Wednesday, 10 June 2026

Police-dog school open day

One station north of Chynów is Sułkowice, home to the famous police-dog school (Zakład Kynologii Policyjnej Centrum Szkolenia Policji or the Police Cynology Department of the Police Training Centre.) This is Poland's national centre for training dog-handlers and service dogs. Today was the annual open day at the school, so I popped over to see.

Below: the handlers began the day by showing off their dogs' obedience to commands, verbal and non-verbal. The dogs, mainly German and Dutch shepherds and Belgian Malinois, seem focused and well-behaved; the handlers have on their belts bags of treats that are frequently given to reward correct response. 


Police dogs are trained here for general patrol work as well as searching terrain and buildings; pursuit and arrest; and tracking human scent. Specialist tracker dogs are used for sniffing out narcotics, explosives, weapons, ammunition and human remains. I have also been told that the national revenue administration trains dogs here to sniff out illegal alcohol stills. The tracker dogs, which include bloodhounds, terriers and spaniels, were not on show today. 

The school is located on a 45-hectare site that includes 21 hectares of training ground, where dogs learn to cope with various forms of obstacles and simulated conditions that they may encounter on service duty, such as smoke (below).


As well as the dogs, there was also a police-horse display, with six horses and their riders down from Warsaw for the event. The horses wore visors and nose-guards, and like the dogs, were entirely comfortable dealing with fire (below).


The dogs showed their worth on the big obstacle course that straddles the Czarna river behind the school. Here, we could watch the hounds scramble over a wooden wall (below).

After all the dogs made it over the blue planks, three more unpainted planks were added to the wall. The final one raised the wall to around two and half metres, and here the dogs finally met their match, none could make it over this height.

Below: the dog tower tested the animals for surefootedness; getting down was harder than getting up, but this obstacle proved to be no problem for these dogs. In the distance, the forest of Wola Pieczyska.


Below: the final display involved police dogs involved in catching a 'criminal' in well-padded clothing. Blank ammunition would not deter the charging hounds; once caught, the dogs would not let go of their prey; the actor playing the thief had to have the padded jacket removed from him, the dog still attached to it! Police dogs are not to be messed with.



The school stresses suitability, health and working ability as paramount considerations when taking on new dogs. They are typically bought at one to two years old, so assessors can test an already visible temperament and body, rather than gamble on a puppy. Dogs must pass obedience and health tests before being trained further. They are function-first dogs. Sułkowice is not producing show dogs; animals are selected that can work around noise, crowds, vehicles, slippery floors, strange buildings, civil-defence exercises, scent trails and a handler under stress. Polish police dogs are bred for utility rather than appearance.

Many of my neighbours in Jakubowizna are retired police-dog trainers, and have set up canine-adjacent businesses; there are dog hotels, dog breeders, service-dog equipment makers, and civilian dog trainers (at weekends, groups of dog owners together with their charges and a trainer, make their way up and down my lane, the dogs learning to respond to commands).

Sułkowice is also famous as the place where Poland's most famous dogs on film were trained.

This time last year:|
Letters to an Imaginary Grandson (IV)

This time two years ago:
Poland's sleeper-train services – summer timetable

This time three years ago:
Conscience, consciousness and sensitivity


This time five years ago:
The 13th thirteenth

Posted by at
Labels: , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)