In this weeks blog

1. The C Litter Undergo Their Police Dog Assessments With A Surprise Return From Cagney
2. Qwendi Joins The Initial Police Dog Course
3. Brodie Is Looking For A New Home
4. Memphis, Flynn, Rika, Billy And Lenny On Their Recent Training Day Together

Cagney, Comet, Cosmic and Charlie Undergo their Suitability Assessments for the January 2016 Initial Police Dog Course

Cagney

Charlie

Comet and Cosmic

The Initial Police dog course starts in January 2016 and so this week has been all about assessing the abilities and the character of our 4 C litter candidates Cagney, Comet, Cosmic and Charlie to establish if they have the potential needed to be a future Police dog with a place on the course.

We started with 7 pups in our C litter pictured above on one of our early training days from left to right Chaos, Charlie, Callie, Copper, Comet, Cosmic and Cagney. I later released Callie, Copper and Cagney from the program mainly because I didn’t think they would have the size needed and the tenacity and determination to be Police dogs.

Callie and Copper went to excellent homes with Police officers in Devon and Cornwall and Cagney was kept by her puppy walkers Terry and Jill.

Chaos our most promising pup also had to be released 2 weeks ago when he failed his hip x ray which depressed us all. I am going along on Thursday this week to meet his prospective new owners.

On a positive note several weeks ago I popped around to see how Cagney was getting on with Terry and Jill. To my delight she was completely different than the dog I had seen several months before. Although still small in stature her attitude and determination and boldness had improved dramatically. 

Terry and Jill were only too happy for me to have another look at her work potential. She attended a training session which was so successful I invited her to join her siblings Charlie, Comet and Cosmic on the 2 day assessments.

I am delighted to say that all 4 dogs passed their assessments and will now be placed with handlers to start the course in January.

The assessments are very intensive over 2 days where we look at their work potential, boldness, enthusiasm, hunting drive, tenacity and temperament. We already know a lot about them from our development program but the assessments look a bit deeper into their ability to cope with stress.

Comet "What are we playing today?"

Charlie "ello, ello what's all this then?"

Comet and Charlie are pictured above assessing their reaction to passing a loud and aggressive crowd.  On this test we are looking for the type of dog who is excited by the noisy crowd and wants to go over and investigate as all the dogs did.

Searching for outstanding property or criminals and missing persons is key area of our work and

Comet "I think I left them around here"

Comet is pictured here above searching for and locating some hidden keys. Cosmic is pictured below finding a hidden person and barking to tell his handler he has found them.

Cosmic "Found you, found you, your turn to find me know?"

Cosmic "You want me to climb that?"

Cosmic is pictured here playing tug of war on the ropes and is not fazed by the noise of the overhead metal runners which can upset some dogs.

Comet "Have you noticed how careless humans are? They keep losing things!"

Comet is pictured her showing real desire and concentration following a trail laid by one of the dog handlers

One of the tests assesses the reaction of the dogs on being surprised by a strange figure jumping out from behind a tree as they approach it. We know they will have varying degrees of flight while they assess the situation but we are looking to see if they can recover their composure.

Cosmic "Wow, sorry... grrrrr...woof"

Cosmic is seen here facing up to the threat

Cosmic "Do you want to play hide and seek too?"

and then investigating the strange figure.

Charlie "Grrrrrrrr"

Charlie is pictured here challenging the threat slightly further away

Charlie "Hi, is Cosmic under the blue?"

but still going up to investigate.

Another test that assesses their nerves and recovery involves a flowerpot man suddenly flying from the floor up into the air as the dog approaches.

Cosmic "Woof no sorry that's wrong,  flobbalobbalob"

Cosmic can be seen here assessing the situation

Cagney is assessed here showing real determination to engage with the criminal with a committed bite on the sleeve.

Cagney "Pleeeeease!"

Another test we do is the gun test where we see if the dog is adversely affected by the loud bang.  We are looking for the dog that wants to check out the noise but is able to continue playing unaffected.

Cagney hears the noise while playing with Andi then checks out the noise and then continued playing.

Cagney "I want it, I want it"

Cagney "Oh its just you with a gun"

Cagney is also pictured here really digging down amongst the leaves and foliage to locate a hidden article.

Cagney "I did ask if he had looked properly, bet he didn't!"

So despite all of the bad luck we have encountered in our breeding programme we have 6 operational Police dogs working from our A litter, 5 from our B litter and 4 going forward from our C litter.

Qwendi Joins The Current Initial Police Dog Course

As mentioned in my last blog Qwendi my German import bitch failed her hip X ray for breeding suitability. Fortunately her hips have still been passed as suitable for her to work as an operational Police dog. The current Initial Police dog course are in week 10 of their 13 week course. Because I have already completed lots of individual training with Qwendi since she was a pup she is able to join the course at this late stage.

She is pictured here in the centre with the other course dogs. Top left is Harry, top right is Daz, bottom left is Jet and bottom right is Bebe. The course is going well and all dogs are well on schedule for their assessments in 2 weeks time. I will report on how they all get on with their assessments.

Brodie is Looking for a New Home

Brodie is pictured here with his puppy walker Mike at the Devon County show in May this year.

I think that everyone is aware that Brodie from our B litter has 2 brand new hips and is now effectively a fully functioning dog with a long future ahead of him thanks to the skill of Orthopaedic surgeon Peter Attenborough from St David’s veterinary practise.

Although our surgeon thinks he is now fit enough to be considered as a working dog we have decided that after all he has been through we don’t want to take any risks with his health. He is a very large energetic, powerful dog with a nice temperament.

Because of his strength and enthusiasm we would prefer a home where his new owners have experience of handling and caring for a large dog. I am happy for any interested parties to ring me on my mobile 07494407037 to discuss any queries they may have.

Memphis, Flynn, Rika, Billy and Lenny on their recent Training Day Together

Our September 2016 group really enyoyed their last training day on an unusually hot sunny day in Plymouth. We covered tracking, article searching, recall's, sit's, down's, speak on command and also looked at their reaction to a very strange looking figure sitting down on a chair in a field.

Well none of the dogs found our unusual man very scary as you can see here with Memphis

Memphis "Got any treats?"

I then tried to get each dog to bark at me to prepare for the person search exercise. As you can see Billy wasn't very impressed with my efforts.

Billy "Really - whatever!"

Below are a few more pictures of the day.

Rob does his Lester Piggott impression.

"yep, that's right hold me back!"

Flynn tracking very nicely

"odd smell this"

Billy patiently waits for his turn

"Ooo I wouldn't do it like that!"

Billy then enjoys his tug of war

"Look you hold it like this and then..."

We did some recall's with Rika to see who she loved most Rob or Ali

"Ooo fuss time with a possibility of a hug"

"I could do this all day"

I'll let you decide
Phil then did some excellent work with Memphis on his sit, down and recall's

"Treat please"

"Another treat please"

"yep, I did gooood"

Flynn doing an excellent recall to me he obviously loves anybody.

"Fuss and hugs that's what we like"

Rika doing her down's with Ali

"Will I get a treat?"

and showing her determination on the tugger.

"Billy maybe right, but I prefer to..."

Well that is it from me see you next time

Paul