BENGALURU: Canines with the Central Reserve Police Force’s (CRPF) dog squad were a delight to watch as they showcased their policing skills at the Bangalore Canine Club’s 50th Dog Show. This is the first time that the CRPF’s canine squad performed at the dog show. A team of Belgian Shepherd Malinois showcased their skills on agility training, assault, guarding, narcotic tracking, and detection of explosives. A one-year-old Malinois dog guarded its master’s bag in his absence. While in another skill, one of the dogs detected 2 grams of gunpowder in a person’s pocket.
“Many a time in deep jungles or of the Western Ghats, climbing is stressful. We can climb up as we have equipment but the dogs find it difficult. Agility training is given to them order so that they can do it by themselves,” said SR Arun Kumar, Assistant Commandant, CRPF. The highlight of the event was when a three-month-old dog also showed the ability to attack the assailants in a demonstration leading the crowd to hoot and applaud. “So far we have about 1,412 trained dogs in the country. In Bengaluru alone we have 250 dogs. The dogs are trained when they are three months old and continues to until they are 10 months old. In a span of seven months they are fully trained.
This is the first time we did a live demo in front of the public. It is usually done for dignitaries. We wanted the public to know who our unsung heroes are,” said Kumar. Eight-year-old Shravani Kumar, resident of Jaynagar said, “I had a great time watching the dog squad team perform. Now I want to train my dog the same way as well. It was amazing.” The show is a two-day event with over 500 dogs of 45 breeds participating.