How It All Started

A Most Unlikely Candidate

I was a young police officer in the Queensland Police Service performing general duties.  Just doing a bit of this and that.  I was currently in the police inquiries office executing warrants on people that had outstanding unpaid fines and delivering summons’s and what have you.  At that stage, I had 4 years experience as a police officer and was 21.

The dog squad in Townsville at the time had 2 staff members.  A notification had been sent out to all members that they were looking for another member to increase the strength to 3.  ‘Yoohoo”, I thought, how cool would that be, having a police dog.  The dog squad was soooo cool, they did what they wanted and when shit hit the fan, they rocked in with their angry dogs and saved the day.  Everyone wanted to be in the dog squad.  I thought, I could do that.  So, off I went for the tryouts.

Needless to say, I had no idea what they did. I mean, they just had angry dogs that scared the beejesus out of everyone.

A Bunch Of Wannabees

So, along with 30 other hopefuls, I had an interview with the state’s top dog cop and he asked me why I wanted to be a dog handler.  I said along the lines, I wanted to handle a police dog and perform the duties to the best of my abilities.  (At that stage, I was very very fit, playing A grade sport in 3 codes and doing very well).  One of the prerequisites to be accepted at that stage was a stable home environment and preferably a home where the dog could be housed, as the dog was essentially with you 24hrs/day, 7 days a week.  I was dating a young lass at the time, and we had grand dreams to be married so of course I painted the picture of the of the secure home environment for the dog.

The next step was the obligatory, put on the padded arm (along with the other 30 hopefuls) and have a police dog ‘ATTACK’ you upon command from it’s handler.  During this session, there were 4 police dogs (the 2 currents and another 2 from up north that rotated through the shit scared victims).

So, it was my turn, put on the padded arm, having no idea what I had to do, standing approximately 20 metres from this police officer in a set of dark blue overalls yelling at me ‘YOU, STAND STILL, STOP DOING WHAT YOU ARE DOING, I WILL SEND THE DOG IN’.  The dog was barking and going off it’s nuts.  Needless to say, I was cacking myself (aussies slang for very scared), then the handler yells ‘ROUSE’, (the command to attack).  OH MY GOD.

There was this 40 kg german shepherd bee-lining me. The top dog cop told me prior,

‘Just hold your arm out as the dog comes in and let it bite it’.

With those words resonating in my ears, I held out my arm horizontal at about hip height and shut my eyes, with my sphincter puckering profusely.   The dog (after having a plethora of gumbies holding the arm prior to me) slowed down enough not to brickwall (smash it’s neck against a static object) itself and cause considerable damage to it’s neck and in turn, BIT ME, on the old, cloth padded arm.

Time To Poo Your Pants

My heart skipped a beat, my eyes were as wide as dinner plates and I held my breath.  There was this german shepherd chomping on my arm, and I felt like screaming my lungs out in complete fear thinking this spawn of satan was about to release from my arm, after giving it a good 4-5 chews,  and begin to start punching holes in every other appendage I had that was not protected by 1/2 inch of cloth padding.

To my absolute relief, he held on firm to the arm and did not leg go.  It seemed like an eternity and I could hear the handler yelling something in my direction.  I know now that he was yelling ‘LEAVE’, which was the command to release the arm and return to the handler, but at the time I was oblivious to my surroundings and was preparing to cover my balls with my left hand and was praying to god that I would be good and start attending church if this dog did not severely hurt me.

Regardless of the handler’s repeated attempts at yelling at the dog, the dog obviously thought to himself,

‘hehe, I might just keep chewing on this guys arm for fun.’  So, for what felt an eternity, this dog continued to ‘BITE’ my arm.

Now, this wasn’t hurting, yes, I could feel the pressure, but it wasn’t pain, but ‘OH…..MY….HAT!!!!!’  Did I have the fear of god in me.  Shortly there after, the dog eventually was recalled from my arm and returned back to it’s handler.

As cool as I possibly could (as I had the othe 30 hopefuls, either laughing or agast at the situation they were to also encounter) I sheepishly walked over to the ‘Top Dog Instructor’ upon his summoning and I listened to the summation of the situation.  He told me,

‘Not bad with the arm, but the reason the dog did not leave was due to the fact that he could sense your fear, and he continued to bite you.’

I thought to myself, ‘NO SHIT SHERLOCK.’

And accepted that as gospel and moved on to watch differing displays of young police officers receive bites on their arms by the 4 police dogs at hand.

I left the trial with the utmost confidence that I had performed sufficently to warrant a position within the elite section of the force, ‘The Dog Squad……NOT.

