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Yana the police dog
Yana the police dog
Thea Schreiber
Thea Schreiber
Yana is small for a Belgian Malinois. She is an energetic 3 ½ year old who loves screaming at criminals and was definitely born for her job. Yana is our Grants Pass Police Department’s new K9. She works with our nightshift county officers and her handler is Corporal Eric Schreiber, who was kind enough to let me force him to do an interview while he was eating. Yana is from the Netherlands and was initially trained by the KNPV (Royal Dutch Police Dog Association). She has been trained to article search, track and apprehend criminals. She trains these skills for at least 16 hours a month.
Picture of Yana from Josephine Country
Most of Yana’s job is tracking the culprits who run and hide; she is trained to track their scent. She is even capable of tracking the scent of disturbed vegetation. If criminals try to throw away items, then she has been trained to find them. Sometimes, Yana’s very presence is enough to stop criminals from running or fighting back.
As for care, Yana lives in a kennel in her caretaker’s backyard, much to my dismay, because Yana is a singer and, once she starts, she does not like to stop. Yana gets one large meal a day, two hours before work. If she has any less time to digest, then she might suffer from torsion. Torsion is when the dog’s stomach flips, closes at both ends and kills them.
Police dogs are trained in special programs for their specific purpose. A little fun fact: some police dogs in America are not from America. They are trained in other countries and in other languages so that, when catching criminals, if the criminal shouts a command, the dog will not listen because they will not understand. Yana is one of these puppers. This requires officers to learn the command words in their dog's native language.
Picture of Yana from from KDRV
On a more supportive note, service dogs in the police force are a positive influence, both emotionally and in physical manpower. It is just science that dopamine is released when we see cute animals like dogs. In a high-stress and traumatizing scenario, like after a crime, this can be essential to someone's mental health. According to the National Police Association, it's not just victims who are helped by police dogs but even the cops themselves. Highly trained police dogs do not just help our minds, but also help in the search and apprehension of criminals. As stated by Randy Feenstra, these police dogs help seize drugs, sniff out explosives, detain criminals, locate missing people, and uncover forensic evidence. Police dogs are especially impressive partners and contribute abundantly to public safety.
Sources:
Sources:
Interview with Corporal Eric Schreiber
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