Normal retirement age for a police K9? - Page 1

 I was wondering what the normal range is for a police k9?  I have been told by some trainers like 6 years old.  That just seem way too young.

8 or 9 years old for the K9's in my town. It really depends on the dog. Personally 6 is to young to retire a healthy K9 who still can do the work it's trained to do.

> I begin looking for replacements for our shepherds at around six or seven years. I will normally retire the shepherds at eight unless the vet feels the K-9 can continue on.
>For mali's it just depends on how they are. I see many on the road still at eleven, twelve years old.

We generally will work the dogs until around 8 or 9 depending on the dog.  Some dogs can go longer, some dogs begin to show their age earlier.  If the dog is in good shape and can still run and work my PD will work them forever.  It seems most of our dogs are in their prime at 6, really know their job and work well with the handler.  Our dogs are dual trained so we may slow down with them on the patrol work and focus on the narcotics work with the older dogs.  We can't begin to look for new dogs under the older dog is retired. 

Jim

A lot depends on where the dog is working.  some areas are harder on them than others.  Also are they cross trained or single purpose.  And of course the individual dog.  My K9s father worked until he was 11.

C. Neubert

To the original poster - you want to know about a "normal" retirement age for a Police K9?

Which police K9?

Patrol K9?
Single Purpose K9?
Odor detection K9?
Dual Purpose K9?
Narcotics detection K9?

I would assume Dual Purpose, the jack of all trades, K9?

These dogs hit their prime between 3 and 7 years of age. Anything before is "young and getting there" USUALY, and anything after is still good,buton its way down.

Some of them work until 9 or 10 or even 11 (not many though, usualy only narcotics detection).

As somebody who is not a police officer, just a civilian who knows abit about this stuff, I'd say, 8 1/2 is when they should retire as they are past their prime.

 I mainly wanted to know about dual purpose and narcotics k9.

i have a ? about this

is it hard to get ahold of a police retired dog for stud services