Lancashire Constabulary

More about our dogs

Since officers and the dogs work so closely together they're matched up when the dogs are very young, sometimes when they are puppies. If a police officer decides to become a dog handler they've got to complete a one-week familiarisation course at the police dog training school, where they can get to know a bit more about the work they do. They then decide whether being a dog handler is the job for them.

The officer will then go on to complete a 10-week general purpose dog-training course, where the handler will be introduced to their dog for the first time. The course is really intense, both physically and mentally challenging, but at the end of the 10 weeks the dog and the handler know each other pretty well and form an extremely strong bond. You need to be a quick learner to be a dog handler; you've got to learn how the dog thinks and what drives his behaviour fairly fast.

Once the initial training has been completed both the dog and the handler are assessed again and then given the go-ahead to become fully operational. That's not the end though; they continue to train and are assessed every year

 

Search dogs - In search situations the police dog and handler team can help cover much larger areas quicker than just an officer. They can detect human scent quite a few hundred yards away and get into bushes and woodland much more easily. This, with the handler's skills to control the dog search area, means a handler and dog can search large areas more effectively and efficiently saving lots of police time. They can help look for missing people, offenders and evidence too. It might be a vital piece of evidence for a case and the dog can be crucial for finding that missing piece of the jigsaw.

Sniffer dogs - A police dog's great sense of smell can help in searching a building far more effectively. Sending a dog in first also adds to the officer's safety and cuts down on the chances of the officer being surprised by an offender. A lot of the time the officer won't know whether the suspect is armed or has an offensive weapon so as a general rule, specialist firearms dogs and their handlers attend all firearms incidents

  
 

Tactical Firearms Support Dogs - These are very special dogs that have been highly trained to work with the Police firearms teams. There are only three dogs like this in Lancashire but they are being used almost every day to help armed officers in very difficult situations. These dogs are trained to use a special camera, which is attached to their heads called a FIDO camera. FIDO stands for Firearms Incidents and Dangerous Operations and it helps the commander of a firearms operation see inside a building where a dangerous suspect might be hiding.

  

Cash dogs - We also have three dogs that are trained to find large amounts of money that a criminal might have hidden. Two of the dogs can find money that is hidden in buildings or gardens and the other one is specially trained to search people who might be trying to smuggle money, which is hidden on their body somewhere

  
 

Drug detectors - Lancashire police also has specialist handlers with drug detection dogs. The team can save a long search and may find drugs so well hidden that the officers might not be able to find themselves. The dogs use their highly developed sense of smell to find the drugs.

They help officers when searching vehicles, buildings, and other open areas for all types of drugs.

  
 

Explosives dogs - We also have a number of dogs that are trained to detect explosive substances. They will search an area before the visit of important people like a member of the Royal Family or the Prime Minister and the visit is only allowed to go ahead if the dog handler says it is safe to do so. They will also search if the police receive a 'bomb warning' and then the handler has to wear a special suit to protect them in case a bomb explodes

  

See also

Police and Communities Together