Here follows a course review from my recent General Purpose Security Dog (GPSD) course which I attended with Malpeet K9 Security from Monday 6th September 2010 - Sunday 12th September 2010 inclusive.

The course was very kindly donated by the Managing Director of the company, Simon Mallin, and was part of the raffle prizes on offer at the Close Protection World networking meeting held earlier this year in aid for Help for Heroes. Close Protection World is a networking website used by members involved with various aspects of the security industry, from door supervision, to close protection, private investigation, surveillance, and dog handling.I arrived at L & A Outdoor Centre, Goytre, Port Talbot, West Glamorgan, Wales on Monday at 11:30am. Concise joining instructions were received in advance instructing not to arrive before 12pm on the first day of the course as there was plenty of behind the scenes paperwork and administration to complete before delegates arrival.

Simon Mallin, Managing Director of Malpeet K9 Security was our instructor, and was assisted by another handler who had completed the course approx. 1.5 years ago and had taken up GPSD handling full time and is working towards becomeing a Nasdu assistant trainer.
Simon is also chairman of NASDU and a very experienced dog handler and trainer.

The course lasted the full 7 days, from 12pm Monday until 4pm Sunday evening.

The course was by no means an "attendance" course, meaning that just paying your money and turning up would not guarantee a pass, as you often hear about in the security industry

The course was very interactive and a variety of exercises were carried out throughout the course:

*A 12 mile walk across the Welsh hillsides. The exercise was designed to get the dogs "walking to heel", i.e. the dogs shoulder should be in line with your left leg at all times. This is so that you can spot when the dog indicate's the presence of a person to you when patrolling by straining on the lead. It also makes life much easier if the dog is not trying to wander off in front of you constantly. This exercise was rather difficult because it was only the second day of the course, we had not carried out any obedience training previously so the whole duration of the walk was spent correcting the dog, resulting in aching and sore hands at the end of the day. We crossed 2 rivers in the first 10 minutes of the walk, meaning wet boots and socks for the remainder of the journey. Wellington boots recommended.

*Search exercises carried out to locate individuals

*Various real life scenarios completed regarding patrolling, intruder access to buildings, escorting suspects, apprehending suspects, arresting suspects, bite work

The course is an intensive affair and you are assessed from start to finish. You are given feedback half way through the course on which elements you have not performed or achieved in, and given the opportunity to correct these before the end of the course on Sunday. There is then a final exam on Friday, starting at 2pm and running until potentially 2am. Thankfully ours only ran until 8pm, which meant we were patrolling a site for 6 hours in the pouring rain. We were all absolutely soaking at the end of the exercise and feeling sorry for ourselves! Well, I was anyway!

There is then an exam at the end of the course, 30 multiple choice questions, 75% required to pass.

Providing you pass the exam paper and you have achieved all the required observations, and there are no issues, you should hopefully have passed the course and ready to start your career as a novice dog handler. Simon said he was more than happy for us to go back at any time when other courses were running for refresher training and to catch up free of charge, providing there was space available.

The course teaches you methods on how to train your dogs, which was extremely interesting and invaluable.

Simon has an obvious affinity for his dogs, and is extremely talented in the field.

Dog handling is definitely something which takes skill and dedication, not something which can happen overnight or at the end of a 7 day course. The end is only the beginning.

I hope to return to complete the drugs and explosive dog courses in the future, but in the meantime I wholeheartedly recommend this course to anybody thinking of starting up in the canine world!

Thankyou Simon,

Best Wishes,

Chris