The Value of Dogs to the Police
| Date | 01 April 1940 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X4001300213 |
| Published date | 01 April 1940 |
| Author | H. S. Lloyd |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The
Value of Dogs to the Police*
By H. S.
LLOYD
IN
April 1934 a Home Office committee with Lieutenant-
Colonel W. D. Allan, O.B.E., as chairman, was formed to
consider the possibilities of dogs as auxiliaries to the police
forces, and after careful deliberation it was decided to start,
in a very small way, experiments to discover the ideal dog for
police work.
At the commencement it was thought that dogs for general
utility purposes, to undertake all the duties for which they
might be called on, could be discovered. Early on, however,
experiments proved this to be impracticable.
The
distinct difference between dogs and hounds is
greater than the average man imagines. A dog, when once he
gets to like his handler and is properly trained, works for the
pure love of pleasing his handler, and can be trained to do
almost anything if harmony exists between his handler and
himself.
There
is no limit to an individual dog's intelligence
and desire to please, if steadily persevered with.
The
hound, on the other hand, seems to work entirely on
his own, by inherited instinct, and has little or no affection for
his handler, or any desire to please him,
but
hunts to please
himself. Also, when once he is distracted from his quest, he
takes no interest in his task.
Thus
it will be seen that for a protective and patrol dog,
the hound had to be ruled out entirely, and a dog more pliable
and more humanised was searched for. After extensive tests
the selection fell on Labradors, experiments proving that a
greater percentage of success was obtained from these than
from any of the other varieties used. Pressure was brought to
*Alecture delivered at the Annual
Meeting
of the
Chief
Constables' Association
at Cambridge in 1939,
and
here
printed
by courtesy of
the
Association
and
of
the
lecturer.
206
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