Police dogs in VIP rooms and the secret behind their cute appearance
Báo Dân trí•26/05/2024
(Dan Tri) - Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Dinh said that Lieutenant General Tran Hai Quan was the first Commander to directly go down to the area where the dogs were raised and trained to visit and inspect, and even went down twice without prior notice.
- "Attack!" The police dog named Ka rushed at the speed of an arrow towards the target, biting, tearing, and attacking the target with its mouth, determined not to let go. In contrast to its gentle, cute appearance like a pet dog, with just one command from the trainer, Ka "changed state", becoming a formidable "weapon". Lieutenant Vu The Khang (Training and Use of Service Animals Team, Technical Protection Team 1, Technical Protection Department, Guard Command) is the officer who trains and uses Ka's "owner". Mr. Khang received Ka in 2021, when Ka was about a year old. "Ka is not only a friendly dog, a police dog, but to me, Ka is like a child, a close friend, a comrade who always stands shoulder to shoulder when performing duties", Lieutenant Khang shared with Dan Tri reporter about his 4-legged guard soldier. Introducing Ka, Lieutenant Khang said that his dog is a Spanish Cocker, considered one of the most intelligent guard dogs in the world. Ka is trained to search, detect explosives and detect weapons. The short-legged police dog and his teammates on duty at the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu victory. "As a hunting dog, with a curious nature, a love of searching and especially a very sensitive sense of smell, with those strengths, Ka is very suitable for this task," said Mr. Khang. Just a few weeks ago, Lieutenant Khang and this little friend were assigned to ensure security and safety for the series of events celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu Victory in Dien Bien province. During the event, local people were surprised and delighted to see the image of a lovely, short-legged dog standing out in the security dog squad. Ka's image then also caused a storm on social networks. Mr. Khang humorously shared that Ka's appearance really fooled most people when they met him. "Once I took Ka to Thong Nhat Park for a jog, some people there told me "he's so small, why do you make him run so much?" They didn't know that it was one of Ka's regular physical training exercises. After Ka and I demonstrated a few basic moves, all the witnesses applauded in admiration," Lieutenant Khang said. In fact, short legs are not a weakness but even a "weapon" that is unique to Ka compared to other four-legged teammates. According to Mr. Khang, with a small, compact body, Ka can easily crawl and wriggle to check and search in narrow places, crawl into low places to check and detect explosives. This advantage of Ka is very special, often used in the protection periods of the security force. Besides, Ka is often the first choice dog to search and detect explosives in important events, VIP rooms... because of his good-looking appearance, cleanliness, and friendly personality. Lieutenant Nguyen Minh Duc joined the Guard force in 2015. With a love for dogs since childhood, Lieutenant Duc always cherished the dream of being trained, educated and using police dogs. In 2018, the Guard Command recruited new soldiers for the training and use of service animals team, Lieutenant Duc immediately registered. From that moment on, Lieutenant Duc felt very lucky to be able to work with his passion. "The job now really brings me joy and meaning," said Duc. During his 6 years working at the Security Technical Department, Lieutenant Nguyen Minh Duc has trained 2 service dogs. His first police dog was named Bon, a Spanish Cocker Spaniel similar to Ka but with black fur. Bon and Duc have participated in protecting many important events, especially the US-North Korea Summit in Hanoi in 2019. After a period of duty, Mr. Duc and the commanders realized that Bon was exhausted and no longer had enough capacity to ensure his expertise, so he was retired. In August 2023, Lieutenant Nguyen Minh Duc received training for David - a Malinois (Belgian) service dog. "Each breed of dog, even each dog, has its own nerves, personality, advantages and characteristics, depending on the nervous system, physical condition, health... of each dog. For David, I think he is different from the other kids (Ka, Bon - PV)", said Mr. Duc. According to Mr. Duc, David has a higher level of discipline, and at the same time has a fierce appearance and a "harder" personality because he is a German Shepherd. After the training process, the connection between the trainer and the service dog, Mr. Duc assessed that David has the ability to smell and especially has strong attack power. Sharing about the work of taking care of a police dog, Lieutenant Duc said that the purpose of a police dog is to serve the guard duty, so the dog's diet is of interest to the unit commander and training officers. "If the owner can feed the dog whatever he eats, it is completely different with a police dog. We have to pay attention to the nutritional quality of each meal, such as the quantity of protein, fiber, starch... even vitamins and apply it to the physical condition of each dog. If the vitamins in the food are not enough, we will supplement the dog through functional foods. In addition, we also evaluate factors such as weather, training intensity, work... to balance additional nutrition and food in the diet of service dogs. In addition, we also periodically give the police dogs deworming medicine, take care of their fur and skin," Lieutenant Duc said. Not only are they professional trainers and food care staff, Lieutenant Duc and his teammates also take on the role of veterinarians for each dog they directly train. According