police dogs

[tav]

we have a 1 yr. old prue breed female shepard and were thinking of selling her or giving her to an police or state. i heard they dont take females is that true. see avitar

[martemchik]

Any reason you want to do this? Police departments don't just take any GSD off the street because its a GSD. I don't know what kind of training she has received up to this point in her life but it is very unlikely there is a department that would accept her. Again, without more information I couldn't really tell you why this won't work. If you can tell us more about your dog maybe you will get a more complete answer.

[Courtney]

While your intentions maybe good.

I would think police departments don't take dogs that are given or sold to them by the general public. They have a program in place for the dogs they get.

[Gilly1331]

No Police rarely take a GSD that has not been from a police k9 breeder. Alot of work goes into choosing the k9 and officer that will be partners with the k9. I have only heard of 1 story of a donation of a K9 to a police dept that served 9 years. They generally import from specific breeders and only when a pup matches what they are looking for and then it has already gone through a great deal of traning up to its 15months mark when it is turned over to the officer for bonding then work training.

I would look for a good home for you pup if you are unable to keep it.

[Gretchen]

I've read that police do not use females in general because the females are very protective and loyal to the officer, would rather stay and protect the officer/handler than leave them to chase the bad person.

[msvette2u]

Actually you can donate a dog to them, but the process is fairly strict.
We had a very high drive dog years ago and looked into donating to the academy.
We ended up keeping him because he was such a good protection dog, especially for my daughter.
But I was sorely tempted at times, he was a lot of dog for a pet home.

http://www.sactopdogcontest.com/k9facts.htm

[Twyla]

Most counties here import for their patrol K-9. The drug and bomb dogs are many times rescues that the officer adopts himself and trains.

Had the fun this past weekend watching demos of a spaniel mix locate drugs and a Dutch Shepherd locate explosive material, both extremely focused until material located and then just as focused on the toy reward afterward. Both were rescues. The officers explained they didn't care about the manners or obedience, their main concern was that there be a very high drive.

Short story for an even shorter answer. If you are wanting to DONATE your dog, you could check with local police dept and ask about their program for the drug and bomb dogs.

[DFrost]

I am a police trainer and yes, we do use females and yes we do accept donations. Having said that there are a couple of things that should be stated.

1. Dogs are picked using a specific set of behavior criteria. A dog that possess those behaviors could well be picked for PSD duty regardless of gender.

2. It's rare that a GSD that has been a pet would have the particular behaviors we would be looking for. It's been my experience that perhaps 1 out of 50 dogs that people are willing to donate have what it takes.

I am just as suspect about buying dogs from vendors as I am accepting donations. Perhaps even more so when I am about to spend tax payer dollars. I treat all vendors like used car salesmen. It is even more rare to deal with breeders. they, more often than not have less of a clue than vendors, when it comes to the type of dog needed for PSD work. At least vendors generally know their their customer base. Breeders on the other hand have to sell what they have.

DFrost

[msvette2u]

The place we looked at had an upper age limit of 2yrs.
I was looking at donating ours at 18mos. I forget the website I found but they had a questionnaire to go over with your dog (tests to perform).

[kam214]

Originally Posted by Gretchen

I've read that police do not use females in general because the females are very protective and loyal to the officer, would rather stay and protect the officer/handler than leave them to chase the bad person.

This is not true...there are a few PDs around me that have bitches as their K9 dogs. They are some of the most hard hitting excellent police dogs around.

To the OP, your general answer (obviously there are exceptions with some agencies as DFrost said) is no...police/sheriff departments usually work with one specific vendor or breeder for their dogs. These dogs are all bred and raised with the specific intent to be police K9 dogs. Whether it be for narcotics, explosives or just a patrol K9, every agency I know uses just one vendor for their dogs.

Even when dogs are purchased for a PD/SO from a known vendor, the dogs don't work out still. At least most vendors have a guarantee/exchange policy so the dog that did not work out can be replaced with one that will. Some dogs that were purchased as a patrol dog for a department are lousy at patrol work, fail out of patrol K9 school, and are returned to the vendor but wind up making an excellent bomb/narc dog. It's always a crapshoot to see how these dogs perform in the "real world."

Far too much liability on the department's hands to just take any dog because it is a GSD, Mal, Dutchie, etc.