Several dog breeds are often trained for police work and are adept at sniffing out narcotics, bombs, catching criminals and so on, and beagles are one of the best sniffers around.
Beagles are often underestimated because of their short stature and friendly disposition, but they are versatile dogs and are used in harbors, airports, and border zones to sniff out narcotics and illegal substances because of their powerful sense of smell.
Beagles are extremely food motivated and are incredibly interested in other animals. They can easily track the scents of prohibited meats, fruits, vegetables, cheese, birds, or snakes. Beagles have an incredible working ability and a desire to cooperate with their handlers as well.
In this article, I’ll get into some of the ways that beagles are used as police dogs, and will explain what types of training methods are used on them by police units.
Why Are Beagles Used As Police Dogs?
Heightened ability to detect and smell
Beagles have one of the best noses among all the dog breeds. They are a smaller breed but have a great personality. Because of their hunting past, they are fast and swift and can track scents while staying less detected.
Beagles have scent membranes which can catch a whiff of a scent more with way more accuracy than humans. Their long droopy noses also help them to trap smells and keep the odors close to their noses.
Beagles are sniffer dogs who are trained to locate substances low to the ground, which is why they’re often used to sniff out luggage in airports.
When they detect dangerous or illegal material, they give a signal to their handlers. But due to this keen sense of smell, beagles also get distracted easily. Therefore training beagle as a police dog entails teaching them discipline and direction.
Bred for obedience
Beagles are small hound dogs that were bred to hunt small animals like rabbits, hares, pheasants, and other types of birds. They are pack dogs that can be extremely obedient to their pack leader. Because of this, they are great performers in tracking, obedience, and agility events. With the training that police K-9 units provide, beagles’ obedience can come in handy when it comes to sniffing for clues and contraband.
Search and rescue abilities
Beagles love to be both physically and mentally stimulated and so search and rescue work can be a rewarding job for them.
Their highly developed sense of smell and their hunting and herding lineage makes them excellent search and rescue dog breeds. While beagles aren’t as aggressive as other police dog breeds like german shepherds, they have the required set of skills to be trained for search and rescue missions. Because beagles are a smaller type of breed, it is easy to lift them into areas where an average person can’t reach, which makes them a valuable asset for police in cases of emergency.
What Are Common Police Dog Training Methods?
Police dogs are trained using various rigorous methods to be disciplined, agile, and smart when on the job. There are lots of police dog training methods, including communication, rewards, training tricks, obedience training, collars, and harnesses.
Training a dog is an uphill task in the beginning, but with patience, praise, and consistency, dogs start learning to interpret the signs of their handlers. Police dogs are trained using positive methods of reinforcement so that they can retain everything they learn and trust their human companions when they go out to perform an array of tasks. There is an element of danger when on the job as a police dog, so having a good relationship with their handlers is vital for everyone’s safety.
While training the police dogs, no intimidation methods are used, as they can negatively influence the progress of training in the dogs. Each police dog requires specialty training. Some are trained to search for narcotics and drugs, and others are more suited to sniff out bombs and weapons. A police dog must also undergo agility and endurance training in order to be able to climb stairs and jump over walls.
Some of the standard police training methods include:
Obedience training and socialization
Before learning any other skill, it is essential for police dogs first to learn to obey the commands of their handlers. Obedience training helps keep their inherent aggression in check and allows a police officer to control the force a dog uses against a suspect. Obedience training is started early, and the puppies are taught basic obedience commands like sit, and stay both on-leash and off-leash.
Socialization, too, is a significant component of training police dogs. Socialization is crucial for proper mental and social development in dogs to prevent aggression and to make them learn to control their bites.
Positive reinforcement
A dog will repeat good behavior when rewarded, and bad behavior does not get any rewards, but negative scolding is never used.
This type of training method involves rewarding desired behavior immediately. Sometimes this method is combined with clicker training to better build an association with a command and action. Commands are kept short and to the point.
Clicker training
The main advantage of this method is that the clicker signals the exact moment of the desired action. First, a dog is trained to understand that a click means that a reward or treat is coming. Then the dog is conditioned to associate a behavior with a click and reward. This method is used to teach new tricks and skills to the dogs and is proved to be very useful for both regular households and higher stakes police training.
Scent training
A police dog must have a strong sense of smell and are therefore are frequently to use their senses properly so that they can sniff out illegal substances and criminals. Dogs are trained to sniff weapons, bombs, blood, currency, even dead bodies. Combining their natural desire to hunt and months of training, the dogs can search for dangerous and illegal items just as effectively as they would look for their favorite toys.
Consistent and continuous training
Consistency is the cornerstone of all police dog training schools. Regular training and practice can make the police dogs experts at drug detection, stopping criminals on the run and search and rescue. Training for police dogs never ceases. The police dogs are trained all the time, even when not on duty, to keep them ready for the day when their specialized skills will be required.
Final Thoughts
A beagle’s keen sense of smell, a strong drive to please, and willingness to work hard makes them valuable police partners as a breed.
Beagles may not be trained for protection and intimidation as compared to their shepherd friends, but they are perfect sniffing dogs who are naturally curious, eager to learn, and friendly.