to Duc, after a period of attachment, the training staff will always understand what health problems their police dogs are having through external symptoms. However, as "soldiers", the police dogs have a very good health foundation, regularly maintain physical training, work steadily, rarely get sick and are usually only injured during training and on duty. "For me, the relationship with David or Bon is not just that of teacher and student, but I consider him as a friend, even a close son or younger brother," Lieutenant Duc shared. Talking about memories with Bon, Duc recalled the time when he first started training and receiving training from the dog. this dog "At that time, I participated in training Bon at the Service Dog Training and Use Center in Soc Son, located on a hill. The design of the center was that the staff area was at the foot of the hill, and the service dog cage area was at the top of the hill. In the dog cage area, there was a separate water filtration system for them, but I was worried that the water was not hygienic and I felt uneasy. So I regularly spent my own money to buy a 20-liter barrel of purified water and carried it from the foot of the hill to the top of the hill for Bon to drink. At that time, everyone in the center felt that my actions were a bit confusing," Duc said with a laugh. Talking to Dan Tri reporter, Lieutenant Colonel Vuong Van Hoang (Captain of Technical Protection Team 1) shared about the arduous and thorny journey of the Training and Use of Service Animals Team. According to Lieutenant Colonel Hoang, before 2000, the Vietnam Guard did not have the concept of using service dogs for security work. In November 2000, during the first visit to Vietnam by the US President, the security forces of the neighboring country requested to have service dogs to check security at the locations where the US President operated during his visit and work in Vietnam; at the same time, they requested to have the US security team's dogs come to Vietnam to perform their duties. For countries such as Russia, China, South Korea, Germany..., when the head of state visited and worked in Vietnam, the security forces of the neighboring country also requested to use service dogs to participate in security work. Based on that reality, Major General Le Van Kinh (former Commander, Guard Command) assigned the Technical Protection Department to research and use service dogs as a technical protection measure. "At that time, service dogs were completely new to the Vietnam Guard. We could not even imagine what tasks service dogs would perform and how they would do it," Lieutenant Colonel Hoang said. In April 2004, the first 3 officers were selected by the Guard Command and sent to be trained at the Center for Training and Using Service Animals (General Department of Police, Ministry of Public Security). However, at the end of the training course, only one officer remained in the profession and has been working in the Service Animal Training and Using Team since then, Lieutenant Colonel Vuong Van Hoang. "At that time, the acting Head of the Technical Protection Department, Do Van Giang, called me up to discuss whether or not to use service dogs as a security measure, because in reality, the work of selecting officers to carry out the task of training and using service dogs is very difficult. One is to completely stop using service dogs, the other is to continue research and development. I analyzed and reported that service dogs are a very effective security measure, many countries in the world, although their technology is much more developed than ours, still use service dogs. Some countries even fly halfway around the world and still carry service dogs. Why did we stop when we were just starting to learn? I boldly proposed to the acting Head of the Department that we need to do more research," Lieutenant Colonel Hoang recounted. After that, Mr. Hoang was assigned by the Department Commander to find a source of officers to introduce to the leaders of the Command to arrange for training. However, the work of selecting, training and coaching officers continues to face difficulties when 70% of officers selected for training and coaching all ask to transfer jobs. "Training officers must be patient, loyal, and understand the characteristics of dogs. The training process is very hard; to train a service dog, in addition to loving animals, the officer must be truly passionate, truly love the job; not afraid of hardship, afraid of dirt, must be close to, hug, and love them to be able to work. Without one of these factors, it is very difficult to achieve success, very difficult to stick with the task for a long time", Lieutenant Colonel Hoang said. However, the Team Leader did not give up. He continued to persevere in searching for suitable people. By 2018, 2 new soldiers joined the Service Animal Team. According to Lieutenant Colonel Hoang's assessment, "he is very satisfied" with these 2 officers because they love animals, have a sense of responsibility for their work and have very good expertise. From the first 2 dogs in 2004, with 1 specializing in detecting explosives, up to now, the Service Animal Team has 14 service dogs with 4 specialties: Explosive detection, weapon detection, drug detection, protection and tracking human scent. According to Lieutenant Colonel Hoang, currently the service dogs of the Guard Command are provided by the Service Animal Training and Use Center (Mobile Police Command, Ministry of Public Security). Before being handed over to the Guard Command, each service dog has undergone training at the center and is granted a certificate. However, due to the nature of guard work, in order to meet the task requirements of each service dog upon receipt, the Technical Protection Team 1 must continue to train and