The F litter meet up for their first training day

From left to right are TPD Fozzy, TPD Freya, TPD Floyd, TPD Fendi, TPD  Flint, TPD Freddy, TPD Franky, TPD Finni and TPD Flo.

It was more of a get together than a structured training day but we still covered focus exercises such as the sit, down, recall’s, releasing a toy or possession and some work on the ramps and the tunnel which is all good for building confidence and resilience.

Here they all are getting reacquainted for the first time since they left our house on Sunday 18th August.



I was a little surprised with TPD Flo who you will see was a little reserved and not keen to join the other pups. She did improve as her confidence grew during the session.

We started with an introduction to the narrow ramps with young Peter giving the pups a lesson on how to negotiate the equipment.


All of the pups coped well with the narrow walkway. Here is TPD Franky confidently making his way over the ramps. It was never going to be an issue with food involved.

Here is Freya completing the walkway. She slipped off slightly towards the end of the walkway but immediately recovered and was not affected at all.
Here is TPD Freya making her way through the tunnel.

Here is TPD Fozzy making his way through the tunnel.

TPD Fendi had no problem coming through the tunnel for her toy but found the camera man Simon far more interesting.

Not everything went according to plan for TPD Finni going through the tunnel but she seemed to enjoy it.



We then got all the pups to go over a small ramp one after another.



Next we worked on the recall with all of the pups. Here is TPD Franky with puppy walkers Rich and Leah giving a demonstration of enthusiasm and excellent voice inflection.



We finished working with the pups individually on their sit, down and releasing the toy on command.

It was a warm day and all of the pups instinctively sought out the shade in front of the Police cars.

TPD Freya decided to give TPD Flint a piece of her mind but TPD Flint was too tired to be bothered to respond.



I was very pleased with all of the pups and puppy walkers who all seemed to enjoy their first session.

I would like to thank Andy and Simon who assisted me because with 9 pups it would have meant a lot of standing around without their help.

All the pups are now starting to darken in colour from their earlier sandy colour. To emphasize the point here is Franky 5 weeks ago practising his sit and down with Rich. ( Show Pic 6A) Here he is last week.

You can follow all of the pups on Twitter @DC_Police Dogs. I post the videos and pictures that the puppy walkers send in to me.

Below I have included recent pictures of all the pups who are now 14 weeks old

TPD Franky

TPD Freya.

From now on the puppy development sessions will be split into 2 groups to enable me to concentrate on them individually.

They are all very highly driven pups with confident outgoing characters and initially a number of the puppy walkers struggled to deal with their very aggressive play and biting.

TPD Floyd.

TPD Fendi.

Now that they have had all of their vaccinations and are able to get out and about more this behaviour has decreased because the socialising certainly takes it out of the pups both physically and mentally. 

There are still several of the puppy walkers who need extra support in the form of home visits to help them to manage the biting issues but even the most problematic ones are now starting to settle down..

TPD Freddy.

TPD Flint.

With regard to socialisation we advise our puppy walkers to get the puppies out and about from week 1. We have adopted this policy for over 25 years in conjunction with advice from our vets.

TPD Finni.

TPD Flo.

We ask them to avoid areas heavily fouled by dogs or other animals and if unsure just to pick them up and allow them to see the general hustle and bustle of day to day life.

During this early period the pups are not worried by very much and are very resilient and so we believe the benefits outweigh the risk.

Here is David with TPD Flint making full use of whatever props are available.

Sarah and David went one better with the purchase of a child trolley for Flint.

All the early feedback from our puppy walkers is that the pups are all very confident and outgoing.

Over the coming months they will be taught to track, search, heelwork, stays, recalls and later criminal work and agility.

TPD Fozzy

We will have visits to the farm, the city centre, the beach, and I also intend to introduce them to walking through livestock in open country.

Our next blog will feature our January 2020 Initial course dogs and my efforts to rehabilitate TPD Rebel from his issues ie tail chasing, excessive barking, destructiveness, refusal to be groomed to name just a few. From Ella and I bye for now.