Making Dogs Experts

23 dogs had a passing-out parade at the Dog Training School of the Kerala Police Academy at Thrissur recently. A look at how the animals are taught to detect drugs, and explosives, clues at the scene of a crime and do search-and-rescue missions 

Photos: Dogs at the parade; handlers with the dogs; Lissy Dog

By Shevlin Sebastian

It was a sunny morning on February 10 at the Kerala Police Training Academy. As the band played a tune, 23 dogs, along with their 46 handlers, went on a march past during the passing-out parade. The chief guest was State Police Chief Anil Kant. All the dogs had a red covering over their bodies with the words ‘K9 Police’ on it.

After nine months of training, the police will send these dogs to the K9 dog squads in different districts of Kerala. The group comprised 16 Belgian Malinois, four German Shepherds and one Labrador, Golden Retriever and Doberman.

The majority received training to detect explosives. The trainers taught the others to look for drugs, cadavers, and evidence from crime sites.

Asked how the dogs are bought, K. Sethuraman, Inspector General of Police (Training), Kerala Police Academy (KEPA), said that there is a procurement committee. Sometimes, puppies are bought locally and paid for by well-wishers. The Kerala Police bought the Belgian Malinois from the Punjab Home Guards Canine Training and Breeding Institute at Ludhiana. On an average, a Malinois puppy costs about Rs 40,000.

To select the best dogs, they have to undergo a Behavioural Attitude Test. “We test the dog’s short-term memory. We observe whether he can follow orders. Is he afraid of noise? If put in a strange environment, is the dog able to behave in a friendly manner?” said Sethuraman. “Following that, we do the selection.”

Usually, the training begins when the puppy is three months old. “We teach them various socialisation techniques,” said Sethuraman. For example, the Belgian Malinois are hyperactive dogs. If they are not taught how to socialise from a young age, when they are taken to a public space, there is every chance they might attack the people. “We teach them to mingle with people,” said Sethuraman. “Bystanders are allowed to pat them on the back.”

Sometimes, dogs are afraid of heights. “So, we put them in a higher place and feed them,” said Sethuraman. “Eventually, they will lose their fear of heights.”

Training is imparted through disciplined play. “During play, concentration is high,” said Salomon L, Assistant Director (Outdoor), KEPA. “When we play a badminton match, we find we have heightened levels of concentration. So, we impart training through a mix of discipline and play.”

For example, the handler will throw the ball. He will run along with the dog to get it first. This creates a sense of competition and excitement for the dog. By doing this, it also increases the concentration powers of the dog.

Thereafter, specific training is imparted. “So, if we want to train a dog to detect clues at a murder scene, we will teach it to detect and follow human scent,” said Salomon. “To detect explosives, the trainer will put a shoe, a book, explosive material, and an apple on the ground. The dog will smell everything. But when it smells the explosive, the trainer will pat him on the back and say, ‘Very good' or ‘Shabash’. Or he will give the dog a food titbit. Soon, the dog realises that we reward him whenever he detects an explosive. This training has to be done over several months before the scent of an explosive is embedded in the dog’s brain.”

Then there are dogs which are trained only for narcotics detection. So, they will smell marijuana, heroin, cocaine, ganja, hashish and ecstasy tablets.

The police will train another group to detect the scent of a murderer at the scene of a crime. “You may not know this, but in one minute, 40,000 dead skin cells fall from a human’s body to the ground,” said Salomon. “So, at the crime scene, despite all the precautions a murderer takes, he still leaves his dead cells behind. And the dog will smell that and follow the scent.”

Salomon recounted a story. In the corridor of a shopping complex, at Kottayam, one morning an elderly woman was found murdered. A brick which had been used to hammer her head lay nearby.

