German Shepherds are a breed popular for the high intellect and great strength. These qualities make the breed a fantastic working dog, capable of adapting to varied environments, tasks, and handlers. For these reasons, they are often chosen to work as service dogs. German Shepherds are used in therapy, rescue work, and, probably most often, law enforcement.
You have probably seen law enforcement dogs from time to time, and more often than not, that dog was most likely a German Shepherd. German Shepherds have been employed with the United States military and the police force for decades. In large cities, you will see these law enforcement shepherds patrolling streets, trains, and airports with their officer handlers. In smaller communities they are typically used for rescue missions or specific investigations, such as suspicion of narcotics possession.
German Shepherds are often seen at the side of their officer handler, obediently going where he or she goes and responding immediately to given commands. When docile and standing down, these German Shepherds seem like little more than household family pets who have been trained to obey their owners. When the time comes, however, the German Shepherd is an intelligent and effective police dog. They patrol with their officer handlers ready to fight the good fight alongside them. On command, one of these police dogs could chase a criminal on foot for miles farther than any human officer in the best of shape. These dogs are trained to subdue and hold any criminals caught in pursuit until their human partners arrive and they are release with a specific command.
German Shepherds also have an impeccable sense of smell. For this reason, they are frequently used as tracking dogs. Sometimes tracking dogs will be given a sent of a missing person to help search and recover clues or the person themselves. German Shepherds are also used to recover and rescue victims of natural disasters who may be caught deep inside architectural rubble and who would never have been found otherwise. They are also used as cadaver dogs, being easily trained to smell the decomposition of human flesh and recover decaying cadavers from wreckage.
The primary use of a German Shepherd’s sniffing abilities, however, is what they excel at. German Shepherds are frequently used as narcotics dogs, detecting drugs like marijuana or cocaine in an investigation or in airports. These dogs are so talented and well trained that they can smell things a human would not even dream of catching a whiff of. Upon catching a sent of drugs, the dogs will bark or otherwise alert their officer handlers, who will pursue the investigation further.
If you have ever encountered a law enforcement German Shepherd, you may have heard his or her officer handler giving commands in what seems like jibberish. This is not the case, in fact. Most dogs that work in law enforcement are trained in languages uncommon in the United States, such as German. This minimizes any risk of criminals understanding the commands used for a specific dog, and will prevent them from trying to issue commands of their own.
German Shepherds excel in law enforcement and are celebrated for the work that they do. The next time you see a K9 Unit officer, be proud to know that this pooch is defending your rights and your community along side the men and women of the law.
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