POLICE DOG FILES

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STEPH ALLINSON

STEPH WORKS FOR CHESHIRE AND NORTH WALES DOG HANDLING SECTION. EACH EDITION WE ARE TREATED TO A LOOK AT HER WORKING LIFE AND THAT OF HER TWO BEST FRIENDS, JAX AND OTIS.

POLICE DOG FILES

Well Jax has blown me away; she’s been a superstar so far. I was hoping we would be licensed by now but the weather has really set us back. Having so many hot days has meant less time training and even during the heat wave training was understandably cancelled completely. That’s okay though,we are so close to finishing initial training.

Jax is tracking 800 meters in multi surface terrain, woods, fields, industrial estates and handling it all well. She locates the suspect at the end of the track with confidence and ease.

We’ve come along way from laying hotdogs in footsteps. We’ve taught her to identify items of property which have recently been discarded. Once she locates the item which is holding recent human scent, she indicates by lying down with the item in between her paws. She gets a ball reward for this.

Her obidence and agility is of a good standard, which is important because we need her to be able to jump obstacles for real life crime fighting.

We’ve taught her to focus on a fleeing subject and once committed to the chase call her back, this is the emergency recall,which is vital for safe practice.

She can locate and hold suspects in buildings and open areas. She is taught to sit and bark at their feet unless they offer violence or try and run away. Then she is allowed to chase and detain with a bite.

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Bran April Jax Jax with Steph

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She loves to work. She’s committed and gets out of the van for each exercise with energy and focus. She is such an easy dog to love and train and I have really enjoyed the process of training her from scratch. I have been able to really mould her into what I want her to be as my Police dog.

I’ve been blown away by how clever she is, we show her the exercise a handful of times and she gets it and learns quickly.

Tracking was the hardest task to teach as we rely on moisture on the ground to hold the human scent and as we all know, it’s been so warm that the conditions haven’t been great. I am hoping we will soon be able to drop the trainee part from her title.

PD Otis has also been busy recently. We assisted officers in Ellesmere Port where a car full of suspects had dropped off a large amount of drugs at an address. When Police attempted to stop the car, the suspects ran away but were quickly located by officers. PD Otis searched the route they had taken and located the suspects mobile phone which had been thrown into the bushes and couldn’t be seen. I was amazed. Otis isn’t trained to detect mobile phones, but this phone had obviously been held close to the drugs and dropped off, still smelling of them. I was thrilled and the officers described the phone as the missing piece of the jigsaw. Mobile phones hold so much vital information, contacts of dealings, names, location history, cell site information. The list goes on. I was so happy with him. I’m left gobsmacked. Aren’t dogs amazing?

Myself and Otis have also been involved in searching the Creamfields site this month, before the festival goes live.

In other news our Police force is really moving with the times. We have a Labrador puppy started in our section called Bran, once trained he will be our first victim recovery dog. We also have our first trainee seminal detection dog going on a course next month, also a Labrador named April.

I have also been busy without my dogs as last month I attended the National Police Bravery awards after I was nominated, having saved a female from a suicide attempt on the M53, off duty in November 2021. Never off duty hey?

Sadly dogs weren’t invited to the ceremony, but it was a lovely event including a visit to Downing Street and the House of Commons.

Can’t wait to keep you all updated on my dogs and their antics next time.

Jax and Otis

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