What is K9?
A police dog, or K-9, is a dog trained to assist police and other law enforcement personnel. The word K-9 (key-nine) is synonymous with the Latin word canine, meaning dog. The most commonly used dog breed for this purpose is the German shepherd.
In most jurisdictions, the deliberate killing or injury of a police dog is a felony and the perpetrator receives a heavier penalty than torture to a normal animal. While some security forces use steel vest police dogs, some have uniforms and badges for dogs on duty.
Police dogs can be used to catch criminals and prevent the caught criminal from escaping. Apart from that, police dogs are used for:
- Search-and-rescue dogs: These dogs are used to locate criminals or missing people, property. They are mostly Bloodhound breed dogs.
- Detection dog: Some dogs can be used to detect illegal substances such as drugs or explosives. Beagles are used for this purpose at airports in most countries.
- Corpse-finding dog: With their strong sense of smell, these dogs can even smell corpses under running water.
What is K9 dog breeds used
- Dogo Argentino: (protecting officer, assault, bomb detection, drug detection, food detection)
- German shepherd dog: (officer protection, assault, ground and air tracking, human remains locating, drug detection, EOD detection, incident detection)
- Dutch Shepherd Dog: (protecting officer, attack)
- Belgian Shepherd Dog: (protecting officer, attack, EOD detection)
- Boxer: (protecting officer, attack)
- Labrador retriever: (bomb detection, drug detection)
- Doberman: (protecting officer, assault)
- Springer Spaniel: (bomb detection, drug detection)
- Bloodhound: (sniffing person, tracking, bomb detection, drug detection, event detection)
- Beagle: (bomb detection, drug detection, food detection)
- Rottweiler: (protecting officer, attack)
- Big Schnauzer: (officer protection, attack)
- Bernese mountain dog: (finding missing person)
For more information: Wikipedia