Another Twist in The Tale
My Granddad's book about his life
My Granddad's book about his life
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OUR PET ALSATIAN NAMED VANDYKE <br />
Whilst at Mullards I met the police dog handler who used to come and visit the Laboratories <br />
once a week to tra<strong>in</strong> guard dogs that used to patrol the premises every night. <br />
<strong>The</strong> tra<strong>in</strong>er was PC Truss who won the top award for 3 years on the run for be<strong>in</strong>g the best <br />
police dog handler/tra<strong>in</strong>er <strong>in</strong> the Metropolitan Police. <br />
My biggest problem with Vandyke was that I could never command him to move from the <br />
down position to the sit position whilst I had him on the lead on heal position. <strong>The</strong> PC offered <br />
to tra<strong>in</strong> me as the crim<strong>in</strong>al whilst he tra<strong>in</strong>ed his dogs if I would enjoy that and I said yes I <br />
would. <br />
PC truss said you show me 3 times exactly where your problem is and I will correct if for you, <br />
he then walked Vandyke <strong>in</strong> a figure of 8 position and did one or 2 other tests and then stood <br />
still with the dog at heel. His next command was down, his next command was sit, but before <br />
he said sit he w<strong>in</strong>ked at me and I could not believe what happened. <br />
As he said sit he was hold<strong>in</strong>g the lead <strong>in</strong> his left hand he then brought his right hand onto the <br />
dog lead and as he said sit very loudly he pulled the lead upwards towards the stars and all I <br />
remember was the dog yelp<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> pa<strong>in</strong> and then he just handed the dog to me and said “Derek <br />
do the figure of 8 and you will see your dog for the first time on the command of ‘sit’ the dog <br />
will obey you unconditionally. As I said the ‘s’ of sit the dog, although he was <strong>in</strong> the down <br />
position, started to shake and as I said the ‘t’ he shot up absolutely perfectly <strong>in</strong>to the sit <br />
position and I never had a problem with Vandyke ever. It was very <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g and fasc<strong>in</strong>at<strong>in</strong>g <br />
to see how they tra<strong>in</strong>ed police dogs. <br />
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