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Am considering adopting a retired drug detection dog from one of the local P.D.'s around here. Would be either a lab, golden, or shepherd 5-7 years old. Has anyone had any experience with this? Anything unique about owning one versus other dogs?
Have not had experience but was watching "Southland" tv show. One of the cops wifes was walking the retired police dog and it attacked some druggie kid because he had pot in his backpack. Your question made me think back to that show
Have not had experience but was watching "Southland" tv show. One of the cops wifes was walking the retired police dog and it attacked some druggie kid because he had pot in his backpack. Your question made me think back to that show
Fortunately I think these dogs are trained just to take notice of the drugs, not attack the perps.
That was going to be my next question, are these dogs only drug dogs or are the multi purpose. If they are trained in other working areas make sure you have the time to continue working these dogs in some form of work/training. They need jobs to do even up in age.
That was going to be my next question, are these dogs only drug dogs or are the multi purpose. If they are trained in other working areas make sure you have the time to continue working these dogs in some form of work/training. They need jobs to do even up in age.
I think this is all they do but I guess I could keep her/him busy checking people's bags as we walked around town.
I have a friend who runs a company with both bomb and drug detection dogs. I have "dog-sat" for them. Completely normal dogs...just that they have a very distinctive job to do. He has a gazillion stories about the drug dog alerting when he is not on "duty".
Many departments retire the dogs with their handlers. At least I know ours did. All of our guys kept the dogs and they went from working dogs to pets. Great with families, wonderfully trained dogs, but keep in mind they are working dogs. They're never going to be strictly couch potatoes. They're incredibly intelligent and you'll need to spend time with them daily on training and such.
A co-worker adopted one locally where I live now. She had to jump through major hoops to get him. The department did background checks on her as well as home visits and vet reference checks. Didn't hurt that her nephew was a member of the department. To get one from any decent department you'll need a glowing reference from multiple people. Once approved she had to attend 3 months of a handling course with him and his handler. Then she was allowed to take him home.
Even after she took him home, and even though her nephew was in the department, they did continual follow up appointments and attended most vet appointments with her. They were very hands on with the adoption and made sure he was properly cared for all his life and that she wasn't making any bad decisions or being lax in her training / care of him.
Many departments retire the dogs with their handlers. At least I know ours did. All of our guys kept the dogs and they went from working dogs to pets. Great with families, wonderfully trained dogs, but keep in mind they are working dogs. They're never going to be strictly couch potatoes. They're incredibly intelligent and you'll need to spend time with them daily on training and such.
A co-worker adopted one locally where I live now. She had to jump through major hoops to get him. The department did background checks on her as well as home visits and vet reference checks. Didn't hurt that her nephew was a member of the department. To get one from any decent department you'll need a glowing reference from multiple people. Once approved she had to attend 3 months of a handling course with him and his handler. Then she was allowed to take him home.
Even after she took him home, and even though her nephew was in the department, they did continual follow up appointments and attended most vet appointments with her. They were very hands on with the adoption and made sure he was properly cared for all his life and that she wasn't making any bad decisions or being lax in her training / care of him.
I can't imagine a handler giving up his "partner"!
I can't imagine a handler giving up his "partner"!
Ours never did, ever. Those were their best friends, their back up unit. They relied on each other for their lives. Not only would they give them up, their wives never would have stood for it. I was shocked when my co-worker told me she'd adopted one. Impressed though with how thorough they were with his re-homing.
Ours never did, ever. Those were their best friends, their back up unit. They relied on each other for their lives. Not only would they give them up, their wives never would have stood for it. I was shocked when my co-worker told me she'd adopted one. Impressed though with how thorough they were with his re-homing.
Some handlers can't or don't want to keep multiple dogs so they do sometimes need to be placed. Keep in mind these type of dog live about 15 years and are retired at 5-7 so every handler would end up with 2 or 3 dogs at a time if they didn't. Many people don't care to maintain more than one.
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