in my opinion
The Future of North America’s
Law-Enforcement Dogs
Relying on business as usual will continue to weaken the quality
of police dog candidates.
BY STEVE DUNHAM
HE USE OF CANINES in
American law enforcement faces
many challenges in the future:
shipping is expensive, dog prices are
increasing, and law-enforcement budgets are taking serious hits. The North
American law-enforcement industry
depends on Europe to provide our
working dogs. Worldwide demand has
increased, and most of the world is
shopping in Europe. The average dog I
see vendors selling is approximately a
year old. Most of these dogs are rushed
through a training
program and arrive
on the street at
about 12 months
of age. Many of
the dogs hitting
the street are, in
my opinion, not
ready for what
they may encounter. Because
of our demand, we
are also purchasing
and putting into service many police
service dogs that lack suitable nerves
for the type of work they are being
asked to perform.
T
meet our needs. Dog sports are slowly
becoming more popular here too, and
that is good for those of us in law
enforcement. I believe it is time to
start looking toward our future in
procuring law-enforcement canines.
We need to encourage selective
breeding programs here in North
America. In order for those to be
successful in providing greater numbers
of dogs suitable for work in law en-
forcement, I believe we need to
encourage the civilian population to
participate.
One way selective
breeding programs
can be increased, I
believe, is by estab-
lishing a national
law-enforcement
canine sport in
which civilians can
train, compete, and
title working dogs,
similar to what the
Dutch have done
with KNPV. I believe Americans need
a sport that has high standards and
includes the tasks we expect of our
law-enforcement dogs. That would
keep the best qualities in breeding
programs. Many breeders who have a
passion for their work will want to
place suitable dogs in law-enforcement
service. That will offer real-world proof
of their hard work and go a long way
toward keeping law-enforcement costs
down.
I believe it is
time to start looking
toward our future
in procuring
law-enforcement
canines.
Look Closer to Home
Some very nice dogs are being bred
here in North America. However,
there just aren’t enough of them to
■ Above: One way to ensure the supply of
canines for law enforcement is to initiate
more dog sport programs that will challenge
and test canine candidates.
The Bottom Line
We can’t continue to depend on
Europe to supply us with a large quantity of dogs at the quality level we
need. Although many Europeans do
an excellent job of breeding working
dogs, there are not enough of those
dogs to meet our needs. If we continue
with business as usual, there probably
will be people willing to sell us the
volume of dogs we want; however, I
believe we also will see more dogs
being sold and worked on the street
that have weak nerves, less drive, and
more health problems. ■
Steve Dunham is vice president of the Ohio
Law Enforcement K9 Association (OLEKA)
and owner of Police Dog Services LLC. He
has been a law-enforcement officer since
1992 and a K- 9 handler for 12 years. Contact
Steve at sdunhamk9@woh.rr.com.
