Those incredibly 'unreliable' DOGS............again!

The nose knows....

Dad was still in his car when the dog got excited.

Surely this tells you all you need to know about the senses of a dog.

Italian Lifeguard Dogs Courageously Jump Out Of Helicopters To Save Countless Lives












https://woofwoof.tv/italian-lifeguard-dogs-courageously-jump-out-of-helicopters-to-save-countless-lives/?fbclid=IwAR3BvtvGeCuqTI406_GBPHeghhLSULCNdSRaYvU9kZggPPUCB5psIVxtsrc

https://twitter.com/DC_PoliceDogs/status/1330562630977720321

Failed drug dog gives police an emotional high

John Simpson, Crime Correspondent
Monday November 30 2020, 12.01am GMT, The Times


Dexter, who failed his sniffer dog training, has become the force’s first “wellbeing dog”
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE

Earlier this year Dexter’s police career was in tatters. Having flunked his training as an elite sniffer dog for being “too sociable”, the black labrador was expected to leave the force.

Now, months later, he has earned a place in Scotland Yard’s history books and even been given an audience with Dame Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police commissioner.

Dexter, who lacked focus and was too “gregarious” to make the cut as a search dog, has become the force’s first “wellbeing dog”.

PC Mike Sheather, his handler, is an experienced frontline officer with specialist mental health and trauma training who takes Dexter to meet officers and staff ranging from counterterrorism and firearms units to neighbourhood bobbies.

“He was destined to be a drugs dog. Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for us, he didn’t make it,” PC Sheather said. “He’s got a really good nose on him, it’s just that his personality didn’t lend itself to being a drugs dog. He’s just too good around people. He got withdrawn because he was too sociable.

“He also started to show signs of distress in training. If a dog isn’t settling or isn’t happy in their role it’s our duty to take them out. It was like one of my old school reports — lacked focus, immature, concentration issues. They actually used the word gregarious.”

PC Sheather came up with the idea of using Dexter as a wellbeing dog while speaking about the labrador to a colleague in a pub garden. Inspired by the use of combat stress dogs in the US army, Dexter’s effect — evidenced by his ability to bring a smile to the face of the most gnarled detective or beat cop — is actually supported by research. Studies have found that interactions with pets, such as stroking a dog, help to release oxytocin in humans, which has been referred to as the love hormone or the cuddle chemical.

Importantly for PC Sheather, oxytocin helps to balance out cortisol, the hormone associated with stress. During the first wave of the virus in May he took Dexter to meet police members of the pandemic multi-agency response team (Pmart), many of whom had been given the task of sitting with dead bodies having been moved from office-based roles. “They were going into the community, recording ‘life extinct’ and preparing the bodies for collecting,” he said.

At first, PC Sheather and a colleague had taken dogs from the training school to the Pmart hubs. “We saw first-hand how successful dogs are at raising morale,” he said. “They had been doing it for two or three months when I took Dexter around.”

At Lewisham police station in south London last week Dexter chased tennis balls around the room while his handler gave officers a presentation on stress, trauma and how to seek support.

PC Sheather, who has served in the Met’s territorial support group — units often called on to assist in serious cases of violence and disorder — received a commendation in 2011 after he and his partner confronted a gunman. His partner was shot and wounded but PC Sheather and his German shepherd, Boz, chased and detained the suspect.

“I still blame myself for letting him [my partner] get in front,” PC Sheather said. “The dog handler should always be in front.”

He chose to become more heavily involved with mental health support in policing after personal grief and loss was compounded by being sent to bleak crime scenes. He referred to his past depression using the phrase coined by Sir Winston Churchill: “the black dog”.

He and Dexter have been such a success that the programme will be extended. There are also discussions about appointing an officer as the national lead for wellbeing dogs.

Although some have dogs on their wellbeing schemes, no other force has a serving officer running a scheme like the Met’s and Dexter is now considered the “gold standard”, PC Sheather said.

As the presentation came to an end and Dexter vanished into an evidence room, it was obvious that the black dog in PC Sheather’s life was of a rather less menacing kind.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/ex-drug-dog-gives-police-an-emotional-high-3ltp9rv8h

What a hero !

Cuddle Dog - for all the right reasons.

It just goes to show that if a dog is found to be "unreliable" in any way, shape, or form, that they are taken out of the training program....and are not head-hunted by the FBI to go work for them.

What do you say about that Professor McCann?

Awkward !!!

Clever doggy .

@Jill Havern wrote:It just goes to show that if a dog is found to be "unreliable" in any way, shape, or form, that they are taken out of the training program....and are not head-hunted by the FBI to go work for them.

What do you say about that Professor McCann?

Perhaps Kate should have had a Cuddle Dog instead of a Cuddlecat . It would have helped when she was suffering from a deep depression 

( cough cough !) 

Dogs however are very good judges of character , didn't she ( allegedly ) get bitten by one on her run with Matt ? 

I doubt the twins would be allowed a puppy as a pet , and one Cat in the house would certainly be enough