By Mario Cacciottolo

BBC News

Pc Davies has handled many police dogs, including one named Prince Nottinghamshire Police have spoken of their dog section's devastation, after two German shepherds died after being left in a hot car. Here, a serving police dog handler from another police force speaks of the strong bond officers develop with their canine charges. "When you see a police dog taking down a criminal suspect, or sniffing out narcotics, all they really want is their ball." Pc David Davies, 50, has been a police dog handler for 17 years, having owned six general purpose dogs - all German shepherds - and two narcotics dogs. He enthuses about his job, and says dog handling is so popular that those who perform the role "usually don't get promoted, because they don't want to do anything else". That was certainly PC Davies's experience and he has written a book about his work - Thanks Inky: Tales Of A Police Dog Handler. He explains that most of those who take on the role are responsible for the training of their dogs. "You're assessed annually, and there are Home Office courses to go on that assess a dog's obedience, agility and ability to track objects using scent. "But much of the training is done by its handler, who teaches the animal to look for something that will result in a reward. I love my dogs, and that's the correct term. They're part of the family. They're your friend

David Davies "Usually it's a ball. You must keep rewarding a dog, which is how you teach it to do what you want it to do. "So after it's correctly performed any sort of task out on the street, you must give it a ball as its prize, or whatever it perceives as its reward. You have to make sure that what it's doing is fun." Many forces breed their own animals, but some organisations sell dogs, fully or partly trained, to police forces. Rigorous training Training can start when the dog is about eight weeks old, and should ideally begin when the animal is under two years old, says Pc Davies, as "the younger dog is easier to train". Typically the youngest age at which a dog should take to the streets is 18 months, and its working life usually ends when it is around seven-and-a-half years old, particularly if it is a German shepherd. The animal and their trainer are also assessed to be fit for duty by an independent assessor, as part of the Home Office course that they must regularly undertake. The initial training for a general purpose dog - usually a German shepherd - takes 13 weeks. A narcotics dog trained to search property takes four to six weeks, and one looking for drugs on people, such as in nightclubs for example, takes six to eight weeks. Dogs can even be trained to sniff out currency, as is the case with Hamish, one of Mr Davies's dogs, who is a Patterdale cross with Bedlington terrier. Mr Davies says the relationship between handler and their dog is a close one. Threatened with machete "I love my dogs, and that's the correct term. They're part of the family. They're your friend. "They're your equal partner, I don't consider that they work for you. There are plenty of things a dog can do that I can't - I can't detect minute sound in an empty warehouse where someone is hiding, and I can't sniff out narcotics. "I was out at an incident once where someone threatened to kill me and my dog with a machete. My first thought was how to protect my dog. "I've always kept my dogs after they retired, and most handlers do." Mr Davies says that the vans which transport police dogs have a form of battery-powered cooling system in the animal's section. "If you're going to leave the animals for a long time then it's a worry about what can happen if something goes wrong. "Once I did return to my van to find the cooling system had failed, although the dogs were fine on that occasion. But if that were to happen on a hot day, then it could be disastrous."



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