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US Police Canine Association partners with AKC

By Wesley Coburn

EXETER, ENGLAND - MAY 18: Police dog Tag during the Devon and Cornwall Police skills demonstration day on May 18, 2021 in Exeter, England. The Devon and Cornwall police are preparing their teams for a wide variety of potential incidents from demonstrator control to the possibility of sea-based events as the G7 Summit takes place on the Cornish coast in mid June. It will be the largest policing event to have ever taken place in Cornwall and officers and specialist teams will be drafted in from various UK police regions. (Photo by Hugh Hastings/Getty Images)
EXETER, ENGLAND - MAY 18: Police dog Tag during the Devon and Cornwall Police skills demonstration day on May 18, 2021 in Exeter, England. The Devon and Cornwall police are preparing their teams for a wide variety of potential incidents from demonstrator control to the possibility of sea-based events as the G7 Summit takes place on the Cornish coast in mid June. It will be the largest policing event to have ever taken place in Cornwall and officers and specialist teams will be drafted in from various UK police regions. (Photo by Hugh Hastings/Getty Images) /
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The US Police Canine Association (USPCA) has become the latest canine organization to partner with the American Kennel Club.

This news was announced on Monday, May 24.

“The AKC is honored to collaborate with the USPCA,” AKC President and CEO Dennis Sprung stated in a press release. “They protect our citizens, strive to educate the public on many important dog-related topics, and are an integral part of communities.”

Christopher Sweetwood, who works with AKC Reunite in obtaining grants to help police departments acquire police dogs, is also very pleased with the new association.

The US Police Canine Association becomes the latest canine organization to partner with the AKC.

The USPCA was founded in 1971 due to a merger between two other organizations, and they offer certifications for police dogs and their handlers, which will have an added credibility now as an AKC partner.

Membership in the organization is open to all full-time law enforcement officers at the municipal, county, state, and federal levels, if they are a canine handler, trainer or administrator.

“We are very excited to officially become associated with the AKC,” Wayne Rothschild, president of the US Police Canine Association, said in a press release. “K-9 officers and the training they go through are very important, and we’re thrilled to be able to share this with the AKC’s constituents. We hope to educate the public even more about what these amazing officers do.”

The AKC and USPCA are currently working on creating a detection dog championship competition to celebrate this partnership, which is currently scheduled for sometime in fall 2021, though this is dependent on where the pandemic situation is at by that time. The purpose of the detection dog championship would be to demonstrate to the public the training and skills that these dogs and their handlers have achieved through rigorous testing and practice.

Though further details of what such a competition may entail are not known at the moment, it seems likely that it may look something like what viewers saw on the America’s Top Dog competition series.

While military dogs are not quite the same as police dogs, their training shares a lot of overlap, and more about the process of training military dogs can be found in our interview with dog trainer Jeff Franklin, and our review of a book about him.

The dog breeds used as police dogs most often include German Shepherds and their slightly larger cousins, the Belgian Malinois.

Next. Dog bites are up as dogs lack socialization during pandemic. dark

For more information about the US Police Canine Association, see their website for more details.

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