How can a Dog Section help you

Dogs play a vital role in modern day security work and are used by Police force every in the country. There are approximately 2,500 police dogs in England and Wales. With their naturally powerfully sense of smell and agility are used by the security.

Defence Security Services and our sister company Defence Security Services Co Ltd (Thailand) dogs are also trained to track and catch criminals and for crowd work.

The most popular breed for security work is the German shepherd, chosen for its intelligence and highly developed senses; they also tend to be more instinctively suspicious of strangers than other breeds.

Dogs need to have the right temperament to be suitable for patrol work – those who may make unsuitable pets, as they are too energetic and demanding, are often ideal.

Establishments throughout the world using the Patrol Dog is recognized with the training that a fully operationally patrol dog has better hearing and smell, therefore by definition is a GREATER DETERRENT than an officer in uniform.

So how does it fight crime?

A patrol dog must have a close bond with their handler for them to work successfully together. To create this bond, the dogs are matched with their handlers while they are still young actually live with the handler as part of the family unit.

However, patrol dogs are very much working dogs, not family pets and live in kennels outside their handler's home. Training begins when the dogs have reached between the age of one or two years old.  Just as the dogs are carefully chosen, so are the handlers who should be 100% committed when training as our aim is to have canines that are both happy and safe in a public area.

Once approved the prospective handler attends a two weeks suitability course. The patrol dogs’ training course has been developed to prepare them for any situation they may face. The course builds on their instinctive behaviour to enable them to carry out tasks and obey the handler on command. A dog's natural instinct is to please their pack leader, and for a patrol dog this is their handler.

The course starts with basic obedience exercises. This is followed by tracking, where the dogs learn to follow a ground scent over different types of terrain and in varying conditions. They are taught how to bark continuously when they find what they are looking for. They also learn how to chase and attack, even when they may be threatened with weapons.

Patrol dogs need to be aggressive at the right time, but never vicious and have to obey their handlers at all times. At the end of 12 weeks, the dogs should be ready to go out to work with their handler, with whom they will continue working until they are seven or eight years old.

Out on patrol, dogs are used for searching and tracking situations. A patrol dog is able to search an area much more quickly than a lone security officer and or police officers, as well as being able to get into difficult places, such as dense undergrowth. The dog's ability to scent humans is also very useful in finding people who may be lost or hiding.

Dogs are also used in areas where there are large crowds, for example at Parks or open areas, or other places where there maybe incidents of anti-social behavior.

Just as Security work is making increasing use of new technology so is the training patrol dogs receive. Patrol dogs are now being trained to work with cameras attached to their heads, enabling them to enter dangerous places and send pictures back to officers.