‘Sally Goes to

School

ve

By
Radio Operator
MEL HICKS

*

When Four-Footed Policemen Go to School, Their Masters Go With Them—
Mel Hicks of the Radio Section (Owner of a Couple of Pure Bred Bloodhounds)
Took “Sally” to School—and Here He Gives Us an Interesting Account of

<NOWING THAT nearly every police-
aan has a dog, and a good many of them
ave police dogs, I thought these notes
egarding the R.C.M. Police dog school
vould be of interest to the dog lovers on
he force.

The School was held at the R. C. M. P.’s
fairmont Barracks at Vancouver under
the direction of
Special Constable
Louis Abfalter,
who needs no in-
troduction to
Westerners as a
trainer of dogs
for police work.
His dogs have
been used at vari
ous times by our
own department.
There were nine
constables or “dog
masters” attend-
ing the school
from various
points as far east
as Winnipeg. The
wo representatives from the B. C. Police
were Const. Doug. Rogers of Nelson and
nyself. Each man brought a dog with him
ind two men brought two dogs each. All
he animals were German shepherds except
Jonst. Larry Newington’s Dobermann and
ny bloodhound. In ages the animals ranged
rom Const. Rogers’ Maxie (seven months
Id) to Const. Bailey’s Sultan (twelve years
Id). Old Sultan has had a long and
trenuous career with the Mounties and is
eldom used now for policework.

Watching these dogs perform their vari-
jus tasks was really an eye-opener, and the
ffeient way in which they carried out their
lifferent assignments made one wonder why
here were not far more of them employed.
Jntil you have seen a well-trained dog in
ction it’s impossible to realize just how
juickly and efficiently they can perform
asks which would be impossible, or ex-
remely tedious, for a man to carry Out.
There is a popular conception that police
logs are mostly used for tracking, but this
s only one of the phases of their work. I'll
ry and explain some of the jobs given these
logs and how they carry them out.

The R.C.M.P. dogs are all trained in a

variety of tasks—they are all-round workers.

Alert

and
the well-trained police
dog is a valued member
of the force.

intelligent,

TWELFTH EDITION

How the Canines Become Coppers.

But of course, as one can imagine, they do
not all do all jobs equally well. Each dog
will develop an expert line.

I hadn’t been at the school very long
before I discovered that my bloodhound
Sally was the centre of considerable interest,
for it seems that there has been considerable
discussion over the years between dog
handlers as to the relative merits of blood-
hound vs. shepherd when it comes to track-
ing. There is no doubt that the bloodhound
is superior in this particular branch, but for
all other branches of police work, opinion
favours the shepherd. A police department,
to be properly equipped for any emergency,
should have both breeds.

In tracking, the bloodhound is doing a job
that is instinctive to him, while the shep-
herd, as the result of generations of breed-
ing and training, works mostly with his
eyes and ears, with his head carried high,
using the wind scent. The hound on the
other hand works with his nose to the
ground on the ground scent. The shepherd
is often an uncertain tracker and rather
prone to “cross track,” that is, leave the
desired trail for something fresher or more
interesting. The hound, once on the trail,
stays with it. Another weakness with the
shepherd when used for tracking is that
he will seldom take a scent from some article
of clothing and then search until he picks
up the trail. All the shepherds at the school
had to have their noses put right down on
the track before they would start working.
But, as I say, for all other branches of police
work the popular vote goes to the shepherd.
For free searching, guarding, etc., the blood-
hound is hardly suitable. The shepherd is
brainier, rangier and tougher and_ better
equipped by nature for any “rough stuff.”

For general police work the basis of most
training is retrieving. Such jobs as free
searching (the dog searching free of the
leash for missing or hidden articles with
human scent on them), locating stills,
searching for dead bodies, all depend basic-
ally on the dog’s training and instinct for
retrieving.

It is an interesting sight to see a dog
free searching for lost or hidden articles.
The dog master takes the dog to the partt-
cular area and commands the dog to seek,
indicating by a wave of the arm the particu-
lar section to be searched. The dog works
into the wind with his head up, testing

every breeze for traces of human scent. If
he gets a whiff he narrows down the search
until he finally comes up with the wanted
article. During the course we were treated
to several first-hand practical examples of
this.

On one occasion after the theft of nar-
cotics from a Vancouver drug store the
city police got information that a suspicious
looking character had been seen coming out
of a clump of bush and drive away in a car.
They asked for assistance from the dog
school and Special Const. A. W. Laird
(Saskatoon) and police dog Tell were de-
tailed to search. In a very short time Tell
had located a cache of narcotics buried
under a stump deep in the woods.

On another occasion an army canteen at
Little Mountain Barracks was entered at
night and a cash box containing six hundred
dollars stolen. Several days later, in the
ordinary course of training, one of the dogs
(I can’t recall for the moment which one)
located the cash box hidden under an old
cardboard carton in the woods adjoining the
barracks.

Perhaps the most remarkable example of
this form of search was the case of Const.
Murton’s wrist watch. Murton, while work-

Alberta, and his dog “Peter Pan” as they start to
search out the well-hiddem still near Haney, B.C.

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