South Australia Police make a very funny April Fools video

South Australia Police announced an expansion to our Dog Ops kennel with the introduction of Small Area Urban Searching and Guided Evacuation Dogs. The new Police Dog (PD) recruits – Tex, Snoop and Gracie - are purebred Dachshunds and have been purposely chosen to bring a whole new range of dog operational capabilities.

Dachshunds, while small in stature, are absolutely courageous in nature. They are a highly intelligent breed and have a sense of smell about forty times more efficient than a human's, making them excellent at tracking and hunting.

Operationally, we are seeing criminals hide contraband in hard to access small areas requiring police to spend significant resources removing or shifting heavy items. Items are also commonly found under lowered motor vehicles. The Dachshunds will mainly be used for accessing small or restricted areas where the traditional 40kgs German Shepherds and Labradors cannot.

In a further potential use of the new PDs, Police have been working closely with specialist vets and dog trainers to ascertain if the light weight dogs could be transported safely by drone and released into hard-to-access areas, where larger PDs cannot get into due to their size. The use of these new PDs in non-traditional situations will greatly increase the Dog Ops Unit's capabilities.

Video credit South Australia Police