The first national police K9 championships is well underway in Nelson Mandela Bay metro, pitting the police's top working dogs against each other.
About 81 dogs and 140 handlers from all nine provinces began competing on Monday at the Sports Fields in Second Avenue, Summerstrand.
National police spokesperson, Brigadier Vish Naidoo, says the dogs will be judged by a panel in various categories including detecting explosives, endangered species and blood, among other things.
Naidoo said an important aspect of the first K9 competition to ensure that there's maintenance of national standards.
"This is the first national K9 competition that is taking place. It's very critical, one of the things we looking at is the maintenance of national standards. But, also I think what these type of competitions do is enhance the capacity and capabilities of the environment. It gives dog handlers throughout the country an understanding of the levels of expectations of these operational dogs, both the dogs and the handlers when performing their duties."
"You will find that these K9 units, in some provinces the level of exposure differs from province to province. In some provinces you might get more arson-related cases while in another provinces you'll get more cases of missing persons. You'll find in the Eastern Cape and Kwazulu Natal you'll get a lot of cases of search and rescue, where there's excessive flooding etc. So, the standards, expectations and so on will differ but when we come together to have a national event such as this then there's this understanding of what the level of expectations are from them."
"With K9 it's absolutely critical in our efforts to both prevent and combat crime. What is virtually impossible for the human mind, eyes or ears for that matter, we seek the assistance of the dog. There are places a human being cannot go but the dogs can. There are items that a human cannot detect but a dog can detect," he said.
"Just recently the K9 unit in Kwazulu Natal there was a child who went missing from three days. This member with his dog, Dante, searched continuously for three days and eventually found the child alive in the trench. Alone, that member would not be able to achieve it but with the dog, because of its extraordinary abilities to pick up the scent of the missing child, we were able to find that child," Naidoo said.
"So, the dogs are absolutely critical to our efforts to combat crime," he said.
Sergeant Clinton Odayar. SAPS K9 in KZN and dog Dante.
