future of policedogs - Page 1

just read the Police K9 magazine and was reading an interesting article in which is stated that the supplie of policedogs from europe, most likely will dry up in 5 years, and that it is urgent for USA to be able to produce large numbers of single and dual purpose dogs in the USA

now this is not totally new idea, but im working with, and visiting USA dogwise since 1989, and I think i have a pretty good idea why they are unable to produce larger amounts of dogs with same basic genetic qualities, I know there are some breeders who dont fit into this, but generally speaking

would be  interested in toughts on this story and what you think will be possible future scenario

Duke, the future does not have police PATROL dogs involved...detection dogs, for sure, dogs that bite, no. I have said this for years, soon the only place one will be able to see a patrol dog is in a museum.
The reasons are simple, society is becoming soft, the defund the police movement is everywhere, not that it will happen, but, politicians have to pay attention to it if they want to be reelected and I heard on the news that some cities/counties, will introduce something called "violence interrupters" to answer certain calls.

I read two articles in the news this last month that talked about police dogs, their training and deployment and how they scarred people for life and how millions of dollars are payed yearly to those that have gotten bitten.
The USA does not have the culture to breed and raise enough police dogs to go around this country, but, even if they did, patrol dogs will soon be a thing of the past.

duke, I'm just curious what you think about producing this type dog in the U.S.
just for the interest of discussion,

my thoughts are that the U.S. is just so large that the logistics make it very costly.

there is no central organization to promote LE type dogs and no outlet to show case the dogs that a breeder produces. events where breeders could present their work would go a long way in exposure to the LE/Mil community.

it's just more profitable to produce dogs for the pet market and let them go at 8-10 weeks. it takes quite a large operation to hang on to dogs til they become promising "green" prospects and still be profitable.

HD, we posted at the same instant. I also don't think there is a future for LE dogs as an offensive weapon/deterrent. and a beagle can do detection as well as any breed.

Rik i don't think it's as difficult as you say. look at previous experiences of countries behind "iron curtain":
in East Germany GSD breed was part of national cultural heritage. military, border, law enforcement had limitless supply from civil population and wasn't in need of specialized program.
other Warsaw pact countries didn't have such luxury but have adapted own demand in service dogs on the supply from DDR + domestically established breeding on the foundation of dogs, imported from DDR.
in Canada RCMP is able to afford own breeding facility + municipalities, whose have own LE, do buys dogs from civilian breeding. one breeder, i had communication with, lend her bitches without right for ownership to a local police and takes them back into kennel only for breeding and whelping pups.
the country as rich as US are can work out solution. it's only has to have desire to do this.

as for future... seems like not only dogs, but utilization of humans is on move in that direction.

 

 

valk, thanks for the response. I am curious about all things GSD and am certainly no expert on LE/Mil dogs. these were just some thoughts rolling around in my head.

In WW2, many war dogs came from family homes, tested and donated for the cause. but these dogs, even though family pets were much closer to the original vision for the GSD. the U.S. certainly wasn't going to get them from Germany.

I think there have been several attempts by government to establish breeding programs, not sure any have been successful. the Marine Devil Dog doberman failed.

The RCMP has its own breeding facility, and police officers take home a pup to raise according to their 'standards'. Whether this program is 'successful' or not,  I don't know the numbers of pups in litters that become police dogs vs ones that are sold to the public as washouts but according to this video, about 1 in 3 pups has what it takes to enter the K9 training program. It states in the video that they use AI for breeding, which I didn't know.

https://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/depot/pdstc-cdcp/index-eng.htm

Glory be, that some countries are not reliant on the US for their supplies of Police Dogs, of either patrol or detection sort, or even much for European imports; and so whatever the truth of what is predicted by that article, it can make very little difference outside America.

Rik, i know about that program from old man, i met in my youth and who was somewhat involved in it.
it wasn't mass breeding of dogs among civilian population. rather due to high demand from Wehrmacht and much increased breeding by available at that time kennels, to decrease cost and easing load in nurturing those dogs, kennels was giving pups to a families, particularly those, who have kids.
i can't recall right now at what exactly age, (i think it was 5 month old but not sure), kennel been taking pups back for thoughtful observation and testing after which did kept pups for following sale and providing in exchange another pups, if family willing to take. or did gave pups back to families if those pups turned out to be not suitable.

Rik, it is not limited to LE dogs, breeding plans/programs and genetic reproduction are same for sport dogs, showdogs etc. etc.

there are many reasons why most breedingprograms worldwide are failing or having a very low successrate, one of the reasons is that people select breedingmaterial based on trained behaviour,titles and famelevel of the owner/trainer of the dog or the dog itself, rather than genetic qualities of the dogs

I know of one country army program that was shut down for low successrate, their only criteria for breedingdogs was that they all should be KNPV certified, and can go on like this for a while