The 2014 January initial Police Dog course finally comes to an end

As previously reported  PC Phil Wilson and  Police dog Jack and PC Simon Willan and Police dog Charlie have already successfully passed their operational assessments and are now serving as operational Police dog teams in Exeter and North Devon respectively.

So the last few weeks  have been devoted to preparing the 2 remaining dogs teams PC Mark Stevens and Police dog Axel and PC Carla Lamble and Police dog Arry for their operational assessments.
Here are a few pictures of Axel and Arry undergoing training for their licensing assessments.

Axel, and Arry experiencing their first ever team track where all dogs participate together to track down an offender

Axel staying in the down position after being left by his handler Mark

Axel staying in the down position after being left by his handler Mark. This is a very important exercise for a Police dog who must stay put until his handler releases him from that position. It allows the handler to carry our other functions like searching a suspect or going over to talk to a witness. The dog should only move if the handler releases him or his handler gets attacked.

Mark returning to Axel after 5 minutes and is about to reward him.

Arry in the down position

Arry’s handler Carla returning after 5 minutes and will now reward him

The above shows the same exercise being performed by Police dog Arry.

'found you, can't hide from me!'

The above shows Police dog Axel barking at 2 likely suspects he has found hiding amongst a wood pile to alert his handler he has found them.

The above shows Arry relaxing with one of volunteer helpers Clare who was acting as a missing person for the day.

The above shows Axel and Arry continuing with socialisation in Exeter city centre so important for a Police dog to be reliable and sociable around members of the public.

Thursday 17th July assessment day arrives but unfortunately Axel has bruised his leg and cannot be assessed for several weeks as he needs to be rested. Arry successfully passes his assessment despite a very hot day and is now a fully licensed Police dog.

July 22 Passing out ceremony for Arry, Axel, Charlie and Jack

Although Axel still has to pass his licensing assessment we are confident he will do so in the next couple of weeks and so rather than postpone the passing out ceremony we go ahead.

The passing out display takes place at the end of all of our initial Police dog courses because it gives the handlers an opportunity to share their graduation with their families and their puppy walkers who have made a big sacrifice looking after the dog for nearly 12 months before handing him/her over to the handler.

The passing out display took place at Police Headquarters in extremely hot conditions. We started with photo’s where the handlers were able to have official photo’s taken with their families and puppy walkers.

After the photo’s the dog teams put on a display of agility, obedience and criminal work. After the display Chief Inspector Evans the officer in charge of dogs presented certificates to the handlers and a framed photograph of each dog was presented to the puppy walkers. A buffet followed and everyone went home having had a great day.

Here is a selection of photo’s of the day.

The above shows the dog teams before going on to perform their display. From left to right are PC Mark Stevens and Police dog Axel, PC Carla Lamble and Police dog Arry, Me, PC Simon Willan and Police dog Charlie, PC Phil Wilson and Police dog Jack

The above shows Jack with his first puppy walkers Lyn and John.

The above shows Jack with his second puppy walkers Angie and Graham.

The above shows Jack with his family.

The above shows Charlie with his puppy walkers Mike, Steve and Diane.

The above shows Charlie with his family.

The above shows Arry with his puppy walkers Paul, Ella, Tracey and Josh.

The above shows Arry with Carla and partner Ian.

The above shows Axel with puppy walkers Steve and Maria

The above shows Axel with his family

The above shows Me and my wife Diane and all the dogs with their puppy walkers and families.

The above two image shows the dog teams doing their group obedience.

'I can do this -  easy peasy lemon squeezy'

The above shows Jack doing the agility section.

The above shows Andrea Ormsby  the BBC Spotlight reporter relaxing with Axel and Arry the first Operational Police dog bred by the force.

Well there you have it a lovely day to round off the end of our January 2014 course and now its time to select which dogs are going to be on our September 2014 course.

See you next time when I will let you know which dogs will be on our next initial Police dog course and one dog will be going to Dorset Police dog section for their initial Police dog course.

PAUL

Sunday 2 February: The first training get together of the B litter

Today we all met at Police Headquarters Middlemoor Exeter for our first training and development session. It was a chance for all the litter to meet their brothers and sisters again. It is also good for the puppy walkers to compare notes and to realise they are not the only ones having a challenging first few weeks everyone is.

During the first part of the session all the pups had fun negotiating various puppy agility obstacles which included the long tunnel, several of the ramps and the narrow walkway. Although it is all good fun for the pups it also gives me the opportunity to look at their individual confidence levels and to assess their ability to deal with new challenges. All the pups negotiated  the obstacles very confidently with the help of small cheese titbits or a favourite toy depending on what motivated them most.

