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United States Police Canine Association
P.D. 1 Certification
by: James Cortina
Director of Connecticut Police Work Dog Association

the F.A.S.T. Co.

The United States Police Canine Association, (USPCA) P.D.1 Trial tests the police k9 on Obedience, to show the extent of control by the handler and commands at a distance. In the obedience testing the dog will have to do heeling at different paces of normal, slow and fast and also consisting of left, right, and about turns. Verbal and hand signal commands of sit, and down, recall, and drop on a recall at a distance of fifty feet. The obedience exercise is done off leash and the k9 team must score 70% of the total possible points in the obedience phase in order to continue to the other phases for certification. Also Agility testing to demonstrate the dog's ability to surmount various obstacles which consists of jumping hurdles, broad jumps, a frame, crawl and catwalk. The hurdles consist of a picket fence, chain link fence, simulated brick wall, window jump, board jump, and shrub jump. Four out of the six hurdles will be used for testing. The dog will also be tested on Search to locate and retrieve articles containing the scent of a stranger and to locate a hidden suspect in a box which is called the box search. The box search consists of six boxes with a suspect hidden in one of them and the dog has to indicate which one within four minutes. In the search test the articles selected are usually shot gun shell, (green in color) key on a ring with tab, book of matches, (dark in color) metal gun, credit card, screwdriver, (4-6 inches) or piece of leather (1/8 to 1/4 inch thick, 3x3 inches, dark in color). The association will choose two of the items for testing. Within three minutes the canine must locate and retrieve two items of evidence thrown into a thirty foot square area of grass approximately twelve inches high. The dog will also be tested on Criminal Apprehension which consists of five parts for certification; recall, false start, apprehension without gunfire, apprehension with gunfire and handler protection. The canine is judged on his ability, upon command, to pursue and apprehend a fleeing suspect. The canine will also be judged on his ability to release the suspect on command and return to his handlers side. The k9 will be tested on a Recall which is when the k9 has been commanded to apprehend a fleeing suspect and will be judged on his ability to stop the pursuit on command and return to his handlers side while the suspect continues to run away. A False Start which is when the dog sees someone running away from the handler and is required to stay. attack without gunfire, handler protection and attack with gunfire. These tests show the control of the dog.

Rotterdam-Rijnmond K9 Unit
K-9 Disciplines & Certifications in Holland
by : Dick van Leenen
Rotterdam Police Dept. Nederlands
Rotterdam-Rijnmond Police Department
Animal section - K9 Unit
Voorwateringweg 99 - Rotterdam - Holland

K-9 Disciplines & Certifications in Holland
In Holland, unlike you are familiar in the US, we do not have cross trained dogs or dogs for dual-purpases. The patrol dog that also search for narcotics. In Holland we prefer to train each dog for one discipline. Several reasons for that but the main reason is that it can be pretty confusing for the dogs. For instance when I want him to search for a hidden suspect the dog maybe starts a search for narcs. We do not want that to happen and therefore we have only one discipline on one dog. Because of this system, we also need more good dogs, but that is no big problem when you have so many good K9's in United States. We have several certifications. All the disciplines have there own strict exam rules and certification. In Holland the rules are so strict that when a combination of handler and dog do not pass there national exam, they do not get the certification and are not allowed to do police work. So no certification means, no work and only training to get the certificate. These are the different certifications:
1. Patrol dog. With this exam the handler and dog prove that they are a good team. They have to show the exam committee obedience, field and building searches and the attack exercises on the decoy.

2. Narcotics (active): These dogs are used to search for narc like heroine, cocaine, marihuana, speed, XTC, etc. All the drugs that are known in the world. Also unlike what they think in the US these dogs can track and find XTC. In the US they think that XTC is not trackable for a dog but in Holland we have learned them to find XTC. The word "active" means that the dog becomes very exciting when he smells the narcs and he will start to bark and try to reach it.

3. Narcotics (passive) "These dogs are trained on the same drugs as the active dogs but there is one big difference. When a "passive" dog smells a drug he just sits in front of the person that is carrying the drug with him. When this person wants to pass the dog the dog just sits in from of him again and by doing that he just refuses that person to pass him. The word "passive" we use because the dogs do not bark or act like crazy. That's why these dogs are used on airports. sports stadiums and ferry's between Great Britan and Holland, and trains between France and Holland. They do not scare people but do the same work.

4. tracking dogs: To track persons without biting them when they find somebody. For instance lost kids or runaway inmates.

5. smell identification dogs: These dogs are only used to smell a relation between a suspect and a piece of evidence. I will try to explain this. When a burglar left a screwdriver at the place of the burglary and he ran away, one of our K9-officers come on the scene of the crime and he takes care of the screwdriver. He puts the screwdriver in a special plastic bag without anyone touching this screwdriver. In the bag the smell of the last user of the screwdriver (the burglar) is conserved. Every people have its own unique smell, just like you have a unique fingerprint!! We save this screwdriver for more than three years because the unique smell stays OK for that long. When detectives arrest a suspect for this burglary but they do not have real prove they ask the K9-unit to do a smell identification testt. The suspect has to hold a small metal pipe. Also 6 other people who has nothing to do with the burglary has to hold metal pipes. The metal pipes look all the same but each of them have the unique smell on them of the holder. So 6 people who are innocent and 1 suspect. The 7 pipes are put on the ground and the handler and his dog does not know which pipe is from the suspect. After the 7 pipes are on the ground the handler and his dog comes into the room. There he gets the screwdriver and he gives the dog smell of the screwdriver. After the dog got that smell he walks over all 7 pipes and when he smells the same smell at one of the pipes he takes that pipe in his mouth and brings it to his handler. That way the dog proves that there is a relationship between the smell of the screwdriver and one of the pipes. When this pipe is the pipe that the suspect had in his hands the detectives can prove that this suspects used that screwdriver at that burglary. This is fully excepted prove in court in Holland and its unique in the whole world. Our country is the only country in the world that uses the dogs for this kind of police work.

6. Explo-dogs: Search for all kinds of explosives (TNT, Sentex, etc.) but also guns and ammunition. Very busy lately because of the war against terrorism.
These dogs we have at the Rotterdam-Rijnmond K9 unit.

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