Sleepless Nights

I think I had nightmares for a week of a dog mauling me in my sleep.  Shortly thereafter, a female police officer was selected as the preferred candidate and off she went to commence her 3 1/2 month basic training course in Brisbane to train her police dog.

I returned back to my enquirers tasks knocking on the doors of people who did not pay their parking fines and ruining their day.

Approximately 4 weeks later, around 10am after starting at 6am and doing a good quality 3 hours or so of annoying most people’s mornings of summons’s to court (oh I was popular, I tell you), I was sitting at my desk having a cup of coffee reading the daily paper when the phone rang.  One of my colleagues answered it and then looked at me with his hand of the speaker,

‘It’s the Assistant Commissioner’s office for you’

Straight away, I thought, ‘What have I done?  I than frantically raced through my mind over the last few weeks to recall what I had done that had pissed someone off so much that it found it’s way straight to the top’

I then picked up the phone and I was asked to proceed to the regional office where the Assistant Commissioner wanted to see me.  Jeez, I must’ve stuff up this time.

Fearing the worst, I proceeded to the crystal palace (headquarters) where I sat in the foyer waiting to be summonsed.  I was called in and sat across from the Assistant Commissioner.

‘Herb, how are you going?’.  I looked blankly,……..ummmm…….’My name is Glen Sir’, I replied.

‘Oh….of course, Glen…..how quickly are you able to go down to Brisbane to commence your training with a police dog?’

Needless to say, you could have knocked me over with a feather.  ‘Right away sir’.  I replied.

‘Ok, your off on Monday’. (It was Thursday)

And off I went, on the police plane on Monday and down to Brisbane to commence my training as a Police Dog Handler.

The female officer that was initially selected to become the third handler did not work out as expected, and me being the second cab of the rank (what the?  how the hell was I the second best in that trial) was on my way to become the new handler of her dog.

AND….I have no idea

So, Monday I arrive at the airport, picked up by another police dog handler and driven to the police academy in Brisbane.  It’s late afternoon and I am booked into my accommodation for the next 3 1/2 months and thereafter introduced to my instructor who will be taking me through the basics of handling a police dog.

The Sergeant begins to walk me down to the temporary kennels at the academy where the recruit dogs are housed (4 in total) and shows me the dog I will be handling and training for the next 3 /12 months.

Buck, a 16 month Rottweiler, with one of the largest heads I have ever seen on a dog stares back at me through the cage, looks at me for 2 seconds and then proceeds to bark in the loudest bark I have ever heard from a dog and spray Rottweiler spittle all over the place.  ‘Nice’, I think to myself, this dog has to like me.

The Sargent Instructor then walks with me and then begins to give me a rundown of what sort of training I will be conducting over the duration of the course.  I am just sooooo, pumped I am there.  During the course of the conversation, he explains to me, we will be doing:

basic obedience (cool, I have never trained a dog to anything before)

manwork or attack work (where you train the dog to bite people, oh how I envied those handlers that told their dog to bite me….bastards)

and nosework or tracking…… ‘What???????’ I thought to myself!.

Yes, we will begin with the basics of laying your scent and the dog will follow it and receive a reward.  Then we progress the dog  to eventually being able to follow the scent of an offender that decamps from the scene of an offence and you will be able to locate them.

WHAT THE?…..THESE DOGS CAN TO THAT?????  AWESOME.

And that’s where it all began.  I was the most unlikely person to ever handle a police dog, let alone, train a dog.  But, I was so fascinated with what these dogs could do, I ultimately dedicated the next 14 years of my life handling, training and understanding dogs and in particular police dogs.

What will follow in this category will be stories that I encountered over my 14 years as a Police Dog Handler within the Queensland Police Service.  Those 14 years handling my dogs have been some of the most rewarding, exciting and at the same time violent times of my life to date.

Often, I have found myself, as do most police dog handlers, talking at bbq’s, parties or gatherings about the situations we have found ourselves in with our dogs.  Over time, we tend to take these situations for granted, but to others, these are stories that they find fascinating and exciting.

Every Police Dog Handler can more than likely relate to these stories or situations.  Stories where the hair stands on the back of your neck when your dog hits the track, finding the baddy at the end of the track and the times you ask yourself, ‘Why Am I Doing This?’  And you answer to yourself,  it’s because…..I love it.

Being a Police Dog Handler is one of the most rewarding jobs in the world, but at the same time, one of the most dangerous.  Follow my stories and I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy telling them.

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