K9 Academy dogs train at Sparrow FET College

The Sophiatown Police Station together with the Metro police took a trip to Sparrow Schools FET College to do narcotics detection dog training.

Young Metro police officers and their canine partners who are almost ready to graduate from the South African Police Services K9 Academy in Roodeplaat simulated a drug operation.

The police have been training Metro police officers as dog handlers for a few years.

“We’ve been training them for a few years now; we even train the people who give training,” Colonel Ntombi Mabena of the K9 Academy said.

At Sparrow, nine Metro police officers and their dogs carried out a mock search of the premises in order for dogs to get used to operation circumstances and also to see whether or not they could locate drugs.

“What we did was, they placed substances under bags and other places at the school and the dogs went in to find them,” said spokesperson of the Sophiatown Police Station, Warrant Officer TJ de Bruyn.

Mabena explained that the process starts when dogs are purchased. She said in this case, Metro police had funds to purchase dogs to be trained.

“The community used to donate dogs to us but these days that doesn’t happen so we need to rely on other sources,” she said.

She further explained that narcotics detection dogs are not specific to one breed. She said they assess what they are looking for in a dog and then evaluate them to see whether or not they are trainable.

Mabena added that the academy tries to stay away from using pit bulls because of their temperament and generally being difficult to control especially during operations where control is key.

She said dogs and officers are trained for 135 days. In the case of officers who visited the Sparrow School, it is believed that some will be stationed in the general area.

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