Pune police announce new dog squad member, seek a name for it

Posting a photo of police commissioner Amitabh Gupta greeting the Labrador retriever, the police tweeted, “Pune, say Hi to the new member of our K9 Dog unit’s Bomb Detection Squad! What should we name him? Any suggestions?”

The force has a sanctioned strength of nine dogs, of which four retired after completing their 10 years of service in the first week of February. A committee is in the process of selecting and recruiting four dogs to replace the ones that have retired. The puppy whose photo was tweeted on Wednesday replaces Prince, which specialised in explosives detection. Another puppy joined the force on Monday.

Maharashtra Police recruit dog breeds such as Doberman, German Shepherd, Labrador retrievers and have for the past three years inducted Belgian Malinois as well. The puppies are selected at the age of 45-60 days by a committee from individual police units. Till the age of six months, these dogs remain stationed at their service unit, getting to know their two handlers and undergoing basic obedience training.

At the age of six months, they come to the Maharashtra State Dog Training School in Pune, where they undergo training for six or nine months depending on the category of duty. While the dogs retire at the age of 10, they undergo a one-month refresher course every three years, for which they again come to the training school. A procedure has also been laid down for the post-retirement care of the dogs, and in a large number of cases, their handlers end up adopting the dogs.

Established in 1962, the school trains dogs for four tasks, the first being crime detection, which includes training for recognising and tracking specific scents. The others are narcotics detection, patrolling-guarding duties, and explosives and bomb detection. Maharashtra has 458 police dogs in its service.