See Plett’s crime-fighting K9 in action
Blackie the crime-fighting canine recently had the opportunity to show off his newly acquired skills during a public demonstration in Plettenberg Bay.
“We have been inundated with questions about Blackie’s progress and decided the best would be to show everyone what he can do,” said the German shepherd’s handler Otto Olivier.
Blackie was a stray dog found by the Plettenberg Bay Animal Welfare Service (PAWS) and was later adopted by the Plettenberg Bay Crime Prevention Association (PBCPA) to establish a canine support unit for their operations.
He has since undergone training to prepare him for his job and has excelled.
On Wednesday 24 January, Blackie showed those who gathered at the Bitou Rugby Club field exactly what he can do. During the demonstration he had to, among others, respond to a situation where an “aggressor” stood among civilians. When Olivier gave the demand, Blackie immediately went after the aggressor and ignored the civilians standing around him.
Olivier said Blackie has also shown great skills in terms of tracking and has already assisted in finding suspects.
The training was catered to suit Blackie’s temperament, said Olivier, and slowly but surely his natural talents were developed.
“When we first started training we were not entirely convinced that Blackie would bite. He wasn’t aggressive, but after a few days of training the instructors managed to bring his natural aggression to the fore,” Olivier said.
He added that this was done in a gentle way and at a slow pace. “He was never forced to do anything that he wasn’t ready for.”
There is still some training to be done, Olivier said, but they have decided to work at Blackie’s pace.
One of the latest skills they have been working on is having Blackie locate suspects and then barking to let the team know where the suspect is.