Here is Bruno showing intense concentration as he makes his way down the walkway.

Here is Beckie making light work of the ramp to get to her ball.

Here is Bebe going through the tunnel with trouble written all over her face.

Afterwards she is pictured looking at our camera man PC Ben Jobes trying to work out what is in his hand and  with a look that tells me she will be a dog who will meet any future challenge head on.

I was grateful to Ben who is interested in one day becoming a dog handler who came up from Cornwall in his time off to help for the day.

Buddy went over the walkway the way he approaches everything like a bull in a china shop completely unfazed.

Here Beau is saying come and get me if you want your ball back.

Brodie confidently makes his way up the ramp and Beckie joins in for another go.

We then did a short obedience session showing everyone how to get the dogs to go into the sit and down position and how to get a fast happy recall.

Here is the group being given instruction using Bebe as the demonstration pup.

After the demonstration everyone had a practice.

Here is Blade showing a lovely sit

and down handled by Emma.

We also discussed the importance of play with a pup to build confidence and building a strong bond between the puppy and their handler. I also demonstrated with Bebe how to get the puppy to release her toy on command. It is important for a dog to give up his/her possession or anything in his mouth when the handler asks him/her too.

We then went over to the dog training school for a short talk on socialisation for the pups. It is vitally important over the coming weeks for the pups to meet different people, animals, noises, traffic and as many situations as possible. But it is equally important that the puppy walkers know how to control the different situations so that their pup does not become overwhelmed or have any bad experiences. This was the purpose of the talk.

We then concluded with a demonstration of how to get the pups negotiating different stairs without creating a mental block in the pups and I have to say they were all very positive and confident.

 Here is Buddy going so fast up the stairs the picture is blurred.

Boris was initially a little apprehensive  as he hasn’t been up and down stairs before and it looked a long way down. But with lots of encouragement he overcame his initial reluctance and is

pictured here going down what are quite difficult stairs.

Everyone enjoyed the day and all the pups look to have lots of early potential.

We meet again in a fortnight when we will be introducing them to the most important exercise for all Police dogs Tracking people and we will also be seeing how they cope in Exeter city centre.

Bidding goodbye to the class of January 2014

As always on the dog section a lot has happened since my last update 2 weeks ago.

I will start with the sad news that our force will not be running a General purpose Police dog initial course in January 2014 which means that our 4 dogs for that course Tyson, Charlie, Murphy and Buddy will not now be working in Devon and Cornwall.

We run 2 initial Police dog courses each of 13 weeks duration within our force each year .These courses are nearly always fully subscribed with 4 handlers on each. One course starts in January and one starts in December.

Very unusually there is only one handler in our force needing a dog in January and it is therefore not economical to run a 13 week course for one handler. This means that the next Devon and Cornwall course will not be until September 2014. As a result I have had to find alternative Police forces for our boys.

It is something I hate doing because having grown up with the pups and the puppy walkers ideally we want to see the dogs working in Devon and Cornwall. That said they are dogs that are born to work and are much happier dogs working with their handler as a Police dog in whatever area they find themselves. We insist that Police forces who take our dogs must keep in touch with us and more importantly keep in touch with the puppy walkers.

I remember staying overnight in Angelsey in January this year and seeing the 4 brothers with their other 5 litter mates at their breeders farm house and seeing them all running and feeding with ducks, chickens, and geese when they were 7 weeks old.

I brought the four of them back the next day and they are pictured here being united with their new puppy walkers at HQ Middlemoor. (Pictures 379 and 384.)  On photo 384 from left to right, Murphy,  Tyson, Charlie and Buddy.

Here are some more pictures of the boys on subsequent training days.

Exeter city centre

Outside the force helicopter.

On the farm.

Last week Buddy and Tyson left me to go to Derbyshire Police force photo 006 and Charlie left to go to Bedfordshire photo 0205.

Murphy who was born with a badly overshot jaw and has moderate hip dysplacia in one of his hips has been retired from Police duties and his puppy walkers Emma and Kevin Wiggins who live in Exmouth have taken up the option to keep him as their own dog. We wish Murphy and his family all the best for the future.

Training, Tuesday 11 June 2013 - Saundercroft Farm

A visit to Saundercroft farm to get the pups acquainted with various livestock such as horses, cattle, calves, goats, sheep,and chickens. The pups are now nearly 7 months.

Charlie meeting a horse

Murphy meeting the chickens and a very large rooster out of camera shoot

Buddy meeting the sheep

The dogs were very confident and well behaved. Our thanks to Andi Darbey and her mother Jean for allowing us to be set loose on their farm.

Then off for a swim after a long hot day.

A swim to cool off.