coach for another year according to a separate curriculum researched and developed by the Technical Protection Department. At the Guard Command, police dogs are being trained in 4 specialties: Explosive detection; Drug detection; Weapon detection; Protection and tracking of human scent. Of which, Weapon detection is a specialty researched, developed, and trained by the Technical Protection Department and is the only unit nationwide to successfully implement it. "Unlike regular service dogs, guard dogs must be skillful and delicate. The working environment of the Guard force's service dogs is usually in VIP rooms, VIP locations, and special aircraft luggage... For detecting explosives, guard dogs are trained not to bark or make noise scratching objects because traps can use sound or explosives to detonate. Or for drugs, guard dogs will be forced to find banned substances in very small, very small quantities. When checking VIP rooms, the guard dogs absolutely must not touch or move any furniture, and must always be gentle to avoid damage or breakage," said Lieutenant Colonel Hoang. "Having a Service Dog Training and Operation Team with 14 officers and soldiers like today is a result of the great care and attention of the Commander of the Guard Command - Lieutenant General Tran Hai Quan", said Lieutenant Colonel Hoang. According to Hoang, since being appointed Commander of the Guard, Lieutenant General Tran Hai Quan has paid special attention to the Service Dog Training and Operation Team. The head of the Guard Command highly appreciates the effectiveness of using service dogs in guard work. Lieutenant Colonel Hoang said that in 2021, Lieutenant General Tran Hai Quan directed the organization of a practical report, requesting the use of the most modern explosive detection equipment, compared with service dogs for evaluation. "The Commander requested all the Heads of the Command's specialized departments to participate and witness. At that time, Lieutenant General Tran Hai Quan conducted a test with 3 models: Vehicles, special aircraft luggage and real models," said Lieutenant Colonel Hoang. And the results, with their sharp abilities, service dogs had many outstanding skills compared to security inspection equipment. In particular, the fastest explosive detection dog took only about 5 seconds. From the results of the practical test, the Guard Commander requested attention to investing in developing the Training and Use of Service Dogs Team, directing the Security Technical Department to provide specialized training and recruit more officers. Sharing more, Lieutenant Colonel Hoang said that Lieutenant General Tran Hai Quan himself requested the Technical Protection Department to provide additional specialized training in Drug Detection for service dogs. "The Commander believes that the guards not only have the duty to protect the safety of the guarded subjects but also have the responsibility to protect the honor and politics of the country. During each foreign trip, the Commander noticed that there was a lot of luggage on each flight. Previously, we only focused on security but forgot the risk of drugs and prohibited substances mixed and hidden in luggage and suitcases. If this situation happened, the national reputation would be seriously affected. Therefore, Lieutenant General Quan requested that service dogs be trained to detect drugs and conduct 100% inspection of flights of Party and State leaders when traveling abroad," said Lieutenant Colonel Hoang. In particular, according to Lieutenant Colonel Hoang, the "exclusive" specialty of the Guard Command - Weapon Detection - was also the idea of Commander Tran Hai Quan. In addition, realizing that using professional dogs has many outstanding advantages that other technical measures have not achieved, such as the ability to conduct large-scale security checks, and to detect intruders entering the protected target with high accuracy through the source of air, the Guard Commander has directed to increase the scope of operation of service dogs at 4 important protection targets, including the Government Office, the President's Office, the National Assembly Office and the Party Central Committee Office. Speaking to reporters, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Dinh (Head of the Service Dog Training and Use Team) said that Lieutenant General Tran Hai Quan was the first Commander to directly go to the area where service dogs are raised and trained to visit and inspect, and even went there twice without prior notice. "Entering the officers' accommodation, the Commander said that the accommodation of the brothers was not good, not commensurate with the unit's mission requirements. Therefore, although it was the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year, the Commander requested the functional unit to quickly equip some facilities to serve the living conditions of the officers and soldiers of the training team and the use of service dogs; at the same time, he requested that everything must be completed before Tet. The Commander also directly instructed the brothers of the team to research and propose uniforms and equipment models from clothes, hats, glasses... to be suitable and convenient when performing tasks. Lieutenant General Quan invested in and equipped the officers of the Team", Lieutenant Colonel Dinh said. "Lieutenant General Tran Hai Quan once told the brothers of the unit: "Service dogs for guards are sniffing dogs, intelligent dogs, completely different from fighting dogs. Therefore, it is necessary to research and develop to ensure that it is worthy of the requirements and tasks of security work," shared the commander of Security Technical Team 1, Security Technical Department of the Security Command.
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