Los Angelinos should be thankful that LAPD maintains the highest standards in all of its police academy programs.
JINDO DOGS DON’T HAVE THE BITE STUFF FOR LAPD
By C. J. Lin
Los Angeles Daily News
May 13, 2011
An experiment to add a new breed of police dog to the ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department has ended with a whimper.
LAPD officials had high hopes for two Korean Jindo puppies who were being tested as weapons detection or drug sniffing dogs, but in the end, the pups just weren't interested in playing along.
The dogs, named DaeHan and Mingook and now nearly a year old, were recently adopted by private families after their trainers determined they didn't have enough focus, drive or consistency needed for police work.
Mingook, the male, was able to detect and respond to gun odors at 12 weeks old, a feat his trainer called "phenomenal." He could find guns hidden in bushes on a 5-acre plot and worked well in controlled situations at the training academy, but became distracted when taken out in the field.
"He was just not your typical working breed, not your typical 'I want to go out and do this because I have to do this' dog," said Officer Jeff Miller, Mingook's trainer. "He would do it for me because he was such a good dog, but he didn't really want to do it. He was just going through the motions. He'd wag his tail and he'd see a leaf go by and he'd want to go check that out."
DaeHan, the female, refused to do the work and was more interested in curling up in someone's lap and meeting new people, Miller said.
The dogs, which were trained mostly when the officers were off duty, were also more aggressive to other pooches than the LAPD anticipated.
"They're actually great dogs and everything," said Lt. Bob Arcos, who heads the K-9 Platoon. "I think we gave it a good shot. And I just wish we had the time and the money to keep trying them."
The dogs, whose names combined means "Republic of South Korea," were gifted by the South Korean government to LAPD last October as a possible alternative to the bloodhounds, German or Dutch shepherds and Belgian Malinois that are the staples of police and military forces.
Another pair of puppies had been reserved for the Glendale Police Department, whose trainers typically take the dogs when they're 1 year old. Glendale officials said they were not aware that the dogs hadn't worked out for LAPD and were waiting on a report to determine if the department would still move forward with training.
The dog, a hunting breed from Jindo Island, is designated the 53rd national treasure of South Korea, and officials there had hoped that having it used by LAPD would put the breed on the map.
LAPD jumped at the chance to test the new dog, which normally cost about $5,000 to $7,000 - a bargain compared to the shepherds and Malinois valued at around $100,000. Police also face stiff competition for those dogs from the military, which often uses them in their overseas missions.
The Korean military had also been testing the Jindos, but stopped after it ran into similar problems, according to Chang Y. Lee, president of the Korean American Federation of Los Angeles, who facilitated the donation of the dogs.
The problem is a fundamental one: Jindos, unlike the shepherds and Malinois that have been carefully cultivated for hundreds of years, simply aren't bred for police work, a fact that the South Koreans hope to address by creating selective breeding programs.
"For the Jindo to successfully make it in the LAPD system or even the Korean system, is for the people to emphatically breed the dog for certain characteristics," said Lee, who still hopes to see the dog grace the ranks of police forces one day. "We had high hopes because it was a national treasure dog and it was like pride was involved. We just need to work ... on a long-range plan here."
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