Our puppy walkers and our pups were a credit to the force at the 3 day devon county show

THURSDAY

TAG, TARA & TAMMY now aged 8 months.

FRIDAY                        

OZZIE, OLLIE & OSCAR now aged 5 months. 

SATURDAY

DANNO, DEVON, DIZZI, DAISY & DONNA 12 months old on 24/5/17.

This was the fourth consecutive year that the Devon and Cornwall Operational Police dogs and our pups have taken part in the Devon County show and we all really enjoy the experience.

This year I split the pups into a different age groups for each day of the show as shown above. All 3 groups gave a short display which included agility on the ramps and tunnel followed by some focus work and then they met and said hello to the crowd.

After this came the main display by our operational Police dog teams. Taking part were Darryl & Boris, Steve & Blitz and Vikki &
Riggs who are all General purpose operational Police dogs.

They gave a display of their skills involving control work, searching and use of force. Here is Vikki and Riggs dealing with a fleeing criminal.

Also taking part was Steve with his Explosives detection search dog Peppa who gave an excellent display of searching for and indicating explosive substances.

The whole of the display can be seen on our Facebook page.

Instructor Graham Attwood did an excellent job of organising the display and provided a very entertaining commentary which was hugely popular and a great success.

Here is Graham giving a briefing to a member of the public who volunteered to see if she could out run a chasing Police dog. She was convinced she was being chased by a Police dog only to discover when she reached the gate and looked around it was our mascot dog.


The puppy walkers really enjoy the show and it gives me an excellent opportunity to assess how the pups cope with all of the crowds, dogs, animals, funfair, and everything else that goes on during the day. Pictured here are Tara, Tag, Tammy about to set off together for a circuit.

We were also joined by Danno from the D litter who came to the show for all 3 days

I was very proud of the dogs confidently walking through the busy crowds unfazed by anything and not showing aggression towards the many dogs they encountered. This was the case with all of the pups over the  3 days.

This just shows the benefit of the puppy scheme with all the work put in by our puppy walkers to achieve this.

The dogs were very interested in the balloon pool

and Tammy in particular wanted to join in with the action so we moved swiftly on.

All the dogs were bomb proof in the fairground and completely unfazed by the noise and happy to go onto all the aluminium floor surfaces which can be very daunting particularly with the vibrations from the machinery

Again it was Tammy trying to get into the action and I think she would have got onto the ride if she could

They loved the Waltzer and the Dodgems.

On our travels Jill and Tara bumped into Jill’s daughter and grand daughter.

Also on our travels we bumped into Darryl and the very handsome Boris taking in the show in between the two displays.

The weather was fine all day and on our coffee stop it was obvious that all the dogs had enjoyed themselves and would definitely sleep that night.

FRIDAY

Friday was the turn of my bad boys Oscar, Ozzie and Ollie.

People tell me these guys look a canine version of Hells angels on the lookout for trouble. I can’t see it myself and if you see them on the video that I took they are little angels.

The weather was a tale of 2 halves it was baking hot in the morning and heavy showers later on. Our first display wasn’t until 12 o’clock and with all the exciting things to see I definitely kept them out longer than I should have done. Here they are in some much needed shade.

We gate crashed the dog show when the whippets were on but clearly we were a distraction and so we made our way to the fairground.

At the fairground the boys were completely oblivious to the loud noise and are clearly very bold dogs. Here they are on the perimeter of the dodgem cars crashing behind them completely bomb proof.

Throughout the day Bad boy Ozzie was very vocal and had plenty to say as he always does but he was on his best behaviour and was very polite to the other dogs he met.

The boys popped into the dog trust,

 and we were grateful to the COOP stand who gave all the boys a drink

Despite a long wait before our first display the boys still put on a great performance considering how hot they were and never having appeared in front of a crowd before.


The boys were a big hit in the Police stand with Ollie and Oscar pictured here engaging with the public.

For such young dogs they were an absolute credit and despite the fact that  I kept them out longer than I should have done I think they still enjoyed their day.

SATURDAY

Saturday was the turn of the D litter and although it was the busiest day in terms of the size of the crowds we only had to take part in 1 display whereas there were 2 displays on the Thursday and Friday.

Here is Dizzy and Daisy in the thick of the action.

Despite having 5 dogs in the group they were all very well behaved and it was quite a sight seeing so many adult sized German shepherds moving together through such huge crowds as a group.

Here is Devon and Danno meeting a mascot.

Here we all are stopping for a breather and to regroup.

 The D litter were excellent on their display in the arena and here are Danno and Devon meeting the crowd afterwards.

We all then retired for lunch in the Mole Valley farmers tent taking all of the dogs with us.

We were very grateful to Gemma the daughter of Donna’s puppy walkers Jerry & Janet who works for Mole Valley for looking after us all.

Devon and Dizzy are pictured here having a roll around together.

I would like to give a special mention to puppy walker Mary with Dizzy.

Mary now in her seventies has had several injuries to her leg and back during the time she has been puppy walking Dizzy but she has refused to give Dizzy up and continues to come to all of our training sessions always with her lovely cakes for everyone. 

Meanwhile little 10 week old Elsa our youngest recruit who lives with me thoroughly enjoyed her time at the show. I had to be careful because she is not yet fully inoculated but there is no doubt over the 3 days she was the star of the show.

Here she is with her friend Nellie an 11 week old collie that she met.

Here she is meeting the crowd

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Well for me that rounded off an excellent 3 days at the show. I would like to congratulate all of my puppy walkers for the work they have all put in to prepare for the show and for giving up their time to attend.

They were all a credit to our force and I was extremely proud of all of them. To have eleven dogs in such large crowds without any incidents and so well behaved is testament to our puppy walkers and their pups. Thanks also for your patience in putting up with me continually getting you all to pose for the camera.

Well done to all of you

Paul