Express & Star

WATCH as Staffordshire Police dog Rox is put through her paces in training

The saying goes that a dog is a man’s best friend – but to police they are a critical component to frontline law enforcement.

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The Express & Star met with Staffordshire Police to learn more about the value of canine companions at the sharp end of the force.

Whether it is the presence of a menacing looking German Shepherd standing guard in public order situations or a Spaniel using their heightened senses to track down a missing person like a car following a sat nav - the fact is dogs can carry out certain tasks more effectively than a human officer ever could.

But how do the police turn a typical four-legged friend into an expensive force asset integral to their war on crime?

Well believe it or not it all starts with a game of fetch.

At the force HQ in Stafford we observed Rox on the first day of her training programme.

  • WATCH Rox in action here

The first exercise, to test her prey drive - the instinct to chase something - is remarkably simple and involves throwing a dog toy up a field.

"One of the first questions we have to ask about any potential police dog is will it run after something," said trainer John Saunders.

"So we basically start with a game of fetch to see if it will chase something at all."

After passing that with flying colours the next question for Rox is whether she has protective instincts.

"All police dogs must be able to protect itself and police officers," said John.

"We can build it into a dog to a small degree but it has got to be a fundamental natural instinct."

At first he walks up relatively unassumingly towards Rox, held firmly by her handler Pete Clarke.

Trainer John Maunders has to provoke German Shepherd Rox to see if she will defend herself and handler PC Pete Clarke

But as soon as he encroached within six feet she sprang into action neck arched out barking at her target. Another test passed.

John retreats and the exercise is repeated only this time he slips on a protective orange sleeve and starts making more aggressive gestures towards the 11-month-old German Shepherd.

Again she lurches forward with all of her feet leaving the ground at one point due to her sheer velocity.

After a tense stand-off she is allowed to grip the sleeve as a reward.

Trainer John Maunders has to provoke German Shepherd Rox to see if she will defend herself and handler PC Pete Clarke

"That hurt a bit," said the retreating trainer.

The drill is repeated once more, with John now sporting a reinforced sleeve and a rubber baton of sorts which he waves at Rox as he ramps up the provocation.

At the end it was three-nil to the dog.

But if people think the idea is to create killing machines foaming at the mouth they are mistaken.

After the exercise John was able to approach Rox unchallenged while she was left to walk freely among us apprehensive onlookers without a hint of aggression.

He said: "It all has to be controlled. It is not a case of they are constantly raring to go all of the time. It has to be able to turn on and off."

Rox will now embark on the rest of the 13-week training and assessment programme which includes multiple challenges along the way.

11-month-old Rox is at the start of her training programme

Many will be variations on what we bared witness to, such as the 'chase and detain' test which sees the dogs pursue someone and then take hold before being instructed to release.

Another is 'chase and stand-off' which is similar only the dog must stop and bark when they get to within a certain distance of the assailant.

"That is massively difficult to train," said John.

On the tracking side of things there are three key elements.

The first is around teaching the dog to pick up on an 'individual's scent' left behind at their last known location, from the fragrance of soap they may have used to the smell of their sweat that has dropped to the floor.

The next area sees the canine recruits learning how follow footsteps, particularly on grass where the the compression of feet on the ground will result in 'crumpled' or 'bruised' blades.

While the third element teaches them how to pick up on 'disturbed ground' such as mud which has transferred from a ditch to a pavement.

Other parts of the assessment include agility courses and seeing how dogs react to gunfire.

But they are no tick box exercises.

There have been cases where a dog has got to the last week of training only to fall short and be replaced.

In such instances they go back to the West Midlands breeding scheme where they can be reassigned to less demanding roles such as security duty.

Staffordshire Police has 20 general dogs on the force as well as 12 specialist dogs which are skilled in certain areas such as searching for explosives or drugs.

Each and every one of them is an invaluable asset.

Recent successes included Police Dog (PD) Ozzie sniffing out £3,000 worth of drugs at an address in Stafford after officers had drawn a blank.

While it was only the speed of explosive specialist dogs which averted panic at Lichfield Cathedral earlier this year when they were able to quickly sweep the area after a suspicious package was reported.

Inspector Matt Derrick said: "Dogs are absolutely critical to police work.

"When we are faced with potential violence their visual impact has a very calming influence. Then there is their ability to find things which a human might in the fullness of time but nowhere near as quickly as a dog can.

"In terms of searches they give us a massive leg-up. A large part of Staffordshire is very rural, and in today's society there are more vulnerable people due to mental health issues, who are potentially suicidal.

"With huge wooded areas like Cannock Chase the best way of covering such a large section of ground is with dogs. That is really when they come in to their own.

"Quite simply they can do certain things better than people."