Besides being a loyal ‘best friend’, dogs also support police in their work. Trained police dogs make the work of police force easy by getting some tricky jobs done. The police on their part invest a lot on canine training, grooming and management.
2012 batch IPS officer of Chhattisgarh cadre, Mr. Vijay Agrawal, has written a book on this, named ‘Police Dog Training and Management’, based on his own experiences. Till now, he has groomed and trained more than 24 dogs.
The book reveals interesting facts about sniffer dogs which can not just sniff out narcotic substances but can also detect diseases like Covid, diabetes and cancer. They can even easily determine whether a person is happy or sad.
Indian Masterminds interacted with SP of Janjgir-Champa district, Mr. Vijay Agarwal, to get more details about his book.
THE BOOK
Before joining as SP of Janjgir-Champa district, Mr. Agarwal was posted as Commandant in 7th battalion of Chhattisgarh Armed Forces in Bhilai, from February 2019 to May 2022. During that time, he worked on breeding, grooming and training of Belgian Shepherd sniffer dogs.
He said, “I have written this book based on those days’ experiences. The book, along with being a memoir, will give you the feeling of being face-to-face with the thrilling and interesting world of dogs. The qualities of a dog are much more than what we know about them. They just need to be given proper training as per their needs.”
It took approximately six months to write the book which has information about dogs’ breeding, grooming and training. The speciality, history, achievements and needs of the dog breeds have also been highlighted. The methods of training them, diet, care and their habits are also described in detail.
Readers will get to know interesting facts regarding dogs, like dogs sweat through their paws, they are born swimmer, and they also dream during sleep.
The smelling power of a dog is 10 thousand times higher than that of humans. Hence, if they are trained in this direction, it proves to be very effective. Apart from this, some dogs can also be trained to help specially abled people.
Mr. Agarwal explains that there has been mention of dogs since the Mahabharata and Indus Valley civilization times. It means that humans were aware of their canine friends’ usefulness long ago.
TRAINING
In the police department, dogs are given various types of training, due to which they can also detect diseases. Mr. Agarwal said that during the pandemic, some dogs in Saudi Arabia were given such training that they could detect by the smell of a person whether he or she had Covid.
However, it is the training part that is difficult, which is done according to the schedule. There is a difference between the body smell of a Covid and some other patient, or a healthy person. The police dogs are trained to detect accordingly.
SEEMA
Mr. Agarwal has trained 24 dogs in the 7th battalion. Now all these dogs are in the service of Chhattisgarh Police and are doing excellent work. Many dog trainers have learned training under him. One of his trained dogs, named Seema, is currently working with him in the district.
Mr. Agarwal said, “This was a new experience for me and I enjoyed it a lot. If trained correctly, dogs can be very useful. This book is being sent to all the dog training schools in the state and other places.”
FOR PRIVATE DOG OWNERS
This book is not just useful for police training manual, but for individual one too. Mr. Agarwal said that it is also for those who do not know about dogs but want to keep dogs. “A one-year-old dog is as intelligent as a 15-year-old human. So dog parents will get a lot of information from the book on how to handle their pet, as everything from a dog’s behaviour to its grooming and training has been explained in detail,” he added.
