The History of the First K-9 Unit Police Dog

Since dogs were first domesticated in the early days of mankind, the animal has been used as a tool of war and a means of controlling, intimidating and subduing humans. The U.S. Army initiated one of the first organized K-9 units in the Seminole Indian War of 1835-1842, with law enforcement agencies in Europe developing the first, official police canine corps in the 1900s.

  1. History

    • There is no way of determining the very first K9 unit police dog. However, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica Online, "Dogs were first trained for police work at the turn of the 20th century in Ghent, Belgium, and the practice was soon adopted elsewhere." Hungary, Austria, Germany and France recognized the security potential of the animal, with German law enforcement especially enamored of the concept. "In Germany as early as 1911 there were between four and five hundred police stations provided with these specially trained dogs," writes David Brockwell in the book "The Police Dog: A Study of the German Sheperd Dog."

    Time Frame

    • The English experimented with the viability of employing canines as police helpers, allowing pet dogs to accompany police on patrol in the 19th century and using bloodhounds in the search for Jack the Ripper in 1888. But serious efforts toward developing a canine corps remained on the back burner until the next century. "Continued success with dogs by Continental police forces in the 1920s and '30s sparked an interest in the Home Office in Britain," states the website of London's Metropolitan Police Department. "Two specially trained Labradors were officially introduced to the Metropolitan Police Force in 1938 and were based in South London with the idea of accompanying police on beats."

    World War II

    • The usage of dogs in an organized, military fashion accelerated in America with the onset of World War II and an organized U.S. effort to recruit dogs for wartime duty. "The readily used phrase 'K-9 Corps' became a popular title for the War Dog Program in the 1940s and '50s, and found wide informal usage both inside and outside the military," writes The Military Working Dog Foundation. The term "K-9" is a homophone of the word "canine."

    German Sheperds

    • German sheperds have traditionally been viewed as one of the elite breeds compatible with law enforcement and security duty, a reputation partially gained from its use by Nazis for prisoner control at concentration and POW camps. "When a German shepherd dog attacks, it doesn't just intimidate. When it bites, the upper and lower incisors connect like scissors and the large canine teeth remove chunks of flesh," according to K9 Global Training Academy, a Texas training facility for potential K9 officers. "The wounds infect easily, and the scars usually are permanent."

    Modern Honors

    • According to the United States Police Canine Association, the first K-9 competition for police dogs took place in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, in 1964. Today, police dogs are typically considered officers of the law and issued badges and bulletproof vests and, if killed in the line of duty, afforded a funeral ceremony with full police honors.