Police Dog Training in the UK

I'm curious to know if they use current research in their training.

Do they use aversives?
Do they use choke chains?

Thanx.

There is a police dog trainer on the forum (5dog), who will hopefully be along to address your concerns.

However, from my own knowledge and experience of the police forces I have friends in or have had dealings with through training my own dog and GSD rescue, then no, these particular forces do not use choke chains, pinch collars or e-collars. They use positive reward and play based training.

It depends what you mean by aversives?

Thanks for your reply. I look forward to 5dog's reply.

I'm just curious as it seems very much a closed shop.
I know of a security dog trainer that advocates prong collars so I hope there is a divide!

I spend some time with a UK Police dog section in England a few months ago.

I found the head trainer very open minded and he spoke frankly about his work. He was prepared to use any training method that worked effectively and he and his officers had pretty much tried all approaches at one time or another.

Explosive or drugs sniffer dogs are taught used play based reward training. The dogs loved it and were eager to work.

The General Service dogs also used some play based training but because their work could involve apprehending an aggressive criminal they are trained to grab bite ONLY when there is a threatening situation- this is tricky for the the dog as it needs to return to a calm attitude on command and the Police will use a half choke as an aid in training and 'on the beat'.

They are not allowed to use e-collars at all. Methods have changed a lot since the bad old days and the dogs seemed to lead a stimulating and active life; possibly better than many pets.

Most police forces ask that spaniels are ball obsessed as this is how they train them the ball is the reward, i have recently placed a working cocker with a police force and wouldn't have done so if i thought they were using poor training methods

My OH is in the police tho he is not a dog handler but when he was a PC he used to be out with the dogs a lot!
They are def Positive Reward based trained. Though i think cos a handler has their "own" dog each obviously have slightly different ways. But most GSD and the sniffer dogs are usually rewarded using a toy.
To be honest not so sure about if they ever use choke chains but the ones I have seen havent.

Although it's not police dogs, I used to work with drug and explosive sniffer dogs. Where I worked, they use reward based training. Nearly all the dogs there were 'last chance' rescue dogs and were picked especially for their high work/play drive. As wolfdogowner said, most of them get a better life than some pets. The dogs were let out for a run in the enclosure at least three times a day, they were also played with, groomed, taken for a run in different places each week, fed on a high quality raw diet etc...They had a lovely life that you very much! And they would all bounce up and down when it was time to work, because they enjoyed it so much!

my boyfriend had to give his labrador up and offered it to the police about 10/11 months ago now, and i know that he gets taught reward based training. once he has found what they want him to he gets his ball we visited him while he was still in training and saw hands on how he was treated, where he was staying and his diet and things and he looked like he was living the life of luxury we miss him ALOT but he is sooooo much happier where he is

I posted a video of a display I attended at west mercia HQ last year

http://www.dogsey.com/showthread.php?t=94494

Might be of interest!

If you watch it to the very end you will see the Police Office using a Kong on a rope to reward the dog.

I know a guy who has been a police dog trainer for 20 odd years. He's actually helped me with Tilly. He uses half check collars & all reward based training.