Meet the new puppies at Nottinghamshire Police’s dog unit
Nottinghamshire Police have welcomed two new puppies to their ranks, as work now begins to train them.
Fox Red Labradors Luna and Phoenix were selected from a local breeder after expert handlers recognised their potential as specialist search dogs.
The pair are now living with dog trainer PC Dean Allen as they are slowly introduced to the world of canine policing.
Over the coming weeks and months, their natural playfulness and determination will be encouraged and rewarded as they are taught to retrieve a tennis ball.
The ball will then be replaced with more bespoke items and used as a consistent reward for successful detections. Potential future specialisms for Luna and Phoenix are yet to be decided.
PC Allen, an expert in training in search dogs, explained: “Dogs’ noses are thousands of times more sensitive than our own and can be trained to detect almost anything.
“Most items give off some kind of scent – even if we can’t smell it ourselves. Even certain viruses and cancers give off a scent that then be detected by an appropriately trained dog.
“The challenge in training a successful search animal is to find ones with the desire and discipline to want to find those items on a consistent basis.
“In the case of Phoenix and Luna they have already demonstrated a very high desire to play, to retrieve and to search, so we are confident we have two excellent candidates on our hands.
“Our next job is to introduce them incrementally to a policing environment, to build their trust and confidence in us, and to gradually substitute the tennis balls they currently search for the specific items we want them to detect. The ball will then be offered as a reward.”
Depending on their progress over the course of the summer, the dogs will be allocated to handlers before being put through a rigorous training and licencing course.
Nottinghamshire Police currently uses three types of dog; General purpose animals adapt at chasing and searching; Specialist sniffer dogs trained to detect drugs, cash, firearms and ammunition; and passive search dogs trained to detect drugs in crowds.
