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As an antidote to getting stuck in the mud today I thought this was worth sharing.
While Jonnie and I were milling some Ash stems we noticed a hooded ne’er do well swagger past the unlocked Land Rover and van with all of our kit inside. We quickly nipped over and locked the vehicles.
Minutes later he returned swaggering in the opposite direction. He repeated this pattern perhaps four times. We concluded he was a stoner.
Seconds after his last slow speed pass he retraced his footsteps with some haste. Moments later two police officers appeared, one with a dog, straining at it’s leash
Before they finished asking ‘Have you seen a guy in a black hoodie?’, the four of us pointed, ‘He just went that-away!’
At the top of the short hill, one of the other arb guys saw him, ‘Tell the 5-0, you haven’t seen me!’ He instructed.
The stoner of course thought he was Usain Bolt.
Ten minutes later the police dog handler returned. Luna had caught him. Luna, it turns out was not named after a Roman godess. It was short for Lunatic! The stoner came to his senses, before being mauled, a flinch was all it would take for her to deck him.
The handler cautioned against patting her because she hadn’t yet drawn blood. She would be a pussycat if she had
There's a dog handler unit on the outskirts of town and they have a yearly open day, very impressive to see the dogs in action.
The only advice I can give is don't run, the land shark will make a mess of you if you do.
Great beasts. A long time ago I used to help our local dog handler on the nightshift if it was quiet by hiding for the dog to find. He was very clear, stand still and keep your hands in your pockets. As long as you stand still the dog just barks. Once it barks I was to drop the piece of rubber fire hose that was the reward.
Any time we were sitting in the van and the handler got a call and switched the blue light on the dog went mental and howled as it knew it was going to work. It was always good when a dog turned up when there was a search on for a suspect. You knew you wouldn't need to chase anyone that was flushed out.
The dog and handler bond is very strong as the dog lives at home whith the handler so it's pretty much 24/7.
The handler said much the same, he can’t wear a black T shirt at home with Luna because she thinks she’s on an undercover mission.
Title + picture, I thought perhaps a team of them had pulled the Disco free of the mud?
In reality though, yeah, they can be trained to be both incredibly fierce yet also behave exactly as instructed.
We had a scrote on C wing who was a smackhead & a career criminal, he got released & within a few months was nabbed by a police dog trying to get over a wall or something. Anyway it almost ripped his arm off but he's probably still a scrote.
Prison dogs are ace too, the patrol Alsatians can tell the difference between prisoners & staff, although staff are instructed never to go within 6ft of one even with the handler present.
My cousin is a police dog handler up in Glasgow. He has 2 lovely working dogs (Alsation and a Cocker) that live with his family. Their amazing dogs to be around as their so well trained.
Alsatian? Haven't heard that name for a while. IIRC Changed from German Shep because of some war?
I do like a GSD but I'm more of a Mali man myself.
"Scrote on C wing" You are Fletcher ICMFP!!!
We concluded he was a stoner.
LOL tie dye t-shirt and hemp dungarees give him away?
I grew up with my granddad breeding GSD's and my old man was a copper. Our first house was police accommodation, with a central office. The next door copper was a dog handler - big long haired GSD called "Satan" and my gawd when that thing barked at you it was changey pants time. It was like a frickin' bear.
It's one of my favourite 'Police! Stop! Chase!' episodes (may not be real name) - two scrotey twoccers leg it from the police and then abandon the car and run into some woods / undergrowth. The police dog goes in and quickly locates one, at which point they suggest the second comes out or they'll send the dog in again.
Another Usain Bolt like moment as this kid arrives at the speed of light. Brilliant but scary dogs!
My heart bleeds for poor Carl Lazenby. The dog should have been given a commendation.
@mcmoonter - a local tree surgeon has a Unimog for those difficult locations. In fact I saw it this morning busy working away.
Prison dogs are ace too, the patrol Alsatians can tell the difference between prisoners & staff
I wish police dogs could do that.
Way back when as a 15yr old, I did work experience at a large police station - on initially being shown around the guy took me to a door and said whatever you do don't go in here unless a person on the inside. It was where the dog handlers were based and there had been a few instances of people going in only to find a dog with no handler!
In some respects my Labrador would have made a great police dog as he can sniff anything out and has a loud and intimidating bark. On the other hand all the offender would have to do is hand over a bit of cheese and then the dog would be like "fine, you can go".
stand still and keep your hands in your pockets. As long as you stand still the dog just barks. Once it barks I was to drop the piece of rubber fire hose that was the reward
How did you drop the hose while you had your hands in your pocket?
Keep it up your ‘arris? One bark it’ll soon drop out
30 years ago I was going out with a girl who's dad was a copper. They had a GS Police dog that had been retired early due to a dodgy hip. It scared the shit out of me. It would stand in my way and growl and her dad (who also scared the shit out of me) would let it, until he said "OPAL!", for that was it's name, then the dog would pad off back to whatever it was doing. I was instructed not to move during the growling.
Once, after the dog had been stood down, it came up to me and put its paw on my foot and looked me in the eye. I swear I nearly suffered a "brown out". I'm convinced that the dog and her dad were doing it deliberately.
When I was in the cadets at school, we were on an RAF base and had a tour of the dog unit there. They dressed one lad up in a safety suit (made from carpet with the hessian on the outside) and took him to a field. He was instructed to walk across it, ignore anything the handler shouted and then after the second "STOP!", he was to turn and leg it (not very fast in a carpet suit)
The instructions he got for when the dog caught him were remarkably simple. Stay absolutely still, do and say nothing.
The dog of course, 100m away with its handler knew exactly what was coming but the speed at which it covered that distance when unleashed 😲😲
The kid did a good job, stayed wrapped inside his carpet. Think he needed a change of underwear afterwards though. The dog was calm as anything by then. Complete change from being super scary to sitting there begging for a biscuit.
I went to Laarbruck as an RAF cadet and saw a similar demonstration. Pretty sure it was the one senior cadet that thought they were "it" who had to dress up and run. Would not want to do it myself!
Regularly see the local dog patrols using far end of the local park to exercise their dogs at the end of a shift, throwing balls etc. Sometime last year I was there and two dog cars were parked up with the handlers throwing various things for the dogs to chase. A random hoodie just appeared out of one of the hedges and within milliseconds both dogs were straight to him barking away. The were called off and the hoodie walked away after a quick word with on of the officers. I was leaving the park as they were both loading the dogs in the boots and remarked I'd better not go into the hedges when they were around. The officer closest to me just smiled and said 'Yeah, you'd think the local lads would know where we are. At least he wasn't so out of it he remembered to just stand still!" Meanwhile the dog in the back of his car is rolling around upside down, tongue hanging out and acting like a giant puppy!
Police dogs are amazing.
My dad was a met police dog handler for many years so grew up around police dogs. Pretty sure my dad is only around today thanks to one of them taking on knife man and winning. Weirdly my dad got a commendation for the arrest even though the dog did the hard part!
Whilst the aggression is good and a snapping barking dog has a way of calming even a group of people down I think the best jobs my told me about were tracking ones to find a missing people. There was a mental hospital which regularly had people wander off into some woods and the dogs always found them.
Not police but as train driver I watched the spaniels do some anti terror training on a Sunday morning after the Manchester bombs on a dead Sunday morning and I realised my spaniel is a useless farty mutt. But like these he'd do anything for a ball. Stunning, clever dogs.