Police Dog work

[Toby]

Hi, Im at that stage in my life where every one wants me to think about what i wanna do when i leave school, I want to stay on and do al evels next year. I have always loved dogs and have finally got one (a border terrier) I love walking him, training him etc and its just the best feeling when you can see the huge improvement and the satisfaction you get from knowing that you taught him that. Anyway this led me to think about becoming a dog trainer and then onto thinkig about becoming a police dog trainer/ handler and so i geus what im asking is wether any one out there is a dog handler or knows anything about it? and what a levels might be usefull (if any) and also what I might most enjoy ( sniffer dogs, dog handler, dog trainer etc)

 

any info atall would be great thanks!

[trakker01]

great chioce, great wages, great pension.........go on & retire at 45, seems a long way , but it'll soon be with ya

[taz24]

Hi, Im at that stage in my life where every one wants me to think about what i wanna do when i leave school, I want to stay on and do al evels next year. I have always loved dogs and have finally got one (a border terrier) I love walking him, training him etc and its just the best feeling when you can see the huge improvement and the satisfaction you get from knowing that you taught him that. Anyway this led me to think about becoming a dog trainer and then onto thinkig about becoming a police dog trainer/ handler and so i geus what im asking is wether any one out there is a dog handler or knows anything about it? and what a levels might be usefull (if any) and also what I might most enjoy ( sniffer dogs, dog handler, dog trainer etc)

 

any info atall would be great thanks!

 

 

I think that great.

 

You will be required to join and work as a normal Bobby for two years

after your probation period. When that is up you can specialise in somthing

that you want eg dog handling.

 

If thats what you want then go for it.

A lot of things may change between now and then but at least you

are working towards a goal.

 

Cheers taz.

[ashcmt]

hey bud,

 

i dont know much about the dog handling/training industry, but i do know a bit about higher education. being a full time student and all :-)

 

i really really didnt know what i wanted to do as i left school/completed GCSE's, so i figured that the best thing for me to do, was to carry on with subjects that i enjoyed/would open the most doors for me in the future, to effectively buy myself sometime to decided exactly what it was i wanted to do.

 

A Levels are hard there is no doubt about it, and the majority of my friends, including me, all went through times in those two years where we just wanted to throw the towel in. But having stuck to our guns and muddling through, you come out a better educated, more experienced person at the end of it.

 

at times, no doubt you have thought the same things at school, you think your doing things that you'll never use again. but you'll be surprised in years to come when you find yourself infact using things that you learnt way back in school.

 

I did Physics, Chemistry, Maths, and Philosophy to AS, dropped maths, and continued with the other 3 to A level. I didnt get brill grades but i did well enough. I chose to do a degree in Construction, and will be ever grateful for completing my a levels, as they set me up brill to cope with the nature of learning and assessments at uni.

 

I'm a great believer that A levels are a good way of going about things, but i'm a little traditionalist in that i dont really think some of the less academic a levels are really worth doing, but i can only really speak from experience, saying that, my sister has done all 'arty' type a levels, as she's dyslexic, and got three A's. making me look a bit silly, with my grades lol

 

anyway, back to the subject, choose A levels that you think will open as many doors as possible for you in the future, that way if your not sure what you want to do in the future, there is the best possible chance that you'll be able to follow the route you eventually choose.

 

Any questions dont hesitate to ask bud. Hope this helps.

 

Regards,

 

Ash

[andyl]

great chioce, great wages, great pension.........go on & retire at 45, seems a long way , but it'll soon be with ya

 

What job are you talking about. All the recent recruits are on a good wage, BUT not such a great pension and they need to work 35yrs to get it.

 

If you want a truely good wage, pension, time off etc become an MP.

 

I truely agree with another poster here, get a good education, train to be something that if your police dream doesn't happen you will still be able to earn good money. In the future I see more PCSOs than PCs who are only brought out when there is likely to be a confrontational situation.

 

Sorry if I pee'd on your dreams

[Toby]

great chioce, great wages, great pension.........go on & retire at 45, seems a long way , but it'll soon be with ya

 

What job are you talking about. All the recent recruits are on a good wage, BUT not such a great pension and they need to work 35yrs to get it.

 

If you want a truely good wage, pension, time off etc become an MP.

 

I truely agree with another poster here, get a good education, train to be something that if your police dream doesn't happen you will still be able to earn good money. In the future I see more PCSOs than PCs who are only brought out when there is likely to be a confrontational situation.

 

Sorry if I pee'd on your dreams

 

 

Not atall, I need honest oppinions, I've been doing some research and there are so many other paths with dog handeling, its so hard to think about this sort of thing!

 

Thanks guys, kee the advice coming

[Cranfield]

As well as the police, most of the Services have dog handling personnel.

 

Even if you cannot make it your profession, there is nothing stopping you learning to train and handle gundogs.

Quality pickers-up on decent Shoots earn very good "pocket" money.

[Alex1234]

I used to work training drug and bomb detection dogs (2 years ago), I think the thing that got me the job was my experience training gun dogs over anything else, although its well worth doing A levels if you can. It wasn't for the police but a private company owned by a total moron complete with his own drug problem! The thing i found most surprising about it was how little training the dogs actually get. Compared to my gun dog these dogs seemed semi feral. The idea was to keep them working as naturally as possible un restricted by training, the majority of the job was getting the dogs really excited about finding a tennis ball. It was quite fun but compared to training pointers for shooting it was very simple. I would definatley recommend doing it through the Army, RAF or police as my experience of the private companies was a very bad one.

 

I was thinking about doing it through the army, i think the entry requirement for them is about 3 x C at GCSE or there abouts.

[lurcherboy]

Toby, I was picking up at a shoot with a copper that trained gun dogs as a hobby, his real job was working spaniels for detection. I can contact him through NOBS for you and maybe he can give you some advice but I am pretty sure you can't join as one it's just one of the course's that you apply for and then they put you through your paces.

 

 

LB