Bionic Brodie is fitted with the first of his two replacement hips

On Tuesday 20th January 2015 I met up with Brodie from our B litter at the St Davids Veterinary practise in Exeter for a consultation with Veterinary Orthapedic specialist Peter Attenborough with regard to Brodie’s extremely bad hip displacia. Hip Displacia is the abnormal development and growth of the hip joint and in Brodie’s case both of his hips are abnormal.

Having been x rayed by our own vet Clive at the Beaumont veterinary practise we already knew that Brodie had appalling hips and had probably been in pain from an early age. Clive had referred him to Peter Attenborough an orthapedic specialist at the St Davids Veterinary practise.

Peter Attenborough quickly established that they were amongst the worst hips he had seen and recommended that both hips needed to be replaced to avoid Brodie suffering prolonged pain and discomfort.

Pictured above is an Xray of what a normal set of hips should look like. These hips are Brodie’s litter brother Bruno which are excellent. The Ball joint is fitted nice and deeply into the joint socket.

Above is an X ray of Brodie's hips and as you can see the ball joint or the femoral head is not even in the socket.

Peter was very impressed with Brodie’s wonderful character and like all of us wanted to do whatever he could for this lovely dog whose uncomplaining nature and friendliness quickly endears him to whoever he meets.

Having been involved in 500 hip replacements Peter is very experienced and he completely shocked me when he said that not only would Brodie end up leading a normal life he stated that is was entirely possible that he could still one day be a working Police dog.

I wasn’t expecting that and while it would be a dream outcome and one that I don’t think has ever happened before my immediate objective was to try and ensure that Brodie became pain free and  able to lead a normal life.

Peter then made an incredibly kind and generous offer to waive a significant percentage of the costs of replacing his hips because he was excited by the project of restoring Brodie to the level of a normal healthy working dog.

The operation involves removing both the femoral head and the socket and replacing them with an artificial ball and socket joint. Peter was keen to get started and booked him in for Monday 26th January. He was then prepared for his operation on the Tuesday and he was to remain at the veterinary surgery until he was ready to go home on the Friday with his new hip.

He will be lead walked now for 8 weeks before returning to the St Davids centre for his second hip to be replaced.

I am certainly not a softie but I did have a lump in my throat seeing Brodie’s utter joy at being reunited with his puppy walkers.

Above shows Brodie glad to be back in his own car and settling down for the journey home.

Above shows Melissa settling in alongside Brodie to make sure he behaved himself on the way home.

I have been in touch with the family over the weekend and Brodie is now settled and happy back home.

I will keep you all updated and will report back on the next stage of his journey. Peter did tell me that Brodie’s condition was a rare and multi factored occurrence which might never happen again if his mother had further pups. Clearly having seen what has happened to Brodie we cannot take that chance and mother Mollie has now been spayed.

Fortunately as I reported in my last blog Mollies daughter Bebe (Brodie’s sister) has excellent hips and will now carry on her mothers mantle as a brood bitch to carry on the excellent working genes in these lines

Bebe

In my next blog later this week I will introduce you to the new Initial Police dog course members and dogs.

Bye for now. Paul

The B litter go head to head in a training day competition

On Sunday 3rd August we all met up for our fortnightly training session held in the fields and woods behind the Woodside animal sanctuary in Plymouth. We ran a light hearted competition assessing all the 8 pups from the B litter in 10 areas of skill. The main objective we want to achieve with our puppy walkers is that they enjoy their pups and give them as wide a socialisation programme as they can.
Training is voluntary but since we have been running the fortnightly development programme all the walkers like to be given some elements of training to keep their pups active and mentally challenged.
Here are our 8 contenders.

Bebe

Bruno

Beau

Boris

Brodie

Buddy

Beckie

Blade

No expense was spared by the force with a boiled sweet awarded to the puppy walkers for every successful task they performed. If they were not happy with a boiled sweet they had the alternative of an opal fruit or sherbet.
Here are the tasks they had to perform.
1.    RECALL TO HANDLER.  A fast happy recall was required with the dog restrained by me and the handler called their pup from 30 metres away. This was then repeated while the dog was freely investigating doggy smells.

Bruno recalling to his puppy walker Paul

2.    RETRIEVING THE TOY BACK TO THE HANDLER.  The puppy walker held their pup while I threw a ball on rope 20 metres away and the pup was then released and required to bring it back to the puppy walker.
On the day no one managed to do a full retrieve to hand and so I thought I would demonstrate with Yogi who has been with me for the last 5 weeks while his puppy walkers are in New Zealand.

