Rudy, Ozzie, Devon and Danno start their 3 month long general purpose initial police dog course

From left to right are Steve Newton with Rudy, Course Instructor Graham Attwood with Ozzie, Kevin Roberts with Devon and Kevin Ridger with Danno.

Here are the individual teams.

Steve Newton and TPD Rudy

Steve is a first time handler from Dorset Police and if successful will be stationed at Ferndown Dorset. Rudy was acquired by me from Tiekerhook kennels in Holland when he was 4 months old and he has been with me since then. I had planned on keeping him as my own dog but as there were only 2 dogs from our D litter ready for the course I made him available to the force.

Steve has had Rudy for a couple of weeks to get to know him and develop a bond and  is already finding out he is a very lively, determined, friendly and biddable dog born to work.

Here he is when I first got him at 4 months.

Kevin Roberts and TPD Devon                                                                

Kevin is the dog section supervisor for Ashburton and Plymouth dog sections. Kevin is also a first time dog handler and has had Devon for several months preparing for the start of the course. Devon was puppy walked by Lindsay and Anthony Lane-lobb in Plymouth.

They also previously puppy walked Buddy from our B litter and Cosmic from our C litter. They are currently puppy walking Dizzy from our D litter.

Kevin Ridger and TPD Danno

Kevin Ridger and TPD Danno

Kevin is also a first time handler and if successful with Danno they will be serving at Bodmin dog unit. Danno is from our D litter and is now 15 months old. Kevin has been with Danno for several months preparing and bonding with him before the start of the course.

Danno was puppy walked by Colin and Mitzi Belsher in Newton Abbott.

They have previously puppy walked Beckie from our B litter and Chaos from our C litter. Here they are on one of our training days with Danno.

Graham Attwood and TPD Ozzie

Graham is the course Instructor and will be running Ozzie alongside the other 3 teams just in case he is needed later in the course.
Ozzie is too young to start an Initial Police dog course with a handler but because Ozzie’s puppy walker is going to Australia for a month and Ozzie is probably too much of a challenge for a temporary puppy walker Graham has agreed to look after him.

Ozzie was initially puppy walked by Marie Broom and her family but after a few months they found him a bit too much of a handful and he went to our most experienced puppy walking family  Lyn and John Parlour in Plymouth pictured here at this year’s Devon county show.

The course is a very intensive course for both handler and dog. It is very demanding physically and mentally. At weekends the handlers and their dogs will find they sleep a lot but there is one thing for sure the dogs absolutely love all the excitement and action.

All 3 handlers are novice first time handlers and they will probably find it is the best course they will ever go on.

I usually do several blogs outlining the progress of the teams during the Initial courses but now that the Dog training school have their own very excellent twitter account it may be overkill me also doing a blog.

Good luck to all the dog teams over the coming 3 months.

What have all the other pups been up to?

January 2018 initial course pups Oscar, Ozzie, Ollie, Tammy and Tag

Oscar and Ozzie come in for some remedial work.

Oscar and Ozzie had been very lethargic and lacking drive and enthusiasm on some of our previous training sessions which concerned me. I decided to have a closer look at their working aptitude by having them stay with me for 3 days.

I looked at Ozzie first and it was fairly obvious there was no problem with his working aptitude. He just needed to focus and this was easily achieved working one on one with me. He was a pleasure to have.



Oscar was exactly the same responding immediately to one on one training with me. He also was a pleasure to have at home. Here he is on this video searching for his toy showing enthusiasm and determination are certainly not lacking.



It is hard to believe they are still only 9 months old but they are both super dogs and a credit to the breed and to their breeder Richard Evans.

Tammy, Ollie AND Tag have a great training day on Sunday and get very wet

We had a great training day on Sunday 3rd of September despite the heavy rain. We concentrated on our tracking, article searching, criminal work, and person searching in the old HQ traffic building. All 3 dogs are progressing really well and with 4 months still to go before their Initial course in January 2018 these dogs are going to reach an exceptional level.

Here are a few Pics of our session.  Tag concentrating on following the trail.

The girls seem to be enjoying the criminal work more than the dogs.

Tammy showing what she lacks in size she has in attitude.

Jo demonstrates an excellent down stay with Tag

The September 2018 initial course pups Eva, Eric, Elsa, Gunner and Garry

On our last training session with Eva and Eric we worked on their article searching, tracking, recall’s and we also carried out an introduction to tugging and leaving on command. Unfortunately there was a malfunction on my camera with most of the photographs but you can see here enthusiasm is not an issue with these two.

I was particularly impressed with Eva’s tracking which is as good as I’ve seen in a 6 month old pup. I have also been impressed with Lisa’s handling of Eva which is excellent considering it is her first go at puppy walking.

Tristan badgered me to let him wear the criminal work bite jacket. Fortunately Eric didn’t know what it is used for.

When Eva isn’t training Lisa’s son Billy (On the left) toughens her up down at the rugby club.

Elsa was unable to attend the session but I looked after her for a few days last week while her puppy walker Steve was away and I was very impressed with her confidence, enthusiasm and determination. When she grows into her ears she is going to be a very powerful female..

Garry and Gunner attended our training session in Plymouth last Monday.

We covered Recall’s, Sit and down work, article searching, leaving a toy on command and tracking work. Both Gunner and Garry are natural tracking dogs.

Here Isabel throws her toy for Gunner to retrieve .

Here is Isabel guiding Gunner onto his track.

Here Jill achieves a nice fast recall from Garry.

Here Garry and Gunner practise their sit stay.

Now that Rudy has left me to start his Initial Police dog course and Sasha is staying with our friends Julie and Les until her next season in January 2018 we only have Ella living with us.  It is the first time in a long time that I have only had one dog.

This gives me more flexibility to look at other pups in the program if I need to. Ella is giving me tremendous pleasure she is an outstanding dog who just loves life. She is already developing into an excellent tracking dog and I have high hopes for her in the future.
Until next time from Ella and me bye for now.