Training German Shepherd Puppy
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Dogs have been man’s best friend for generations. It’s amazing the kind of jobs that a dog can do – there are guide dogs, bomb-sniffing dogs, drug-sniffing dogs, hunting dogs, and search-and-rescue dogs. The job that most people associate with the German Shepherd is the police dog, one of the toughest jobs for any dog. Police dogs do all sorts of duties, everything from tracking down criminals, finding drugs, searching buildings, and chasing down the bad guys! They are so dedicated to their job that they will give their lives to protect their police officer.
The first step for training German Shepherd puppy as a police dog is basic obedience training. It is important that the dog obey their handler immediately, no matter what the command. Just like a guide dog, a police dog must be accustomed to all sorts of situations, environments and people. This includes stressful situations like areas with lots of car traffic and environments were guns are being fired. It’s a tough road to make it through even this part of training, but the German Shepherd is smart and easily trainable.
Police dogs also go through endurance and agility training. It’s not enough for them to be able to run quickly, they need to be able to go up and down stairs, jump high walls, and fit through small holes. The dog has to be 100% comfortable in any situation that may happen when it is chasing a suspect through the city. Once the German Shepherd is trained in all of these things, it receives a special training for the job that it will be doing once it is an official K-9 unit.
One of the most common types of police dogs is the drug-sniffing dog. What makes a dog want to find drugs? After all, the drugs don’t smell good and the dog has no interest in eating the drug. The key to training a German Shepherd to be a drug sniffing dog is to harness the excitement a dog has for finding his favorite toy and use that as a motivation to find drugs.
During the training, the handler teaches the dog to associate the smell of a particular drug with his favorite toy. In order to play with his favorite toy, the dog must find the drugs first. When he finds the drugs, the handler pulls out the toy and praises and plays with the dog. German shepherd are trained to pick up the smell of one drug first, and then their repertoire is expanded to many types of drugs until they can sniff out any illegal drug. The training for bomb-sniffing dogs is very similar, except the dog is trained to sniff for the chemicals used in explosives.
German Shepherds are great working dogs and a valuable part of the police force. A drug sniffing dog can cover area ten times faster than a human and with more accuracy. With a sense of smell 50 times better than ours, it’s no wonder why these dogs are seen as equal members of the police force as their human counterparts!
