i am not sure this is the rite place to but this so if not please excuse me,
i have been looking to purchase a gsd that is already been trained for family protection anyway to make a long story short i was told to call this trainer or sellerin FLa. so i did and he seems really nice anyway he said the police department has a gsd that has been certified but failed bomb detection so they are selling him,so i quess what i really need to know is being i dont know a thing about certifications and police dogs and am looking for a compan, and family protection is a dog like this worth 4000.00 dollars and can a dog still be certified and fail bomb detections, i am worried cause he will cost me my life savings and being disable well u know. thanks Ken

You need to find out exactly why the dog washed out and what kind of training the dog has had. Not to mention socialization and general temperament of the dog. You have kids, and other problems, so you need to be super careful. For that much money you could find some very nice dogs that should be able to suit your needs exactly.

I'd be mighty careful here.

I guess it would be possible for a certified police K-9 to "fail bomb detection," but it would seem to me that a certified dog (and if he is protection trained then he must be a street patrol dog) would just be put to other uses, like... street patrol. Not necessarily sold. Good dogs can be found in shelters that can be trained to detect bombs, narcotics, etc. Why farm out a dog that had the nerves to finish bite training?

Something just sounds fishy here to me.

BTW... getting a good GSD/Dobe/Rott/Mal that has been protection trained should be possible for under $4000.

I'd be interested to hear what the police K-9 handlers have to say.

Pete

thanks for the replys, well i would much whether find a good family protector already trained for around 2000.00 if any one can help me,,, please do
thanks again

Pete

It would depend on exactly what the department wanted. it is not unheard of for the department wanting dual purpose dogs, and getting rid of a dog that would not make one of the tasking areas. In my experience however, it is highly unusual that a department would sell a trained dog to a citizen. Usually they would offer the dog to another department. Selling the dog to an untrained citizen would, in my opinion, open the department to considerable liability, particulary with a trained service or apprehension type dog. Often too, the breeder or broker from which the dog was obtained guareentees the dog to be able to complete the training for which the dog was purchased, and will take the dog back if it fails in either task.

DFrost

Ken,
There is no way in hell I would pay 4 grand for a washed out police dog, I think this guy in Fl is prob the breeder/supplier of the dogs to the police, or involved in training the K-9's and they gave him back and he is trying to recover costs... that's just what it sounds like to me. I know here in Canada (before they had their own breeding program, the RCMP would not pay a dime to the breeder until such time as the dog went into service.... up to 2 years and more! That's why my breeder won't sell to the police, she did one tracking dog and that was it, 2 years to wait for a paycheck is a long time. Could be the same situation for this dude.

DFrost is right, I have asked several departments on their policy on retired/washed out dogs and they all told me "No way in hell" would they sell a dog to a member of the public, unless it was a well known handler and or breeder (like Frawley and the like) it's spelled Liability. I wouldn't touch this with a 50 foot pole.

I would post a thread in the "People looking for working dogs" forum and see what happens. I'm sure you can find a straight killer for the kind of coin you are talking about.