Day dog handlers MIA. How police dog breeding appeared and developed
June 21 celebrates Day of dog hand units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in Russia. These units are unique in that they serve both people and animals. Four-legged assistants of law enforcement officers discover narcotic and explosive substances, "take the trail" during the search for criminals, protect the safety of people at public events, and guard duty at sites of various values. All this is possible thanks to the skill, dedication and diligence of their mentors - professional dog trainers, who linked their way to the internal affairs bodies. Dog handlers are not only guard dogs, but also full-fledged police officers. They personally take part in the search and detention of dangerous criminals and convoy escort, in the protection of public order on the streets of cities, in anti-terrorist activities and the fight against drug trafficking.
History Service dog breeding goes back centuries. If we talk specifically about the police service dog breeding, then it began to actively develop in the second half of the XIX century. Perhaps one of the first incentives for the development of police cynology was the emergence of an article by Professor Hans Gross of Prague University, The Gendarme Assistant. It was published in one of the Austro-Hungarian police magazines. Although the possibility of using service dogs for the needs of the police service was studied in various countries of Europe, at the turn of the XIX - XX centuries. The first place in terms of the level and quality of police cynology development was occupied by Germany. It was in this country that the closest attention was paid to the use of service dogs for police purposes, which made it possible to create effective methods of animal training, a system was developed for staffing four-legged assistants of army and police units.
The main police breed in Germany was the Doberman. Not every dog breed can boast such certainty in pedigree issues like this one. She was named after the direct founder - Friedrich Louis Doberman, who in the 1860-ies. He worked as a tax collector in the administration of the small town of Apold in Thuringia, which was part of the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar. On duty, Mr. Doberman often had to get into dangerous situations, so he decided to get a four-legged guard - an assistant. Since Frederick Louis Doberman combined the duties of a tax collector and director of the city shelter for stray animals, he decided to bring out the ideal guard and proceeded to cross the pinscher, rottweiler, and cop dogs that were in the shelter. So the breed appeared, named after its “founding father”. Because of the superior qualities of a bloodhound and a security guard, the Doberman became very popular in the police service in Germany and then in other countries. In Russia and the Soviet Union from 1908 to the end of 1940-ies. Doberman also remained the main service dog of the Tsarist police, and then the Soviet police and the NKVD troops. Subsequently, the use of Dobermans was decided to be abandoned because of their short-hairedness, which made it impossible to use them for the protection of prisoners in the harsh northern climate, and affection for one owner - and after all, in the police and troops, instructors of service dogs often changed.
The rottweiler has become another important police breed. This breed got its name by the name of the South German town of Rottweil (Red Buildings), whose inhabitants have been involved in cattle breeding and meat trade for centuries. Large and strong "butcher's dogs" helped to drive the herds, guard the paddocks, and when the butchers went to the market, they harnessed them into carts with meat. In the 19th century, a ban on the use of Rottweil dogs as a force was followed, but the city’s butchers continued to keep them for guard needs. When, in 1901, the German police began to organize kennels for service dogs, the police ranks also paid attention to rottweilers. In 1910, the Rottweiler was officially enrolled in the list of breeds of service dogs of the German police. When one sergeant with the help of a Rottweiler managed to disperse a crowd of drunken aggressive sailors, the policeman was awarded the Kaiser Wilhelm himself, and the Rottweiler was finally recognized as an excellent police dog. However, in Russia and the Soviet Union, the use of a Rottweiler as a service dog for the police and the police was not widespread. Was more popular German shepherd. As for the Rottweilers, their active use for the needs of law enforcement began in the late twentieth century. Today dog handlers with rottweilers can often be seen at public events, rottweilers are guarded by correctional institutions and pre-trial detention centers.
Following Germany, the first canine units began to be created in the police of the Russian Empire. In 1906, the Society for the Promotion of Dogs in the Police and Guard Service was created. In 1906 - 1907 Adjutant General V.A. Dedyulin ordered to organize a special kennel of police dogs in Peterhof. October 19 1908 of the year passed the first All-Russian test of police dogs, which was attended by the Commander-in-Chief of the Guard and St. Petersburg Military District Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich.