On one side of the brick, there were bloodstains. The handler, Premjimon, made the dog smell the other side, which the murderer would have held with his hand. The dog immediately set out, tracing the scent. About 350 metres away, the dog jumped into a culvert. That was when Premjimon realised the animal may have made a mistake. Nevertheless, Premjimon followed. A man was sleeping at a distance on the side. The dog stopped there. The police grabbed the man and took him for interrogation. Subsequently, the man confessed. He was a drug addict. Desperate for a fix, he had killed the woman to steal some money from her.

“But if the man had taken a vehicle, or crossed a river or taken a train, then the scent would come to a stop,” said Salomon. “Then the killer can escape. After that, only a human investigation can solve the case.”

Nowadays, because of increasing natural calamities, the dogs are also trained to do search and rescue. “So, if somebody is trapped under a building following its collapse, the dog is trained to detect the location of the person,” said Sub Inspector P Ramesh, who has been associated with the State Dog Training School for the past 15 years. When a person speaks or moves, the dog will detect it. When the dog barks at a particular spot, the rescue workers will remove the slabs and bricks and rescue the person.

There are limitations, though. The dog should arrive within an hour of the building collapse. That is when the trapped people are moving about. “If the dog comes many hours later, the trapped people may have died or become weak and immobile,” said Ramesh.

Meanwhile, the handlers have their duties, too. They have to groom the dog, take it for ablutions, provide them with food, and give it a bath. The food is given based on a diet provided by the veterinary doctor. Most of the time, the diet includes mutton and pumpkin.

“The handlers are also taught the basic characteristics of the dog,” said Ramesh. “The different medicines to be given, how to groom it, the maintenance of the kennel and the principles of training.”

If the dogs keep good health, they can function at a high level for eight to 10 years.

Contrary to what we think, a dog has many more attributes than a human being. “Their sight is far better than a man’s, especially at night,” said Salomon. “The smelling detection area in a dog’s brain is far larger than ours. Even their hearing is sharper. And they can run at faster speeds than a human being. Their drawbacks are they do not have an analytical brain and cannot stand on two feet.”

Asked whether there is a need for dogs in the face of so much advanced technology, especially at airports, Ramesh said, “Human beings are the ones who use the technology. Not necessarily all are honest. Under financial inducements, they might purposely not detect something. But a dog is always honest.”

The dog is also much faster. It can check 100 bags within 15 minutes. “If a man has to do that, it will take two hours,” said Ramesh. “Otherwise, the bags have to be taken to where the technology is. To check a train, a police squad will take a few hours. A dog can do it much quicker.”

Now, there is an attempt to train dogs to detect diseases like cancer and COVID-19.

As to whether dogs are better than human beings, Ramesh laughed and said, “Yes, they are. They are very dependable and honest. They have unconditional love. If you shout at your dog today, the next morning, he or she will run towards you and embrace you. It bears no malice. Do remember the proverb, ‘Don’t call a man a dog because it is an insult to dogs’.”

Regarding the pleasures of the work, Ramesh said, “Training dogs is my passion. So, I enjoy every moment. You should not do a job to earn a livelihood. You should do it because you have a passion for it. Then only the work becomes worthwhile. When the dogs perform well, it brings me a great deal of satisfaction. That means they have detected explosives and drugs and caught murderers. They have made a substantial contribution to the safety of society.”

In 2017, through the mating of two Labrador dogs, the school got 16 puppies. After training, the police allotted them to the Narcotics Division. One of the dogs was Lissy. In two years, Lissy detected 33 items of narcotics in Alappuzha district. “Near many schools, there are small shops which sell drugs,” said Salomon. “Lissy can enter a shop and immediately detect where the drugs are stored. Lissy has detected ganja hidden under mud and in the backyard of a house. I have to commend the handlers who knew how best to use Lissy’s abilities.”

As to whether dogs are happy by nature, Ramesh said it depended on the human partner. “If the man or woman is a happy person, then the dog will be happy,” said Ramesh. “If the person is sad, the dog will also be sad.”

(Published in news9live.com)