Lately a few handlers of the South-Holland-South PD, K9-unit got new dogs. All handlers are pretty experienced and these new dogs are not the first dogs they work. After the KNPV PH1-certification the new dogs came to the PD and directely from that moment they started their training for the law enforcement patroldogcertification. And at the end of that training finally there was the moment that the new dogs were allowed to work the streets. 
But are they ready to work the streets? No way! Always remember that the PH1-title is a 100% sporttitle and has nothing to do with the work that we demand of a policeservicedog. After the titles the real work starts!
Never forget that a dog cannot do his job on his own! Its the combination of handler/dog that has to do the job, in training and on the streets. Always take your time for streetworthyness training and scenariotraining and be patience with a new dog. Some of these dogs only saw their kennel, the car and the KNPV-trainingfield and nothing else. You have to help these dogs to become a good PSD!
Good  luck!

The last four days my friend K9-officer Will Fernandez of the Savannah-Chatham Metro Police visited our country and we were able to give him an insideview of several K9-units and disciplines.
On monday he spent the whole day with KLPD's Sgt. Dick Staal, specialized in working with puppies and tracking. The dogs he is working now are at the age of 8 months and track on a daily basis, both hard surface and other surfaces. For those who want to see more about this training with puppies, go to www.dickstaal.com.

On tuesday Will joined a searchwarrant and saw te work of our moneydogs, followed by some training with new and unexperienced patroldoghandlers of the Dutch railwaypolice. The evening was used for a ride along with a fellow K9-officer.

On wednesday we went to the K9-unit of the South Holland South PD for certification- and scenariotraining. Ofcourse Will had to catch a lot of dogs during this training to make sure he is going to bring back the traditional brooses to the US.

Its always hard to show as much as possible what Dutch K9-work means in just a few days. For sure we all had a great time and I hope Will saw some things that are usefull for him in his daily work.

For me the national breed of The Netherlands or Holland, the Dutch Shepherd, is the perfect combination of strength, character, valour and limberness that makes it the police service dog that it is. Just a little larger and more muscular than the average Malinois he is capable of doing his job on the streets in the most difficult circumstances, always and everyware. This doesn´t mean that there are no other breeds that are great police service dogs, the Dutch Shepherd is just my favorite. The only thing I don´t understand is that people sometimes their own shortage of skills try to hide by putting a ban on a breed, in this case the DS. I know the typical DS characteristics demands a handler with skills to be able to deal with these dogs, but as soon as the handler and the dog understand eachother you have a great combination. Some time ago I read an interview in Police K9 Magazine with Mr. Harold Bennett, President of the NAPWDA, in wich he called the DS "a Malinios on steroids". Let me start by saying that ofcourse everyone is entitled to have his own opinion about a breed, but always make sure that you understand a breed before having an opinion. In our K9-unit we work with German Sheperds, malinois and Dutch Shepherds and I can say that I know the breeds very well. All three breeds have its own qualities and its own positive and negative aspects but all three are usefull in law enforcement. To disqualify the DS by making the statement  "a Malinios on steroids" is not correct and insulting for all the people that put a lot of effort in this outstanding breed of true working dogs.  

The "break-stick" or "release-stick" as a piece of equipment for the Dutch police K9-handler is as common in Holland as cheese and tulips are and every time I introduce it in the US during seminars some of the worst releasing dogs on a "hard out" release the suit or sleeve in a split second. In Holland we train the verbal out (mandatory for certification) as much as the hard out (or tactical out) and the use of the stick has proven itself for many years on the streets. The stick will prevent you from using multiple commands that are ignored by a dog in fightingmode on the streets or from choking off you dog, wich will take sometimes half a minute and on top of that the dog can loose contious. With the right use of the stick the dog will out the suspect in a split second because you use the gag-reflex. The use of the gag-reflex doesn't hurt the dog and the dog will be focussed on the suspect after the out constantelly. Its a safe, fast and animalfriendly methode of using a hard out during streetworthyness training or real streetwork.
People sometimes say that we "jam a screwdriver in the dog's mouth", but onfortunatelly these people never saw, experienced or attend a training of us, using the "release-stick". Believe me, we would never use this piece of equipment in Holland when we would hurt our dogs with it in the mouth, after the nose the most important part of our dogs.