The Beginning Of A Police Dog's Career | K9 Mounties | Real Responders

the only reason I joined the RCMP is because I love dogs and I wonder if a dog family everybody's there because they want to be there and the dogs that they if their high drive dogs that certainly want to be there and certainly want to perform it's just a recipe for success all the way around our expectations are that you will do your best and you'll do it consistently because when you get called out to go find that kid who's lost in the national park you can't quit you have to keep going all for the love of the guy that's all about bond a guys have a good bond with the dogs the dogs look really work hard for them mate that's all they want to do is just please when Canada's Royal Canadian Mounted Police Force wants to find lost people catch criminals and uncover explosives they call on an elite squad of nominees highly-trained assets with agile bodies powerful jaws and incredibly sharp noses the training and selection process are rigorous and demanding and those who ultimately make the cut never look back because there's no assignment too tough for the canine Ami's the Mountie in his dress uniform is one of Canada's most distinctive and iconic images it's a living link to the past when the Northwest Mounted Police patrolled the West on horseback and the north on dog sled those dogs were more than transportation their instincts and their loyalty made them a valuable part of law enforcement even in this technological age there's still no substitute for the sensitive nose and determination of a dog it's almost impossible to overestimate the role the canine police dogs play in the RCMP from finding missing people to sniffing out drugs and explosives the dogs special talents and their natural desire to bond with human beings makes them invaluable there are about 140 general duty teams in the k-9 unit each dog is a product of selective breeding and careful training the k-9 unit is a very specialized one every year only 12 constables are chosen to take the course and to get there they've gone through a selection process that takes five or six years they come here to the RCMP training facility at Innisfil Alberta a town that's just south of Red Deer when I got into the RCMP I knew that the police dog service was the section that I wanted to get into and I was willing to do and work towards that career regardless of how long it would be whether it be five years ten years I was willing to put that time in officers like dan block want to be part of the k-9 unit start by training a series of pups in their home division putting them through an RCMP program called imprinting this course involves basic understanding of how to take care of a dog but take care of the dog in a different way from a family pet the dog that we're going to give them we want them to raise that dog to become a police dog there's some subtle differences that we ask for that they undertake with this dog to ensure that he receives and develops the behaviors that we're looking for in a police dog the imprinting program is designed to help the dogs build their focus and their confidence by exposing them to as many situations as possible the dog also is required to do a lot of things that a family that doesn't do so once you get that dog that we give you a person that's interested in the section you have to spend a lot of times taking the dog to places that police dogs will have to go easy example is an airport dog a lot of family dogs will never go walking around an airport where a police dog is this trained for explosives especially will go there on a regular basis up and down escalators around lots of people screaming jets in the background and all that kind of thing so we ask them to expose these dogs to to those type of environments at any given time about a hundred constables across the country are working in their home division doing the imprinting training they'll do this for five or six years before they're even considered for out of the 100 customers only up to 12 a year are chosen to move up to become dog Angeles it's a long road for a puppy and printer to become a dog handler and it's a very committed goal for them because often what happens is that is uh the puppy adventures for example they might have to raise six puppies by the time they're even eligible to become a dog handle we're looking for guys that can work on their own that are problem solvers and that are able to handle the high pressure situations they're top performers if they're suitable then they get selected to come on of course how many of you here are married your life has changed because right you've got the dog in the environment right now you've had the dog in the environment for two three four years so that has a significant impact on what's going on in your family it has a significant impact on where you're going on vacation has a signal you know but you work your life around the dog right whether that's right or wrong that's what you do but without this we just a generally as human beings we're not going to do well but I think the part that's not well known is that when you're not working with your dog and you're not on shift in many areas across the country you're actually on call because you're the only dog hammer for large pieces of geography across the country and a lot of units depend on you so you're on call and when that's not happening that dog and that vehicle or living with your family so it's not just about a professional commitment it's also a family commitment to police dog services out of the hundreds who apply only 12 transponders are selected each other to take the training course that will make their dog handlers now they'll find whether they can fulfill their dream whether they have the right stuff do the 85 day three-level intensive course since the RCMP s k9 program was established in 1935 the preferred breed has been the German Shepherd their natural hunters and they're smart loyal even tempering and courageous they're physically perfect for the challenges of the job in a country where the temperatures range from hot and humid in the summer to brutally cold in the winter and their powerful with significant byte power making them perfect for catching the bad guys but not just any German Shepherd makes a good police dog so in 1999 the RCMP set up a breeding program using a combination of hand-raising and science to create the perfect canine Mountie from all the dogs that that could have become a police dog probably one in three of the pups that we breed will become a police dog and that's just because of the package that we're looking for in a police dog to be able to do the tracking to do the searching to do the Criminal Apprehension to have the confidence to back up the dog counter and be civil enough to walk