Dogs at work

Recently, I have seen an interesting documentary on rescue and search dogs and police dogs on TV. It has caught my attention how many working breeds there are today.

It is an interesting fact that police dog breeding has a very rich and long tradition on our territory. The beginnings of dog handler use fall already into the period of Austria-Hungary. The first course for dog handlers of the Czechoslovak Police was organised in the 20’s of the previous century and in the following years, the Police Dog Handler School was established. Breeding was started with the focus mainly on such character traits of the dogs that are necessary to carry out the service.

Today, the police use dogs for patrol activities during sport or cultural events or for the defence of patrols. Dogs are preferred for these activities, since in comparison to female dogs, they are more resilient, naturally tougher and more dominant. Female dogs are used mainly for special scent works such as the detection of explosives, weapons or inanimate persons or for methods of scent identification. The dog breeds that are most often used by the police are the German and the Belgian shepherd.

In the army, the dog is the second oldest weapon in use immediately following the attack knife. Even today, it hasn’t lost its important role, it still remains irreplaceable. Since not even the most expensive electronic security systems are able to warn about the intrusion of an unauthorized person and also to find the perpetrator and to hold them. Therefore, dogs are used in the army for guard and patrol service. While guard dogs work individually without the presence of a dog handler, patrol dogs work in a pair with the handler. Even the army uses dogs for scent work: to search for drugs, explosives and weapons. Search for weapons is the youngest special scent method, the first dog to be trained for it in the Czech Republic was the one in 1994, precisely for the needs of the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic.

One historical section is devoted to the ambulation dogs. These have appeared in armies even before the First World War broke out. Their task was to search for wounded soldiers in the field. In this period, also draught dogs were used used to pull heavy machine guns and ammunition carts. Dog teams were then used in winter time to break through the rear of the enemy or to carry the heavily wounded away from the battlefield.

As it is evident, humans have a truly great fantasy on how to use dogs in every possible way. They can see their potential and adapt it further to their needs by breeding. But were it not for dogs’ loyalty and devotion, none of it would have been possible.