted to Andi who is a serving Police dog handler with her Police dog Sally because she is also looking after Police pup Reggie for the week while his puppy walker Angie is away on a week’s holiday.

"What do cows do for entertainment?
Go to moo-vies" ... "Very funny, not!"

"Moo-vies... Teehehe..."

(Above) Next it was time to meet the calves and here is Reggie, Cato and Dexter being introduced.
 
Next it was time for all the pups to meet Captain the Shire horse who was very calm and steady making introductions very easy.

"Hi, how you doing?"

Pictured above is Dexter.

"You're all wet!"

"Sorry think we are interrupting your bath time"

Above Reggie and Riggs with Cato looking very relaxed.

"Look away give him some privacy"

Susannah has 2 of her own horses and so Cato is used to them.

For a Police dog it is very important that they are neutral to livestock particularly in our neck of the woods where we are regularly asked to track and search across farmland for offenders and missing persons.

Next it was time to meet another one of the horses called Blue.

"Holly why is he called Blue?"

"Have you any food?"

Again Blue was very nice and calm and is pictured here being introduced to Reggie, Dexter and Riggs.

In the picture also is Holly the farm dog who joined us and followed us around throughout the visit. She was very well behaved and certainly put a few of the pups in their place if they became too pushy which they very sensibly accepted without argument.

Finally we introduced the boys to the chickens and to be fair the boys were reasonably well behaved.

Riggs seemed to be the most excited by our feathered friends inviting them to join him in play at every opportunity.

"Lets play pounce!"

"They don't want to play Riggs"

Here he is with Reggie.

"Chicken pie with gravy"

Dexter is pictured above

"No... Chicken curry"

Cato is pictured above

"I've been good... treat please"

Then it was into the yard to get ready for our group photo
 

which we eventually got once the boys could be bothered to pay attention

Hopefully the forthcoming cuts to our budget will not affect us too badly and there will be many more farm visits to come.

Finally I would also like to thank Andi’s partner Simon who also helped us out on the day as he usually does.

Well that is it from me. Another great day out at the farm see you next time.

Paul