HYDERABAD: After rigorous training of eight months, 33 police canines, along with their 47 handlers, will pass out from the Integrated Intelligence Training Academy (IITA) in Moinabad. Canines from Goa police trained at IITA will be also passing out this year. Ravi Gupta, Telangana Principal Secretary (Home), will review the Passing out Parade (PoP) to be held on Saturday.
The canines passing out will include Belgian Malinois, Labrador, Golden Retriever, and German Shepherd. Out of over 400 breeds, Police Department has been deploying 12 breeds. In addition, Cocker Spaniels are also used for searches at airports, due to their small size compared to other used breeds.
As a part of their training in the elite academy, they will be first groomed, fed on time, will be acquainted with the handler, and then, the canines come to a stage of identifying their handlers. From the fourth month, they will be trained on obeying commands, sitting, standing, lying down, saluting, etc.
They, then go through a test, and those, who clear the test are trained on full scale to identify explosives, narcotics and suspects, and other related aspects.
Based on the requirements given by different police wings for sniffer and tracker canines, Intelligence and Intelligence Security Wing (ISW) procure three-month-old puppies and hands them over to the academy for training.
While the usual lifetime of dogs is around 14 years, dogs that are inducted into the Police Department retire at eight years of age, after which they will be handed over to the handlers.