Hello All-

I'm in manhattan and with all the security re: the UN General Assembly it has been a great week for observing police dogs.

Along those lines, I saw something this morning that was interesting to me. I saw a guy walking an impressive, handsome sable GSD. As a big fan of, and former owner of a good looking sable, I stopped to get a better look as I always do when I see a nice example of the breed and coat. In this case the dog had his tail docked to about 2 inches long, which I had never seen before on a GSD. He had a "basket" leather muzzle on (unusual in these parts). One block later I saw a Malinois (very rare in NYC) with the same type muzzle on his face, so circling closer I saw an NYPD shield attached to the collar side of said muzzle.

So a few questions for the board members with experience in police dog procedure. 1)Is there some advantage to docking the tail? I have seen a number of police GSD's and never seen one without it's full tail. 2)I am assuming the muzzles are for when the dog is off duty, based on the fact that this morning, neither handler was uniformed, but the NYPD insignia was visible. If I'm correct, why is muzzling the dog during a recreative/not on duty walk done? I would imagine the dogs are well trained and responsive and not a risk to bite, so why muzzle? I bet there's a reason, I just dont know what it might be. Will someone fill me in?

Brock,
the tail docking is usually due to injury - a lot of high drive working dogs bang their tails so strongly while in their crate that they actual end up with amputations due to chronic tail-tip injuries ( this is also seen in a fair amount of hunting dogs ).

You should see the MWD's, their Mals are about 50% "stubby".

Just a guess here, the muzzles may be departmental proceedure for dogs off duty but in the presence of the public. There really is no other good reason for the muzzle except that they may have been on the way to the vets. Alot of social patrol dogs absolutely hate the vet so they are muzzled to prevent injury whilst being examined.

Howard

Thanks Will & Howard. Good info.

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Just a guess here, the muzzles may be departmental proceedure for dogs off duty but in the presence of the public.

Sorry to drag up a month-old post, but I wanted to back this up. I know for a fact my town requires basket muzzles on off-duty police dogs (not for the narcotics dogs -- only for the criminal apprehension ones. We have a narcotics Lab and a criminal apprehension GSD, both from the Czech Republic... anyway.) The basket muzzles also have a padded metal bar in the nosepiece for "crowd control"; the dogs can pack a powerful punch via "headbutt" if they try to bite someone while muzzled. This allows the police to use the dog to 'gently' remind people of what could happen if things escalate.

The dogs are muzzled for one reason: liability. The first lesson I was taught about dogs, you can never be 100% sure of what a dog is going to do………….

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If I'm correct, why is muzzling the dog during a recreative/not on duty walk done? I would imagine the dogs are well trained and responsive and not a risk to bite, so why muzzle? I bet there's a reason, I just dont know what it might be. Will someone fill me in?

Good god, a muzzled dog while working. Do they have to keep thier bullet in their shirt pocket as well. I hope you yan uhhhh northern people keep your weird habits up north.

DFrost