Police dog bites

reference to this article

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12713723

Please read first

If a police dog bites someone innocent as in the case of the gentleman on his allotment, should the dog be destroyed? If your dog went and bit a stranger there would be a court case to decide. I cannot see any difference between that and a police (so called trained) dog.

Your comments welcomed

Tumbleweed

or perhaps the handler/trainer/breeder should be destroyed?

Forces these days are taking on dogs with higher and higher drive so perhaps the breeding/choice of dog is more to blame.

Dogs who bite without instruction from their handler, it could be argued, are inadequately trained for the task in hand.

Perhaps the choice of dog or the choice of dog/handler pairing was 'faulty'

If we are going to use dogs in high stress situations, accidents are going to happen - fact

A rescue I used to fund raise for sent several dogs to the police to be trained they were unhomable biters who IMO should not have been used at all. The rescue would lie to get them into the training scheme as once the dog was off their hands as far as they were concerned their no kill policy was being adhered to but there are now at least 16 dogs in police hands that are very prone to biting anyone for very little reason.

This is a PERFECT example of why I took issue with the guy in the US who said dogs are released to bite and can differentiate between the criminal they are sent for and innocent parties.

They do not.

The dogs are trained to find anyone who is there and hold and bark if they do not move.

If anyone is running they will take them down if they are sent.

Furthermore, as anyone who has watched Send in the Dogs carefully, many police dog handlers do not have the control required over their dogs in all situations, most of them cannot put their dogs in a "down" whilst they restrain and cuff the suspect!

And this information is not gleaned JUST from watching TV but from training with, around police dog handlers, competing against them in the past and knowing how the dogs are trained in many forces.

Innocent people DO get bitten but most of this could be avoided by a little more thought before deploying the dogs.

Of course accidents happen however, as a H & S professional and a dog handler and trainer I can say with some conviction (sorry about pun) that 99% of all accidents are entirely avoidable.

Police dogs have to be licensed each year and if they do not meet the criteria they do not go back out on the streets.

In addition, not all police dogs are the same, some are good at looking fierce eg barking on the lead when they are backed up by their handler and some are a little too enthusiastic about biting.

Go and watch some police dog trials, the standard is often pretty low! One year I watched one where 90% of the dogs failed the down stay, 90% failed the agility and some dogs did not even want to bite!

I don`t really see what your point is? Are you saying police dogs know who is innocent and who is guilty?

My point is precisely the opposite. Hence why I wrote:

This is a PERFECT example of why I took issue with the guy in the US who said dogs are released to bite and can differentiate between the criminal they are sent for and innocent parties.

They do not

I don't think the dog should be destroyed at all. The dog has been taught to bite. It is down to the judgement of the handler as to whether to send his dog or not. Therefore the handler and NOT the dog should be held responsible for an innocent member of the public being bitten.

I would think that particular handler would need further training in when to and, perhaps more specifically, when not to deploy a police dog - ie when there is a chance that an innocent person may be bitten!

I remember once the local paper reported with enormous glee the case of a police dog handler sent to a fracas outside a club. In the melee his dog grasped his privates firmly and hung on. I`m not sure if the physical pain or the ensuing hilarity was more mortifying for the poor man.

it does seem very male macho well the bits i have seen.

it does seem very male macho well the bits i have seen.

???????????? what does?