into a classroom if the dog hound was going in to do a school talk you know that dogs just got to have solid nerves and and be a confident dog a police dog will serve an average of seven years before being retired and so every year the RCMP needs about 35 replacement dogs trained and ready to go special dogs require special greeting and for that the RCMP turns to its friendly Alberta neighbors there there's a community of blood keepers from the Innisfil kennels these dog-loving the foster families take on the responsibility of looking out for the female dogs until they come into heat like Sue and John Charles our job is basically to give them exercise and they give us exercise to and love and care and watch them very carefully for any any illnesses or irregularities that they might have we've learned to know when they're ready to breed and then we let the the RCMP know right away when the female comes into heat we bring the dog in here and we do some daily blood tests on that dog and when she's ready to be bred we we go through our selection process of which male we're gonna made her - now the science part of the equation takes over the vets match the female with the male to give the pups the right genetic mix but there's no romantic candlelight dinner meeting for the male and female the RCMP has a frozen sperm bank we got involved in the program a number of years ago we're wondering what's the best way to breathe to move our breeding program forward and I think all the other species have documented that when we get involved with frozen semen we can make huge strides genetic wise we have to semen here that if we find that now we have some extremely good genetics we have access to it whereas in using the natural way that dog may no longer be fertile and so we've lost all that all that genetics is everything and and certainly allows us to pick and choose which which dogs we want to use the fascinating thing is that obviously with the RCMP all their dogs are spread across Canada so if we had one dog that we wanted to use today on a female it's here rather than bringing the dog back each time and and you know not being able to work and so on by having that the frozen genetics here we get to get to use it what we'd like to do is do altra sounds around day 28 to 30 that allows us to see whether the dog is pregnant as well as to get a bit of an idea in terms of the size and later my first impression here is that we do have some puppies there's a puppy there puppy there we can see at least five puppies on this one we know that they all have good heartbeats and so I think everything looks looks great we'll document in the file that we have at this point in time we have at least five puppies you will then monitor that in terms of when we do an x-ray then at just before a while thing to confirm that we have maintained that pregnancy oh yes you're very good you're very good once the pregnancy is confirmed the dog goes back to her foster parents who will care for them until the last 20 days before well being good girl good girl stay from the moment they're born the puppies are under the watchful eye of the vet services before their two weeks old they're already being groomed and prepared for the canine unit starting at day ten we'll start the early neurological stimulation and then we will put them on their back we'll put them upside down a bit and then we'll also put them upward and then that will and we do that for five-second count then we also do stimulation in between their toes to get them use of us handling their feet and then we will also a body massage at day ten at two weeks old we start taking them out of the whelping box and we will put them on the floor with articles on the floor to see how they interact there's four different there's several different surfaces that we give them in their socks there's rag toys there's balls and there's dippers nted gloves and we want to see how they interact and how inquisitive they are at that point at the end of each day the kennel staff keeps a careful record of the progress of each of the pups if they see any problems they'll work on that the next day at every stage the dogs are exposed to more new stimuli so that the staff can see which of the pups has the right personality to be a police dog blow up a paper bag and you how they make it as a lot of noise as you can with the paper bag and you see how the dog reacts that's the first one of the tests so if the dog runs over the corner and pees chances are it's not going to make a great police dog but it's just one of the eight eight or nine different tests that we do so then then well then after the bag is broken if the dog comes and wants to find examine what made the noise like then then that's a good thing so then you take the bag you throw it and the next thing is to see if the dog will go in the treat retrieval is basically a lot of what our training is based on they have to have a high drive high in skydrive instinct and they have to have that retrieval instinct the Mounties are looking for alpha qualities behaviors that indicate intensity focus high Drive and dominant personality their ideal dog is brave confident and a quick learner a big part of the work with the canine units involves tracking so as soon as he can our cmp kennel staffer Keri Russell gets those little puppies outside his goal is to start them early at developing their noses ashphalt growls there's flower beds there's shavings beds all sorts of different scents that we can expose these puppies to it let alone the tall grass or some areas a different gift we would have to fight him and learn to climb through the bushes he's teaching the pups another valuable lesson how to follow the leader in spite of distractions he takes them on a walk near a busy noisy highway and the goal is to make sure they stay focused on him I would be surprised that these puppies are in their little computer brain nonsense we're probably 60 to 80 different scents that they will already know but supposed to other pops at this age looking people normally would raise money you know five or six different scents so they're tertiary memory is Wow for puppies if we all could understand that for each month the puppy girls is equal to one year of human child so when these puppies are leaving here at eight weeks of age that's like a two-year-old child and I don't ever over stimulate a pup where he can where you might fail I always make it so they are a winner that builds our confidence and their boldness and so on so again when these puppies leave here and they know all these obstacles it's their whole world is open to them they know it all just about [Applause] the four footed members of the RCMP s elite canine team are a product of selective breeding and a training program that begins when just 8 weeks old not all the