Lessons Without A Leash

A new national-level ‘augmentation course’ has been introduced to make our canine soldiers smarter and teach them to listen and guard us better

- Arushi Bedi

THE cuckoo’s call even before the sun has risen in the morning is often the only sound that precedes Gracy’s walk towards the training centre. The golden Labrador waits patiently by her kennel in the National Sec­urity Guard’s recently established K9 tactical training school in Manesar, Haryana, for her handler constable Amit Sharma to take her to the ground for the day’s exercises. A swift “Gracy chalo” has the dog ­bounding towards Sharma, and they walk, leg-to-leg, in the direction of the huge training ground.

The trainer doesn’t use a leash to guide Gracy and simply gives verbal cues which she obeys, a stark ­contrast to the usual dog-trainer relationship in canine ­training units. This, Sha­rma tells Outlook, is part of the new techniques rolled out ­und­er the augmentation course for state police and the ­Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), which started in ­Manesar this year. The course aims at enhancing exi­sting abilities to detect ­explosives, and dogs are trained with the goal of making detection more efficient in tough ­situations and terrain.

The 12-week course aims at training dogs to respond to commands through verbal cues alone, enabling them to work more efficiently off-leash. It inducts dogs that have already had initial training at the various canine training schools across the country. This, jokes an officer, is a post-graduation for the canine recruits of the police and the CAPFs.