The obvious success of service dogs in search and security activities contributed to the decision to establish a special school for trainers of police dogs. The all-round support was rendered by the then Minister of the Interior of the Russian Empire, Peter Arkadyevich Stolypin. The Society for the Encouragement of the Use of Dogs in the Police and Guard Services has been allocated a plot of land on the outskirts of St. Petersburg for the arrangement of a dog kennel and a trainer school. The former dacha of the Stroganov graphs was converted into training corps, cadet dormitories, and a playpen was built for the training of service dogs. The opening ceremony of the nursery and school of dog trainers was held on 21 on June 1909 of the year - this date is now celebrated in Russia as the Day of the canine divisions of the Ministry of the Interior.
At first, the variable staff of the school of trainers was not numerous. The three-month course was taken by a 20-25 person. The experience of the St. Petersburg Society allowed to open its branches in Kharkov, Smolensk and Tiflis. In 1912, among the graduates of the St. Petersburg school of animal trainers were already police officers not only from the European part of Russia, but also from Turkestan and the Transcaucasus. By the beginning of World War I, more than 500 guide trainers served in the police and gendarmerie, more than 100 service dog kennels were created.
One of the founding fathers of police dog breeding in Russia was Vasily Ivanovich Lebedev (1868-1930) - a professional detective, one of the leaders of the Russian detective police, who made a huge contribution to the popularization of cynology. A graduate of the Kiev Cadet School, six years (from 1887 to 1893). Vasily Lebedev served in an infantry regiment, and then retired and was accepted into the service of the Moscow City Police. There he made a serious career - in 1893, Mr. Lebedev was appointed junior assistant bailiff, and in 1900, Mr. 32-year-old former military man became the head of the investigative police. Lebedev went on business trips in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, where he learned from the best practices of the European police services in the field of detective work, including the use of service dogs. With the direct participation of Vasily Lebedev, the Russian Society for the Promotion of the Use of Dogs to the Police and Guard Service was created. Formally occupying the post of companion to the chairman of the Society, in fact, Lebedev was its leader. He was also the editor-in-chief of the Society’s journal Police and Guard Dog (1907-1914). The magazine ceased to exist due to the outbreak of the First World War.
The subsequent years of wars and revolutions became a serious test for the domestic law enforcement system. In fact, it was destroyed and after the approval of the Soviet authorities, the system of law enforcement, including dog service, had to be created from scratch. In the end, the Soviet leaders were convinced of the need to use the achievements and achievements of the tsarist police and gendarmerie. But it was in the Soviet period of national history that the most powerful foundations of dog breeding were laid, which are now being successfully developed by Russian police dog handlers.
Already at the beginning of the 1920s, when the country recovered a bit from the hardest consequences of the First World War and the Civil Wars, the first public schools of service dogs and service dogs were established in the Soviet Union. So, in 1923, two such cynology centers appeared - Central Instructor Courses, later renamed the Central School of Service Dog Breeding of Border Troops, and the Central School - Dog Breeder - Inspector of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Administration of the NKVD of the USSR. The first time of its existence, the school dog service experienced many problems associated with a number of factors. First, there was a shortage of experienced instructors and training organizers. Secondly, there was no own stock of service dogs, so they had to be bought abroad.
Germany remained the main supplier of service dogs for the needs of the Soviet police. First of all, Dobermans were brought, however, short-haired dogs were poorly adapted to the climate of our country. As mentioned above, it was especially difficult to use them for police and security-convoy needs in the areas of the Urals, Siberia, and the European North. Dogs were often sick, and the lack of good medicines did not allow them to provide timely assistance. Nevertheless, even despite such difficult conditions, the domestic cynology developed and for several decades turned into one of the best in the world. As for the “professional distribution” of the breeds, the German shepherds were used for communication at first, the Airedalers as health dogs, the Caucasian Shepherds for guard duty, and as a search police dog of the Soviet militia up to the 1940s. The Doberman Pinscher was still used.