Yogi demonstrating retrieving the toy

3.    DOWN STAY . The dog was required to be placed in the down stay position and the handler had to walk 10 paces away then return to the dog and kneel down alongside the dog without the dog moving from the down position.

Pictures above show Lindsay placing  Buddy in the down, leaving him then returning and rewarding him.

4.    SIT  AND FOCUS. The puppy walker was required to have their pup sat in the heel sit position and obtain 5 seconds of eye contact.

5.    VETS EXAMINATION The puppy walker was required to show they were able to examine their dog’s ears, teeth and underbelly as if being examined by a vet.

Colin examining Beckie’s teeth and underbelly a vitally important exercise as we want the dogs to relax at the vets.

6.    TUGGING TENACITY . This exercise was conducted to assess how much determination and desire to bite and win each dog had.

'Mine, mine'

Beckie showing real determination to win the tugger.

7.    CONFIDENCE IN DEALING WITH AN UNUSUAL SITUATION.  Each dog was taken into the woods where a strange dummy was leaning against a tree. We wanted to see if the dog was confident enough to approach and investigate the figure. If the dog shows fear it is acceptable provided the pup recovers with encouragement.

Only 2 pups showed any caution towards the dummy but they quickly recovered and investigated.

'Interesting...'

Blade Looking at dad saying this is an interesting chap dad.

'Nice and cool fancy joining me?'

Blade being so bored by the scary figure he decided to go over to a muddy pool nearby to lie down much to the disgust of his puppy walker Emma.

The above pictures show Brodie spotting the figure from distance he slowly approaches and tentatively examines the figure.

8.    SEARCHING FOR ARTICLES HIDDEN IN THE WOODS  The dogs were required to search for and locate an article after seeing it thrown into the woods.  This was repeated with 2 more articles. Article 1 was a leather glove, article 2 was a wallet and article 3 was a shotgun cartridge.

The above shows Boris searching and locating the shotgun cartridge.

9.    SEARCHING FOR A PERSON HIDING IN THE WOODS   The dog was restrained by the puppy walker while the helper ran off and hid behind a tree. The puppy had to run after the helper and bark at the helper for his/her toy reward.

The above shows Beau watching the helper going off to hide.

The above shows Bebe barking at the helper after finding him.

10.    FOLLOWING THE TRAIL LEFT BY THE HELPER  The dogs were required to follow and locate 6 food drops placed on a 30 metre long trail in a field.

The above shows Boris tracking with a very low nose with intense concentration.

Considering the dogs have another 6 months before their Police dog course they are all at a very good standard and our puppy walkers should be congratulated.

I AWARDED THE FOLLOWING INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

• FASTEST RECALL  (BRUNO)
• BEST RETRIEVE ( BEBE )
• DOWN STAY ( BUDDY)
• SIT AND FOCUS (BEAU)
• VETS EXAMINATION ( BUDDY AND BECKIE TIE )
• TUG TENACITY ( BECKIE )
• BOLDNESS  ( BLADE )
• PROPERTY SEARCH (BECKIE)
• PERSON SEARCH ( BECKIE )
• BEST TRACK ( BORIS )

Best overall performance was between Buddy and Beckie but in the end Beckie’s superior stamina saw her perform at a very high level throughout and she had a surge on the last 3 exercises where as Buddy started to flag on the home straight. So overall winner was Beckie.

I think everyone had a good day and if there was an award for lying down it would go to Blade seen above getting ready for the drive home.

I am off to buy some extra boiled sweets to hand out on our next training session as I underestimated how good they all were.

See you next time when I will let you know who will be starting on the September 2014 Initial Police dog course.

PAUL

The B Litter Visit The Devon County Show To Watch Their Mum Molly and The Police Dogs Put On A Display

Several months ago the Chief Constable asked the dog section to put on a Police dog display for the Devon County show. In years gone by when we had our own Police dog display team we used to perform at all the big shows in Devon and Cornwall but it was disbanded because it became impossible to get handlers to meet on a regular basis to practise and prepare due to the ever increasing operational demands.

We were happy to take part because we love doing displays and it was nice to give something back to Westpoint who allow us to use their facilities to train our Police dogs on a daily basis. PC Ali Cruwys a Police dog handler based in Exeter volunteered to organise the training and put the display together. We also decided that as all of the dogs within force now come from our puppy programme we would include one of our brood bitches Molly and her litter of 6 month old pups.

Lots of volunteer handlers came forward but as the show got nearer and nearer a number dropped out for a variety of reasons. The remaining handlers experienced numerous interruptions to their preparations such as court appearances and operational commitments. But as has always been the case the remaining handlers gave up a lot of their own time to prepare and by the 1st day of the show on Thursday 22nd of May we were ready to go.

