# Europeon Versus American Patrol Dogs



## Lee H Sternberg (Jan 27, 2008)

Is there a difference in the type dog temperament desired for patrol duty in the US versus Europe?


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## Mike Schoonbrood (Mar 27, 2006)

Yes.


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## Lee H Sternberg (Jan 27, 2008)

In what way do they differ? The only thing I remember hearing somewhere is European dogs tend to be more aggressive than what is deemed desirable for US police work.

Is that a accurate assumption?


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## Mike Scheiber (Feb 17, 2008)

Most cop dogs around here come from europe as for being more aggressive maybe better or more control over the animal would be a better description.


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## Mark Horne (Oct 12, 2006)

Culturely we don't have the firearms issues you suffer in the US (not that far behind in some parts) so the dog was a serious use of force and used frequently as less likely to be shot (lower threat levels).

In Europe many countries have solid foundations in dog sports, access to quality of dogs, training techniques, and public acceptance, with departmental support it is often less of an issue; ever talked bloodlines with your Head of HR and Finance.

Like a lot of issues around US law enforcement common standards can be an issue with 52 states. Generally in Europe each countries has its own national standards and curriculum, policies on use, training, even pay for the Handlers. In the UK all Instructors from the 43 Forces (140,000 officers) attend a National Instructors Course, 18weeks long and too get on it you have to have been a handler and passed a nationally accredited 12 week handlers course, another 6 weeks if you have a drugs dog. Even in policing terms the smallest departments have 1000 officers, plus as many civilian support staff. Setting up a dog section is less of an issue, I admire LE officers who have established sections with only 3 Dogs and little if any infra structure. The US has the best and worst in LE, whilst Europe is a bit more middle of the road. 

The use of the dogs and there nature, aggressive will often be down to that department, in Europe we are constricted by political correctness and we can't be as positive with felons because we are not supported by the media or our bosses.

Some US Dog Sections are very advanced in there training and quality of dogs, I also think in Europe the dog is used in public disorder with our Horse Sections to control soccer thugs, so they can appear in the media a bit more aggressive...

Mark


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## ann schnerre (Aug 24, 2006)

mark, i really, really, really , really almost didn't coment, but as far as i know we only have 50 states in the union. have i missed something? did we add 2 states and no-one said anything?


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## Mike Scheiber (Feb 17, 2008)

ann freier said:


> mark, i really, really, really , really almost didn't coment, but as far as i know we only have 50 states in the union. have i missed something? did we add 2 states and no-one said anything?


Holly smokes you got to shitting him I hope!


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## Alyssa Myracle (Aug 4, 2008)

Two of our territories have many of the same rights and privileges as states.
In the National Guard, we have 52 "States", since Puerto Rico and Guam have their own National Guard, which falls under the same National Guard Bureau as any other Guard state.


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## David Scholes (Jul 12, 2008)

According to the front runner in the US election we have 57 states.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGH02DtIws


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## Jerry Lyda (Apr 4, 2006)

Yes but he was talking about Islamic states.


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## ann schnerre (Aug 24, 2006)

Mike Scheiber said:


> Holly smokes you got to shitting him I hope!


nope i wasn't "shitting" him mike. as far as i know the USA has 50 states and 2 territories. NOT "states".

anyway, back OT  i have no knowledge, therefore no opinion.


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## Erik Berg (Apr 11, 2006)

It differs from where in Europe you live, and naturally there are some variation also within a country. The scandinavin PSD for example must be a very versatile, due to it´s many different uses, wich restricts suitable dogs. In holland they have seperate tracking and biting dogs as mentioned before on the forum, not sure but thinks that´s the case in belgium too.

If the dogs are being more aggressive I don´t know, but probably more uniform in quality where I suppose US is more of a meltingpot, with different standards across the country, or?

A dog that have decent courage and can take pressure, large prey/fightingdrive combined with good nerves and controlability and reasonable social is what the police want here, and enough "motor" for long tracks and searchwork.


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## Barrie Kirkland (Nov 6, 2007)

Erik , i believe you have summed it up very well and certainely have covered a UK PD


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## Tim Martens (Mar 27, 2006)

Erik Berg said:


> It differs from where in Europe you live, and naturally there are some variation also within a country. The scandinavin PSD for example must be a very versatile, due to it´s many different uses, wich restricts suitable dogs. In holland they have seperate tracking and biting dogs as mentioned before on the forum, not sure but thinks that´s the case in belgium too.
> 
> If the dogs are being more aggressive I don´t know, but probably more uniform in quality where I suppose US is more of a meltingpot, with different standards across the country, or?
> 
> A dog that have decent courage and can take pressure, large prey/fightingdrive combined with good nerves and controlability and reasonable social is what the police want here, and enough "motor" for long tracks and searchwork.





Barrie Kirkland said:


> Erik , i believe you have summed it up very well and certainely have covered a UK PD


i agree with barrie who agrees with erik.

from speaking with dutch police dog handlers, they don't use their "patrol" dogs to search very much. they're pretty much bite dogs. you want to track someone? they have tracking dogs. you want a narcotic search? they have narcotics dogs. our dogs must do all of those things here and if you work where i work, the dog must be social on top of all of that to handle the PR part of the assignment. 

more "aggressive"? difficult question. there are different forms of aggression that come from different places. again, i'll defer to erik who said the dogs in holland are more "uniform in quality".


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## Selena van Leeuwen (Mar 29, 2006)

I agree with Erik, well said.
We don't have dual purpose dogs because of legislation :wink: Has to to do with evidence in court.
The (long) searches and discrimination dogs are done by other dogs than the patroldogs.


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## David Scholes (Jul 12, 2008)

Selena van Leeuwen said:


> I agree with Erik, well said.
> We don't have dual purpose dogs because of legislation :wink: Has to to do with evidence in court.
> The (long) searches and discrimination dogs are done by other dogs than the patroldogs.


Are the same lines used for all types of work or are certain lines bred for patrol, another for searches etc? Or are they using different breeds for searches and detection?


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