In the post-war period, the East European Shepherd Dog, bred on the basis of the German Shepherd Dog, became the main service dog of the Soviet Union. In 1930's Soviet dog handlers attended to breeding a breed of working dogs, which would be adapted to climatic conditions. Today, the German Shepherd Dog remains the most important official dog of law enforcement. In addition to German shepherds, rottweilers, labradors, spaniels are actively used for police needs. Labradors are used to search for explosives, especially where there are a lot of people and children - after all, this dog, known for its good nature, is not inclined to attack humans. Rottweilers and shepherds are used in the detention of criminals. Recently, the Belgian Shepherd is gaining popularity. She is well trained and in the hands of a skilled trainer becomes an excellent working dog, aided by the natural mind and a good memory of the Belgian shepherds.
A unique experimental service dog, bred in the late Soviet period and received a certain popularity already in post-Soviet Russia - “the Sulimov dog”, which is often called simply “shalayka”. She was bred by Klim Timofeevich Sulimov, a Soviet and Russian biologist who had worked almost all his life in the expert structures of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. Initially, the Nenets Laika and the Central Asian jackal were taken for crossing. The resulting individuals were small, well trained and had a wonderful sense of smell. The first hybrids were bred in 1970-s. and intended to search for drugs. In modern Russia, “Sulimov's dogs” are used in the security service of the Sheremetyevo airport. Now the “shalaik” are reoriented to the search for explosives - in the face of growing terrorist danger this is a very important task.
At present, cynological units operate as part of almost all the power structures of the Russian Federation. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia has a Center for Cynological Support of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, established to ensure coordination of the activities of law enforcement agencies in the sphere of law enforcement, search for criminals through the use of service dogs, organizing legal and logistical support for canine units of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, organizing and implementing selection, breeding, training, maintenance of service dogs in the system of internal affairs. The use of service dogs for the needs of law enforcement does not lose its relevance today - in the age of scientific and technical progress, when new technical devices appear. But the main thing in the dog service will always be the person - the one who trains the service dog, leads her on the trail and, what happens very often, personally takes part in the detention of criminals.
History Service dog breeding goes back centuries. If we talk specifically about the police service dog breeding, then it began to actively develop in the second half of the XIX century. Perhaps one of the first incentives for the development of police cynology was the emergence of an article by Professor Hans Gross of Prague University, The Gendarme Assistant. It was published in one of the Austro-Hungarian police magazines. Although the possibility of using service dogs for the needs of the police service was studied in various countries of Europe, at the turn of the XIX - XX centuries. The first place in terms of the level and quality of police cynology development was occupied by Germany. It was in this country that the closest attention was paid to the use of service dogs for police purposes, which made it possible to create effective methods of animal training, a system was developed for staffing four-legged assistants of army and police units.
