K9 Dog Unit Visit 2010

Our cadets had the opportunity to visit the K9 dog unit in 2010. Here, a cadet reflects on her experience throughout the three days.

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Day 1

When I was stepped into the Police K-9 Unit, I could not recognise anyone as most of us are from different areas. Soon enough, our instructor came and gave us a tour around the place. I never knew that dogs were that commonly used by the police! After that, we went to our lockers to change and put our belongings.

We were split into pairs; one pair would be given one dog. I was a little afraid as the dogs were quite big and they kept barking at us. We were told to put the collar around the dogs and leash them. Luckily, my partner was experienced, so I let her go first. We brought it out of the kennel and to the exercise area, where the dog will do its business.

Next, we brought the dogs to the grooming area, where we massaged, washed and combed the dogs. Through this, I was less afraid of the dog and began to communicate with my partner more too. We had to carry plastic bags with us in case the dog did its business. Walking the dog was quite a challenge as they had a lot of strength and they would rather prefer a run to a walk. In addition, the leashes we used were rough and caused abrasions to some of us.

We had lunch together and we managed to talk and joke around. Initially, I thought it would be quite hard for us to bond as most of us were from different areas and we were not all the same age. My partner and I are the only sec 2s among the 6. After that, we were allowed to each handle a dog. We bathed, groomed and walked the dogs. I was happy that I was able to control my dog better. Lastly, we fed the dogs and that was the end of our day.

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Day 2

On the 2^nd day, we were given a demonstration on how a sniffer dog detects things such as firearms, drugs and illegal immigrants. We were told that the dog handler had only undergone 2 dry runs and this was her first time doing the real procedure. We were impressed at how she handled the dog so well. Next we went to the field to see a dog handler and his dog doing distance training and the procedures of a dog helping to arrest a delinquent by our very own instructor. The dogs were well disciplined, they executed every command their dog handler said.

After that, we brought out our dogs from the kennels and did our usual procedure, which was to exercise and groom them. We had a special task from our instructor; we had to play with our dogs! Each one of us was given a ball and the entire training area to play. The dogs would chase after the ball and even jump to get it! However, the dogs were possessive over the ball and would not let go of it. Finally we washed the kennels and fed the dogs.

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Day 3

I was quite sad as this would be the last day we got to interact with the dogs and see my new found friends. Firstly, we went to Woodlands Checkpoint to see the dogs in action. We got to travel there in a real police van! We learnt how dogs were used to check for illegal items and how they were taken care of there. We even got to see how the dogs were used to check the trains! Our instructor said that we were quite lucky as we were the first batch to be able to see that.

We went back to Police k-9 Unit and took photos with our dogs in full u. After that, we changed and played with our dogs in the field for the last time. Our instructor allowed us to play more as it was our last time together. Later, we put them back in kennels and fed them. That was our last interaction with them. Lastly, we got our certificates for attending the attachment.

In a nutshell, it was an eye opener for me as I had never been to the k-9 Unit and rarely would people see the dogs working like I did. Furthermore, I met great friends that I would never forget. It’s definitely an unforgettable experience.