The Dogs of War and Peace By Branko Miletic Part Two

March 10, 2010 - PRLog -- In terms of which breed is best suited for security work, Mr Dominick says: “The most common breed used today as a security/police dog is the German Shepherd. Other pure breeds such as the Rottweiler Malinois and Doberman have a strong presence in civilian security dog units and are equally effective.” (*see table below)

Mr Kotsopolous says that as a breeder and trainer of working dogs for 24 years, “I have had the pleasure of having experienced almost all breeds of dogs and find that there are four breeds that excel as security/protection dogs: German Shepherd, Doberman, Belgium Malinois, Rottweiler. However, all of these must come from the correct working bloodline otherwise they still don’t work effectively, only because specifically bred bloodlines are of vital importance.”

Asked as to what he looks for in a potential security dog, Mr Dominick says: “In a recruit security dog I look for optimum size, strong nerve, balanced drives and intelligence as these natural traits underpin the final proficiency of the operational canine. The team’s ability to portray a calm quiet confidence while working will be enough to deter 90 per cent of workplace threats. However, the remaining 10 per cent of conflict that the team may face will only be deterred if the dog is trained to deal with a high level of threat. Therefore, the individual genetics of the dog, not the breed, is of paramount importance to the success of training and the dog’s future deployment effectiveness,” he says.

However, all this training does not come cheap. Mr Dominick says that “to fully train and workplace test a security dog can take up to 6 months or around 600 hours and can cost up to $40,000 dollars, if it is done correctly. After the initial training there would be ongoing maintenance training and certification costs, but these are minimal and are certainly justified when balanced against the unmatched efficiency of the security dog/handler team.”

The top dogs for security work by ranking

Rank   Breed

1      Bullmastiff
2      Doberman
3      Rottweiler
4      Komondor
5      Puli
6      Giant Schnauzer
7      German Shepherd
8      Rhodesian Ridgeback
9      Kuvasz
10           American Staffordshire Terrier
11      Chow Chow
12      Mastiff
13      Belgian Sheepdog, Belgian Malinois, Belgian Tervuren

Kris Kotsopolous concurs with this amount adding that “depending on what requirement it’s for it apparently costs the government around $40,000 to $60,000 to have a dog trained when they factor in the all the associated costs. However, we could produce the same animal for less than half and then have it strategically allocated to the handler who would then be put into the equation, which saves so much money on officer down time whilst the dog is being trained.”

In terms of the government use of trained security, both breeders say that the use of these dogs could be well expanded into many areas not usually associated with this kind of security.

“I am quite concerned the government has not placed Protection and Detection dogs at most, if not all, critical infrastructure such as water supplies, electricity grids, power stations, government buildings, main entertainment events etc. These are likely terrorist targets and from my understanding need addressing urgently. Not to mention, most importantly, schools for narcotics detection,” says Mr Kostsopolous.

And Martin Dominick adds: “I do believe that the numbers of competent security dog/handler teams employed by the different departments could be increased to provide wider security coverage.”

Regardless of what people may think about the idea of using a trained animal for security work, it seems that the consensus is that the use of well-trained canines in such situations has more benefits than downsides.

The recent controversy of the NSW Police using sniffer dogs to search fans at the Big Day Out concert and at various nightclubs and trains stations in Sydney does give security dogs a somewhat dubious reputation — although it must be remembered that these kind of situations are based on political decisions rather than ones of appropriateness of the dogs in use.

Regardless, a number of councils across the country have used or are using security officers with dogs as a means of cracking down on petty crime. Recently, Caloundra City Council in Queensland has considered bringing security officers with dogs back into the city after a spate of violent attacks outside the city’s nightclubs.

Of course, there will be those who continue to rely more on technology or humans than canines for protection and detection duties; however, it must be said that dogs have been doing this work for some time, without any major problems being encountered along the way. It seems man’s best friend may well turn out to be man’s best protection for some time to come.

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