puppies will make it through but the ones that do are smart confident well socialized and exposed to stimuli way beyond what a family pet will ever have to deal with it's all part of creating the perfect police dog the dog has a certain level of Independence a certain level of confidence in himself and outward dominance that's there to a certain extent and that just requires different things and as for the human member of the k-9 team constables who want to be considered for the UN spend about five years on the field working with dogs I actually got to do a track after I had about two years into the forest with a dog handler and after doing the track I just fell in love with the dogs and what they could do and all that sort of stuff I was always around dogs growing up but once I saw a dog that could actually track and work I just it's what I wanted to do we're trying to find the best people for the job the thing is is I don't want to spring any of anybody along either I don't want to have anybody raise dogs for us just for the fun of her for because we needed done I want to have people who truly want to be here there's a thousand people that have checked off that they want to be a dog handler but I mean there's only 140 of you in the whole in the whole country only 12 constables are chosen every year to take the course they're brought to in Estill Alberta to take an intensive three level 85 day training course so there's four or five days of lectures at the start of the course where a lot of theory is presented to them and they have to grasp it relatively quickly and then in that second week or sometimes in the afternoons even in the first week they're starting to get some basics of the actual handling of a dog some tracking some obedience and some Criminal Apprehension that they start taking part in research it's a lot very quickly and they have to learn because you can't afford to make a lot of mistakes with the dog in his training it has to progress steadily consistently to get to the end of the level one the trainer's here they want you to succeed so if you're that if you're a learner and you're here to you know keep your mouth shut and your ears open and take what they're giving you I think you'll be successful now it's the real thing right and a lot of people are curious as to how it all works some people think of so there's a little bit of magic involved but really working a dog it's just a lot of hard work love and patience and all that kind of stuff over and over again the constables would be reminded that the most important thing is the quality of the relationship they have with their dogs this comes out in different ways in the literature comes out as patience comes out as the ability what do you think the ability to read the dog it also comes out as being genuine have that genuine interest in the animal and how the animal is doing how the animal feels a hug to be able to read that animal right and that's something that the day is gonna work with you on right through from now until the time we're done you got to be able to know what that dog's thinking to some degree but you need to understand as our expectations are that you will do your best and you'll do it consistently because when you get called out to go find that kid who's lost in the national park you can't quit you have to keep going so we're happy to have you and I think you're all pretty happy to be here so basically just go do your best after only four days in the classroom learning theory it's out to the field for what they've been waiting for let the training begin [Music] of the hundreds that apply only 12 constables a year are selected to come to Innisfil Alberta to learn how to become a member of the RCMP s in the k-9 unit and now those chosen few are heading out into the fields to learn how it's done the RCMP constables are having to assimilate a lot of information at once not only are they learning the ins and outs of the job of being a dog handler but they're also learning how to train their dog on the job the start basically what we have here it's just a scent pad when we're first starting the dogs off that's very nice little scent pad sent his pull so what the guys will do is they'll bring the dog they'll harness the dog right on the scent pad snap on the long line and I'll give the commander for the dog didn't track before handlers and dogs set out on their initial run a handler is assigned to lay down a clear easy to follow scent by stuffing in the ground this will be repeated as the dogs and handlers get used to it the dogs are being taught to follow a scent trail the constables are learning what might be the most important lesson to solit aeneas lee use your judgment and to follow the mentor of the k-9 section trust your dog you're taught not to really guess where where the track is gonna go because that could lead you astray I mean you just got to read your dog's body movements and he's indications and he's he's the one that's gonna give you where the track is gonna go this is the essence of level 1 tracking the biggest lesson holding the long line with confidence and reading your dog signals so that it can follow the scent trail to find the object of the search I mean for you to guess where it's gonna go we could get you in a lot of trouble or you don't stray you off the track you're probably gonna haul the dog off because you believe it's there but the dog knows exactly where it is and you just got to believe in him nice to loose that's why he's all over the place but dogs are in the handlers confidence so we're slowly eliminating the scuffing we're gonna get to the point or there'll be no scuffing at all when you wait five years to do something no matter how tired you are you know you just got to pull through it training's 85 days if everything goes well and you just hope everything goes well next time canine movies all right like I said it's only day five I don't know maybe day 45 other guys maybe start to get tired of me there too in fact that so far so good zone training requires repetition day after day passing level one means increasing skills from dogs and handlers alike and the most vital skill for the handlers to develop is the ability to trust your dog [Music]

Channel: Real Responders

Views: 374,159

Keywords: K9 academy, K9 officer training, K9 patrol dogs, K9 police training, K9 skills assessment, K9 unit demonstration, K9 unit exercises, Real Responders, canine academy, canine unit, efficient police dog training, lifesaving dogs training, missing person search dogs, police dog demonstration, police dog drills, police dog duties, police dog training, search and rescue operations, support dog training, working dog training, working dogs

Id: zW0M99xuO_A

Length: 21min 43sec (1303 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 13 2019