The team are seen here arriving to prepare for the first of 5 displays over the 3 days. Exeter dog section our organiser and trainer with criminals Hugh Watson Force dog trainer at HQ and PC Lee Crampton Exeter dog section.



From left to right are PC Steve Cruwys and Police dog Logan based at Exeter, PC Vikki Ritchie and Police dog Jasper based at Newton Abbott and PC Andy Darbey with Police dog Sally also based at Newton Abbott. Behind the dog teams are PC Ali Cruwys

Watching them enter the Showground together made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and made me very proud at how relaxed and professional they looked. To walk a group of Police dogs into an area packed with so many people, livestock and numerous pet dogs in such a calm and controlled manner doesn’t just happen by accident.

It is the result of a breeding programme producing dogs of excellent temperament, puppy walkers who have spent many hours of their own time socialising their pups and dedicated dog handlers who have spent many hours performing high visibility foot patrols in busy urban areas preparing their dogs for all eventualities.

Pictured here is Molly and her pups Bebe, Beckie and Boris soaking up the atmosphere at the show with a gun dog display going on in the arena behind them.

The format for our display began with the Police dog teams and Mollie and her pups being introduced to the crowd in the arena. Molly then gave a demonstration of nose work where she had to find a one pence piece hidden in the grass.

She then had to demonstrate control and responsiveness by recalling immediately from a ball she was chasing and finally courage as she tackled an aggressive criminal.

Although Molly isn’t a licensed Police dog we included Molly to demonstrate how in many ways the brood bitch needs to be of outstanding ability and temperament because she passes her genes on to her pups and they are influenced by her character, confidence and calmness.

The rain was appalling for the morning display. Pictured here are the team waiting to go into the Arena in the pouring rain with Puppy walker Colin and Police pup Beckie watching on.

016 PC Vikki Ritchie was the first Police dog to perform giving an excellent display of heelwork and agility. She is pictured here doing an excellent round of heelwork with Police dog Jasper showing real attentiveness despite the conditions.

Next on was PC Steve Cruwys with Police dog Logan dealing with 2 very unruly criminals who came off second best. A stretcher was brought on for one of the criminals but Logan decided he had earned the right to be transported off on the stretcher leaving the injured criminal to make his own way out of the arena.

The final Police dog on was PC Andy Darby with Police dog Sally who gave a demonstration of courage in dealing with a criminal firing a gun. Operationally it is highly unlikely that a Police dog would ever be sent to disarm a criminal firing a gun but we need to train for all eventualities. After disarming the criminal Sally retains her grip until her handler calls her off.

Prior to our dogs going into the Display Arena there had been a gun dog display, a sheep dog herding geese and a pack of young hunt hounds having food thrown on the ground for them. The fact that our dogs were still able to put on the excellent display that they did without being distracted was very impressive. I am obviously biased but I thought Molly having to search amongst all those smells for a 1 pence piece was exceptional.

What was also exceptional was PC Vikki Ritchie and Jasper coping with all what was going on considering they only finished their Initial Police dog course in December last year.

Fortunately the weather improved and here are the Police dogs looking dryer and happier.

Finally here they are leaving the show ground at the end of a long, successful and enjoyable day. Once again showing how professional they are and an excellent advert for the Devon and Cornwall force.

Here is a collection of photos of Molly and her pups taken throughout the day. Boris on the table saying hello to everyone.

Colin and Beckie braving the elements. 

Boris on his beloved table again. 

Molly, Bebe and Boris watching the Morris dancers perform.

Day 2 started the same as the first day with pouring rain drenching all of us on the morning display and putting a dampener on our Royal visitor Prince Michael of Kent. He is pictured here meeting Police dog Jasper and Vikki.

Here is a collection of Fridays photo’s. Bruno, Molly, Boris and Buddy meeting up for the day.

Boris and Bruno meet the army. 

Boris, Buddy and Bruno set off to explore. 

Buddy sees an interesting individual. 

Buddy and Bruno decide to investigate. 

Buddy makes a new Pal. 

Boris back on his table with his buddies. 

Everyone still in high spirits. 

Joining the whole cast for a group photo. 

Buddy looking very contented at the end of a great day and about to go home. 

Day 3 Cancelled. We were all gutted as we had planned a real family day as all children had free entry. Emma with Blade and Darryl with Beau were very disappointed to miss out. Emma decided to still give Blade and her boys a day to remember and took them off to The Decoy Country Park in Teignbridge for a day of adventure. Blade is pictured here at the start of the day.

 Paul I found the stick Emma didn’t throw it honest. 

See you all next time. Paul.