I have a couple questions and was hoping they could be answered. 1st at what age do departments want the dogs? How old is too old to start a police dog? What training are they looking for if any? Male vs females? Thank you

I am not the expert here but most PD's want dogs between 16-18 months, many but not all prefer males, and I don't know of anyone that will start a dog older that 2 years. Most want to start with a raw dog, but there is a benifit to starting with a dog that has had some imprinting done. The training center near me does alot of PSD's and they have a pretty well established group of breeders that they work with. It would be very difficult for a new breeder to break into selling dogs for Service duty.

Police departments are generally looking for males or females (few females actually make the grade though) that are 18 months and older that have enough training to test their potential.
The dogs are called "green" but in reality they have quite a bit of foundational training. Grip development, lots of basic play/prey work.
Some departments would rather look at titled dogs, IPO, SchH, KNPV and sometimes a few Ring dogs thrown in the mix.
Generally these dogs are for sale by police dog venders in the US and they must guarantee their health and the ability to pass the organizations selection test and basic training program.
The dogs are generally provided with hip & elbow x-rays or certifications and health certificate and health records.
You can look at my web site for selection test criteria http://www.k9services.com
The dogs are most often purchased by US venders from European venders who scout Europe for candidates among working dog clubs and individuals who will aquire dogs and prepare them for basic testing. Occasionally the dogs will be aquired through other sources such as directly from club members in Europe or the US.
That's the aquisition scene in a nutshell.

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I have a couple questions and was hoping they could be answered. 1st at what age do departments want the dogs? How old is too old to start a police dog? What training are they looking for if any? Male vs females? Thank you

quote" It would be very difficult for a new breeder to break into selling dogs for Service duty ".
Thank you for that personal note Jason But I am not looking to break in to this market just merely asking some questions


Kevin Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. Did learn a lot from your site and book-marked it for later use. Again Thank you

Hey Barbara,
I used to have the fun of being the assistant trainer for a top K9 supplier in the southeast united states. Most of the dogs we started were between 11-18 months of age and brought in from Europe being some malinois and gsd. All were males, being that females have the problem of going into heat and have to come out of service while in heat, not desirable by most law enforcement agencies. It really is a males only kinda of job. Law enforcement wants a K9 ready to work at all times and thus only the high drive males are desired. WE usually turned a dual purpose patrol/detector dog in 8 weeks and ready for FDLE certification. After that they go to their departments where their training is completed by the new handlers according to the particular departments policies. Hope that helps......

Hello Michael I had heard that before about the females. Some actually spay them but then again I heard that takes some of the drives out. I know when I had my female spayed it was night and day. Thanks