The main police breed in Germany was the Doberman. Not every dog breed can boast such certainty in pedigree issues like this one. She was named after the direct founder - Friedrich Louis Doberman, who in the 1860-ies. He worked as a tax collector in the administration of the small town of Apold in Thuringia, which was part of the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar. On duty, Mr. Doberman often had to get into dangerous situations, so he decided to get a four-legged guard - an assistant. Since Frederick Louis Doberman combined the duties of a tax collector and director of the city shelter for stray animals, he decided to bring out the ideal guard and proceeded to cross the pinscher, rottweiler, and cop dogs that were in the shelter. So the breed appeared, named after its “founding father”. Because of the superior qualities of a bloodhound and a security guard, the Doberman became very popular in the police service in Germany and then in other countries. In Russia and the Soviet Union from 1908 to the end of 1940-ies. Doberman also remained the main service dog of the Tsarist police, and then the Soviet police and the NKVD troops. Subsequently, the use of Dobermans was decided to be abandoned because of their short-hairedness, which made it impossible to use them for the protection of prisoners in the harsh northern climate, and affection for one owner - and after all, in the police and troops, instructors of service dogs often changed. The rottweiler has become another important police breed. This breed got its name by the name of the South German town of Rottweil (Red Buildings), whose inhabitants have been involved in cattle breeding and meat trade for centuries. Large and strong "butcher's dogs" helped to drive the herds, guard the paddocks, and when the butchers went to the market, they harnessed them into carts with meat. In the 19th century, a ban on the use of Rottweil dogs as a force was followed, but the city’s butchers continued to keep them for guard needs. When, in 1901, the German police began to organize kennels for service dogs, the police ranks also paid attention to rottweilers. In 1910, the Rottweiler was officially enrolled in the list of breeds of service dogs of the German police. When one sergeant with the help of a Rottweiler managed to disperse a crowd of drunken aggressive sailors, the policeman was awarded the Kaiser Wilhelm himself, and the Rottweiler was finally recognized as an excellent police dog. However, in Russia and the Soviet Union, the use of a Rottweiler as a service dog for the police and the police was not widespread. Was more popular German shepherd. As for the Rottweilers, their active use for the needs of law enforcement began in the late twentieth century. Today dog handlers with rottweilers can often be seen at public events, rottweilers are guarded by correctional institutions and pre-trial detention centers.
Following Germany, the first canine units began to be created in the police of the Russian Empire. In 1906, the Society for the Promotion of Dogs in the Police and Guard Service was created. In 1906 - 1907 Adjutant General V.A. Dedyulin ordered to organize a special kennel of police dogs in Peterhof. October 19 1908 of the year passed the first All-Russian test of police dogs, which was attended by the Commander-in-Chief of the Guard and St. Petersburg Military District Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich.
The obvious success of service dogs in search and security activities contributed to the decision to establish a special school for trainers of police dogs. The all-round support was rendered by the then Minister of the Interior of the Russian Empire, Peter Arkadyevich Stolypin. The Society for the Encouragement of the Use of Dogs in the Police and Guard Services has been allocated a plot of land on the outskirts of St. Petersburg for the arrangement of a dog kennel and a trainer school. The former dacha of the Stroganov graphs was converted into training corps, cadet dormitories, and a playpen was built for the training of service dogs. The opening ceremony of the nursery and school of dog trainers was held on 21 on June 1909 of the year - this date is now celebrated in Russia as the Day of the canine divisions of the Ministry of the Interior. At first, the variable staff of the school of trainers was not numerous. The three-month course was taken by a 20-25 person. The experience of the St. Petersburg Society allowed to open its branches in Kharkov, Smolensk and Tiflis. In 1912, among the graduates of the St. Petersburg school of animal trainers were already police officers not only from the European part of Russia, but also from Turkestan and the Transcaucasus. By the beginning of World War I, more than 500 guide trainers served in the police and gendarmerie, more than 100 service dog kennels were created.
One of the founding fathers of police dog breeding in Russia was Vasily Ivanovich Lebedev (1868-1930) - a professional detective, one of the leaders of the Russian detective police, who made a huge contribution to the popularization of cynology. A graduate of the Kiev Cadet School, six years (from 1887 to 1893). Vasily Lebedev served in an infantry regiment, and then retired and was accepted into the service of the Moscow City Police. There he made a serious career - in 1893, Mr. Lebedev was appointed junior assistant bailiff, and in 1900, Mr. 32-year-old former military man became the head of the investigative police. Lebedev went on business trips in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, where he learned from the best practices of the European police services in the field of detective work, including the use of service dogs. With the direct participation of Vasily Lebedev, the Russian Society for the Promotion of the Use of Dogs to the Police and Guard Service was created. Formally occupying the post of companion to the chairman of the Society, in fact, Lebedev was its leader. He was also the editor-in-chief of the Society’s journal Police and Guard Dog (1907-1914). The magazine ceased to exist due to the outbreak of the First World War.
