Police and Sheriffs Departments will probably always utilize more dual-purpose than single purpose. They look at dollars and cents more than function. The savings in a dual-purpose dog is tremendous. I personally like single purpose dogs from a trainers standpoint.
Matthew Grubb Webboard User Reg: 09-27-2002
Posts: 637
Loc: Pittsburgh, Pa.
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In the perfect world you would have a dog for drug work.... a bloodhound for tracking... and a patrol dog for patrol work. But since it isn't a perfect world you cram them into one dog where all three abilities suffer a bit. Money dictates the need for dual purpous dogs in the U.S. more bang for your buck.
The bottom line really is manpower issues for most departments.
The dual purpose dog provides an acceptable tool with one handler with the least amounts of resources committed. It is that simple.
The problems are: a lot of good dogs aren't good enough to be very proficient in multiple areas. It takes a LOT of dog to do Patrol,tracking, evidence search, and detection.
To make it more difficult, handlers tend to like one area more than another and it shows in their proficiency and in their committment to training in one phase or another.
To help this i drop the tracking and and evidence out from those handlers who seem a bit over extended.
Some dogs also have areas they excell in and others they don't.
My own PSD is shi* hot in the apprehension, tracking, and evidence search. He is Good but not fantastic in the detection work.
Most importantly, if you are going to train a dual-purpose dog, it is critical to start with the right dog. I've known several dogs that were selected for patrol work because they were tough but the narc selection tests were neglected. If you're always struggling (with whatever discipline), you are more likely to get over-extended like Kevin mentioned.
If I had a patrol dog with the drive to be dual-purpose, I'd feel like I was holding the dog back by not training the drug work. It's not much more difficult than teaching the dog to catch a frisbee and a lot of the maintenance training can be conducted during actual deployments.
I don't think that it's normally an issue that goes beyond the questions: What services can K9's provide? and How many of those services can our department afford to employ? Specialization has its place but it isn't always practical.
Opportunity always looks better going than coming.
What I see in this area where small agencies are the norm, every administrator wants a dual purpose k9 for the department but are unrealistic in the hours of maintanace training needed to stay proficient. So many times Ive talked to handlers that say getting training time is like pulling teeth. A lot of detection maintance can be done with minimal assistance, but to maintain a dual purpose dog, you need to have a willing "bad guy". Something to think about.
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