police dog training
Police dogs will now be silent bomb alerts
MUMBAI, Apr 7/2003
ice dogs will seldom bark when they sniff out bombs or other explosive substances in future.
Instead they will adopt a certain posture to alert their handlers.
"Earlier, the dogs were trained to bark on smelling explosives, but with sound activated bombs coming into existence, they are being trained to make a posture to indicate a bomb," Inspector U D Jadhav of the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) told UNI here.
As soon as these dogs enter the service, commands like ‘come,’ ‘get up,’ ‘eat,’ ‘salute,’ ‘go,’ and ‘run’ are taught to them. Thereafter they are sent to Pune for the bomb detection training during which they are taught how to smell bombs and convey the dangerous presence to their handlers.
Shaan, a labrador being raised at the Pune-based dog training centre will be one of the dogs trained to adopt a tell-tale posture on tracing a bomb and will join the Mumbai Police in the next couple months taking the total number of canines with the BDDS to eight.
Currently the squad has seven labradors — Don, Rocky, Hina, Lia, Lyka, Soni and Sunny. Another dog Zanjeer, which made international headlines by timely detections of several explosives in Mumbai in March 1993, died last year after serving the metropolitan force for over eight years.
Atleast 257 people were killed and over 500 others injured when bombs exploded at 12 places here on March 12, 1993. Several other blasts were averted thanks to Zanjeer’s skills.
Senior Inspector of Police Jalinder Khandagale, who heads the BDDS, Crime Branch-CID told UNI that the Mumbai Police Purchased Shaan from the All India Kennel Club last year and it had already undergone primary training here for some months. Now Shaan is undergoing a comprehensive eight-month training at the dog training centre and it will shortly join the other members of the squad which is located at the crawford market here near the Mumbai Police Commissionerate.
Mr Khandagale said that the dog is currently undergoing an extensive training programme to sharpen its olfactory skills, its way of carry out assigned tasks, and obedience. Two constables, who are its handlers, are accompanying the dog.
Talking about the comprehensive training programme of police dogs, he said the puppies are purchased by the Government based on their pedigree and parentage.
Every dog has separate sets of handlers, who are police constables and they only obey orders from them.
The BDDS of the Mumbai Police functions separately and independently of its dog squad which is mobilised for routine crime detection. The BDDS handles as many as 60 calls per month.
"Most of these calls are hoax, but we do not take any chances," a senior Crime Branch official said.
He said that BDDS is utilised during the VVIP visits. They are deployed to search for explosives, if any, at the places where the VVIP stays or attends a function.
These trained canines also participate at the dog shows in the state and over the last several years, their performance has been acclaimed. The squad maintains a separate file for each of the dogs and even minutes details like how much it eats, whether it had food or not and how it behaved are entered in the file.
Asked about the relationship of the dogs with their masters, Mr Khandagale said: "My officers and men treat them like their own kids. There is an emotional bond between the dogs and their handlers and they cannot be away from each other."
He said after a dog detects the bomb, it is defused then and there or is carefully taken to open spaces like Chowpatty and then defused. "For the people involved in disposing the explosive there are special bomb suits " he said.
Colonel (retd) M P Chaudhury, who trains commandos for the Mumbai Police, said that the combination of man, machine and a dog is a best security component for detection. "The immense smelling power is of real benefit to the police," Col Chaudhury, who raised country’s first anti-hijack squad said.
Brigadier (retd) A Thyagarajan, a retired Army service corps office, said that there are separate Army dog units too and the entire functioning comes under the purview of Remount Veterinary Corps.
He said that since the last three decades, dogs are being used by the Army — first it was used in the North-East to track down insurgents in deep jungles, and later on it was used in the valley for detection of explosives. (UNI)
MUMBAI, Apr 7/2003
ice dogs will seldom bark when they sniff out bombs or other explosive substances in future.
Instead they will adopt a certain posture to alert their handlers.
"Earlier, the dogs were trained to bark on smelling explosives, but with sound activated bombs coming into existence, they are being trained to make a posture to indicate a bomb," Inspector U D Jadhav of the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) told UNI here.
As soon as these dogs enter the service, commands like ‘come,’ ‘get up,’ ‘eat,’ ‘salute,’ ‘go,’ and ‘run’ are taught to them. Thereafter they are sent to Pune for the bomb detection training during which they are taught how to smell bombs and convey the dangerous presence to their handlers.
Shaan, a labrador being raised at the Pune-based dog training centre will be one of the dogs trained to adopt a tell-tale posture on tracing a bomb and will join the Mumbai Police in the next couple months taking the total number of canines with the BDDS to eight.
Currently the squad has seven labradors — Don, Rocky, Hina, Lia, Lyka, Soni and Sunny. Another dog Zanjeer, which made international headlines by timely detections of several explosives in Mumbai in March 1993, died last year after serving the metropolitan force for over eight years.
Atleast 257 people were killed and over 500 others injured when bombs exploded at 12 places here on March 12, 1993. Several other blasts were averted thanks to Zanjeer’s skills.
Senior Inspector of Police Jalinder Khandagale, who heads the BDDS, Crime Branch-CID told UNI that the Mumbai Police Purchased Shaan from the All India Kennel Club last year and it had already undergone primary training here for some months. Now Shaan is undergoing a comprehensive eight-month training at the dog training centre and it will shortly join the other members of the squad which is located at the crawford market here near the Mumbai Police Commissionerate.
Mr Khandagale said that the dog is currently undergoing an extensive training programme to sharpen its olfactory skills, its way of carry out assigned tasks, and obedience. Two constables, who are its handlers, are accompanying the dog.
Talking about the comprehensive training programme of police dogs, he said the puppies are purchased by the Government based on their pedigree and parentage.
Every dog has separate sets of handlers, who are police constables and they only obey orders from them.
The BDDS of the Mumbai Police functions separately and independently of its dog squad which is mobilised for routine crime detection. The BDDS handles as many as 60 calls per month.
"Most of these calls are hoax, but we do not take any chances," a senior Crime Branch official said.
He said that BDDS is utilised during the VVIP visits. They are deployed to search for explosives, if any, at the places where the VVIP stays or attends a function.
These trained canines also participate at the dog shows in the state and over the last several years, their performance has been acclaimed. The squad maintains a separate file for each of the dogs and even minutes details like how much it eats, whether it had food or not and how it behaved are entered in the file.
Asked about the relationship of the dogs with their masters, Mr Khandagale said: "My officers and men treat them like their own kids. There is an emotional bond between the dogs and their handlers and they cannot be away from each other."
He said after a dog detects the bomb, it is defused then and there or is carefully taken to open spaces like Chowpatty and then defused. "For the people involved in disposing the explosive there are special bomb suits " he said.
Colonel (retd) M P Chaudhury, who trains commandos for the Mumbai Police, said that the combination of man, machine and a dog is a best security component for detection. "The immense smelling power is of real benefit to the police," Col Chaudhury, who raised country’s first anti-hijack squad said.
Brigadier (retd) A Thyagarajan, a retired Army service corps office, said that there are separate Army dog units too and the entire functioning comes under the purview of Remount Veterinary Corps.
He said that since the last three decades, dogs are being used by the Army — first it was used in the North-East to track down insurgents in deep jungles, and later on it was used in the valley for detection of explosives. (UNI)
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