The subsequent years of wars and revolutions became a serious test for the domestic law enforcement system. In fact, it was destroyed and after the approval of the Soviet authorities, the system of law enforcement, including dog service, had to be created from scratch. In the end, the Soviet leaders were convinced of the need to use the achievements and achievements of the tsarist police and gendarmerie. But it was in the Soviet period of national history that the most powerful foundations of dog breeding were laid, which are now being successfully developed by Russian police dog handlers.
Already at the beginning of the 1920s, when the country recovered a bit from the hardest consequences of the First World War and the Civil Wars, the first public schools of service dogs and service dogs were established in the Soviet Union. So, in 1923, two such cynology centers appeared - Central Instructor Courses, later renamed the Central School of Service Dog Breeding of Border Troops, and the Central School - Dog Breeder - Inspector of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Administration of the NKVD of the USSR. The first time of its existence, the school dog service experienced many problems associated with a number of factors. First, there was a shortage of experienced instructors and training organizers. Secondly, there was no own stock of service dogs, so they had to be bought abroad.
Germany remained the main supplier of service dogs for the needs of the Soviet police. First of all, Dobermans were brought, however, short-haired dogs were poorly adapted to the climate of our country. As mentioned above, it was especially difficult to use them for police and security-convoy needs in the areas of the Urals, Siberia, and the European North. Dogs were often sick, and the lack of good medicines did not allow them to provide timely assistance. Nevertheless, even despite such difficult conditions, the domestic cynology developed and for several decades turned into one of the best in the world. As for the “professional distribution” of the breeds, the German shepherds were used for communication at first, the Airedalers as health dogs, the Caucasian Shepherds for guard duty, and as a search police dog of the Soviet militia up to the 1940s. The Doberman Pinscher was still used.
In the post-war period, the East European Shepherd Dog, bred on the basis of the German Shepherd Dog, became the main service dog of the Soviet Union. In 1930's Soviet dog handlers attended to breeding a breed of working dogs, which would be adapted to climatic conditions. Today, the German Shepherd Dog remains the most important official dog of law enforcement. In addition to German shepherds, rottweilers, labradors, spaniels are actively used for police needs. Labradors are used to search for explosives, especially where there are a lot of people and children - after all, this dog, known for its good nature, is not inclined to attack humans. Rottweilers and shepherds are used in the detention of criminals. Recently, the Belgian Shepherd is gaining popularity. She is well trained and in the hands of a skilled trainer becomes an excellent working dog, aided by the natural mind and a good memory of the Belgian shepherds.
A unique experimental service dog, bred in the late Soviet period and received a certain popularity already in post-Soviet Russia - “the Sulimov dog”, which is often called simply “shalayka”. She was bred by Klim Timofeevich Sulimov, a Soviet and Russian biologist who had worked almost all his life in the expert structures of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. Initially, the Nenets Laika and the Central Asian jackal were taken for crossing. The resulting individuals were small, well trained and had a wonderful sense of smell. The first hybrids were bred in 1970-s. and intended to search for drugs. In modern Russia, “Sulimov's dogs” are used in the security service of the Sheremetyevo airport. Now the “shalaik” are reoriented to the search for explosives - in the face of growing terrorist danger this is a very important task.
At present, cynological units operate as part of almost all the power structures of the Russian Federation. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia has a Center for Cynological Support of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, established to ensure coordination of the activities of law enforcement agencies in the sphere of law enforcement, search for criminals through the use of service dogs, organizing legal and logistical support for canine units of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, organizing and implementing selection, breeding, training, maintenance of service dogs in the system of internal affairs. The use of service dogs for the needs of law enforcement does not lose its relevance today - in the age of scientific and technical progress, when new technical devices appear. But the main thing in the dog service will always be the person - the one who trains the service dog, leads her on the trail and, what happens very often, personally takes part in the detention of criminals.
Information