Sharjah: Training K9 dogs can involve specialised routines, some of which take one year, like sniffing and tracking, Sharjah Police have explained.
The specialisation plan is chosen according to the K9 division’s need at the given time, Major Ahmad Adel, director of the Sharjah Police Canine Division.
“The dogs are trained specifically on the basic tasks they are enrolled to perform. An explosive-sniffing dog looks for explosives and a detection dog looks for drugs,” Major Adel said.
Police dogs must remember several hand and verbal commands, he added.
For example, if they are sniffing out an explosive material, then they will sit near the place and if they are sniffing out drugs, they will dig and scratch on that place.
“The trainers follow European training techniques, especially German and Dutch,” he said.
As for the dog trainers, Major Adel said not anyone can be a dog trainer, which is why certain basic qualities have to be taken into account for one to be recruited.
He explained that they are first chosen in an interview process, based on the availability of certain characteristics such as patience, tolerance, hard work and perseverance, and then they are trained. “Like human officers, K9 canines are also rewarded if they help in solving a mission or busting a crime. The rewards are determined by the trainer, and [can] include allowing the dog to play certain games, outdoor exercise, or daily training with the ball. And the dog recognises these rewards which encourage it to improve its performance.”
Sergeant Abdul Baqi, with an experience of 20 years in K9 training, remains active in the field. He described his work with dogs as an enjoyable experience.
He said these days, police K9 training divisions are becoming more and more inspired by the extraordinary control, focus and obedience skills of sports trainers. “A K9 trainer must be able to perform specific tasks with his dog, such as bomb and narcotic detection, human tracking, and finding hidden objects. The trainer should be controlling the dog fully, even after giving the dog the attack command. The dog must stop immediately and fulfil any command it is given by the trainer. There are specifications of training involved when deploying K9 police dogs in specialised areas such as airport, marine port etc,” he explained.
In addition to his job as a K9 dog trainer, Abdul Baqi is a professional diver and offers courses in first aid.
Around eight trainers [out of 32] are still working in the division since its establishment in 1984.
Difficulties
Abdul Baqi said difficulties during training and/or work may occur if the trainer didn’t have time to train with the police dog, and because of a lack of proper knowledge of working with dogs, may have ruined the dog’s training.
Consequences that may occur from this is that the dog ends up not being able to work well with the police in a certain situation, which can have extremely serious effects. In this case, the police must state the problem to the personal dog trainer, so that the trainer can teach the dog, and to the K9 so that the division could tell the trainer how to fix any mistakes that could have been made by him.
First Emirati female dog trainers
Three Emirati women in Sharjah are among thousands of Emirati women who have broken social barriers and joined police in the UAE — First Sergeant Wafa, First Sergeant Mariam and First Sergeant Abeer.
Wafa joined the division in 2007, Mariam and Abeer in 2008.
The young ladies are the first national women to become official dog trainers in Sharjah Police. Sharjah is the second department in the country that employs women in K9 division after Abu Dhabi Police.
Although it is a difficult career, Wafa, Mariam and Abeer enjoy their work but they admit that they had faced hardships in the early stages.
The initial dream was to join the UAE police. They were first appointed at the police academy before they were moved to the K9 division.
“The first dog I trained was 14 months old … I faced obstacles and challenges but my love of this work and my determination allowed me to surmount all difficulties,” First Sergeant Mariam said.
Retirement
Police dogs are retired if they become injured to the extent that they are unlikely to recover completely, are pregnant or raising puppies, or are too old or sick to continue working. Since many dogs are raised in working environments for the first year of their life and retired before they become unable to perform, the working life of a dog is eight-nine years.
Sometimes, police give the older dogs to animal welfare centres and other people after considering the requests. Such dogs are used to guard farms or perform other tasks.
