Directions:
Choose Two of the following stories to read and summarize.
Choice #1: Working Animals
"Working Animals." Animaland. 2007: 1-3. SIRS Discoverer. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
He stretches, he stomps his feet awake and takes a deep breath of the morning air. Another day of work will begin shortly. Rudy needs a nutritious breakfast to start off. Let's see, oats are healthy and taste good. Now we'll add some hay for roughage, and cool fresh water--a nice complete breakfast! Now it's time to get dressed. First, some nice soft cotton padding, then clean, polished leather; Rudy's looking quite sharp this morning! Hair brushed and braided, and he's ready to start his day. Rudy doesn't go to an office to begin his work day. He doesn't report to a construction site for duty, or even to a fire house. Rudy is a horse! Actually he's a police horse, and spends his days with his police officer partner patrolling the city streets, helping people and fighting crime. Rudy is one of many horses in this country who work for a living. He will be on patrol with his partner for several days each week. He lives in a warm, clean barn, gets regular veterinary care, and lots of attention and love from tourists. Police horses often lead parades and are popular tourist attractions in many cities. Officers on horseback have an advantage over officers on foot or in a patrol car. Officers on horseback sit high over crowds and often see things that those on foot can not. Some dogs perform police work by sniffing out the location of drugs, explosives and even missing people. Horses have a long history of working. Before cars and trucks were invented or widely used, horses pulled wagons that carried goods throughout our towns and cities. They have also worked on farms, pulling equipment, and provided transportation for cowboys in the Wild West. Many other animals perform important jobs and work side-by-side with people. Another example is service animals, like a guide dog for the blind and hearing/signal dog for the deaf. Other service dogs help people who are unable to walk or use their arms. These service dogs are often chosen as puppies to be trained to work with people who need them. Training is work, too. Service dogs may attend training for five to six months, where they learn to pull wheelchairs, open doors, pick up dropped objects and turn light switches on and off.
Therapy animals also perform an important job. After weeks of training, pets and their human handlers may be registered as a therapy pet team. Therapy animals visit and cheer up people in hospitals and nursing homes. Sometimes a warm, cuddly animal is great medicine to a lonely patient.
Teams of animals and human handlers may also visit classrooms and help teach kids about proper pet care and handling. Therapy animals may be dogs, cats, rabbits, even horses!
Some animals are working actors. Each time you see an animal in a television commercial, on the big screen in a film, or even on stage in a play, that animal is a well-trained working animal. Animal actors must be calm, obedient and respond to spoken commands and hand signals. They must be comfortable around all types of people and keep focused during confusing, noisy times. There are animal trainers who specialize in training all types of animals for acting work, from wild animals like lions, tigers and bears, to companion animals, like puppies, kittens, rabbits and mice. There are even talent agencies that represent only animal actors!
Even when animals are pets, they are performing jobs. Cheering you up if you've had a bad day, making you smile when you're sad and being your loyal companion are important jobs, too! Animals are truly amazing, and we are lucky to have them working alongside us in all sorts of ways.
Animals at Work
Therapy Cats
Cats can have jobs too! There are some very special cats who live in a cat sanctuary at the North Shore Animal League in Port Washington, New York, and their work brings joy and friendship to injured, sick and elderly people. The cats visit hospitals and nursing homes and provide patients with some furry companionship that can help them recover from an illness or injury. Bill and Margaret Edwards started the program and are the proud parents of the cats. The Edwards spoke of one cat, Madison, whose presence helped a very sick woman who couldn't speak. Upon stroking, the first words she uttered in six months were "Nice Kitty." There are currently twelve cats who work with the Pet-Partners program, sponsored by the ASPCA and Delta Society. This program registers the cats and their human partners to be able to visit hospitals and nursing homes. The program continues to register more cats at the sanctuary. In January 2007, there will be ten more cats registered who will bring happiness to people who need it the most.
Lights! Camera! Action!
Animals are often cast in movies and TV in numerous settings. Thanks to the American Humane Association's Film and Television Unit, these animal actors are supervised throughout the film's production. If you have ever seen the credit line at the end of a movie that says "No animals were harmed in the making of this movie," you can be certain that American Humane was on this movie set and can verify this statement as true. American Humane has been working to protect animal actors since 1940, when many horses were hurt during the filming of popular westerns. American Humane also works on TV shows and commercials and protects all animal actors, from insects to dolphins to dogs.
Stryker and Styx--Two Cool Dogs!
Stryker and Styx are two very cool dogs with an important job. They are Search and Recovery dogs and are certified by the Midwest Police Dog Association. These dogs are trained to search out someone who is missing, whether in a snowstorm or in a forest. They had to go through training in Lawrence, KS and one of their special learned talents is that they can now search and detect one single drop of blood in a one-acre-square field--pretty amazing, huh! Stryker, who is nine years old, is ready for retirement and currently does a lot of school programs to teach students about search and recovery and dog bite prevention. Styx, who is two years old, recently finished training and will have two jobs. She will be able to do search & recovery and apprehend a criminal if a situation arises. Tiffany Mahaffey, the Manager of the ASPCA National Outreach Disaster Preparedness Department and the proud parent of Stryker and Styx, feels lucky to have these wonderful working dogs in her life, "I'm very proud of what these dogs have accomplished and can't imagine not being able to work with them on a daily basis the way that we do. Their abilities truly amaze me every day."
"Working Animals." Animaland. 2007: 1-3. SIRS Discoverer. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
He stretches, he stomps his feet awake and takes a deep breath of the morning air. Another day of work will begin shortly. Rudy needs a nutritious breakfast to start off. Let's see, oats are healthy and taste good. Now we'll add some hay for roughage, and cool fresh water--a nice complete breakfast! Now it's time to get dressed. First, some nice soft cotton padding, then clean, polished leather; Rudy's looking quite sharp this morning! Hair brushed and braided, and he's ready to start his day. Rudy doesn't go to an office to begin his work day. He doesn't report to a construction site for duty, or even to a fire house. Rudy is a horse! Actually he's a police horse, and spends his days with his police officer partner patrolling the city streets, helping people and fighting crime. Rudy is one of many horses in this country who work for a living. He will be on patrol with his partner for several days each week. He lives in a warm, clean barn, gets regular veterinary care, and lots of attention and love from tourists. Police horses often lead parades and are popular tourist attractions in many cities. Officers on horseback have an advantage over officers on foot or in a patrol car. Officers on horseback sit high over crowds and often see things that those on foot can not. Some dogs perform police work by sniffing out the location of drugs, explosives and even missing people. Horses have a long history of working. Before cars and trucks were invented or widely used, horses pulled wagons that carried goods throughout our towns and cities. They have also worked on farms, pulling equipment, and provided transportation for cowboys in the Wild West. Many other animals perform important jobs and work side-by-side with people. Another example is service animals, like a guide dog for the blind and hearing/signal dog for the deaf. Other service dogs help people who are unable to walk or use their arms. These service dogs are often chosen as puppies to be trained to work with people who need them. Training is work, too. Service dogs may attend training for five to six months, where they learn to pull wheelchairs, open doors, pick up dropped objects and turn light switches on and off.
Therapy animals also perform an important job. After weeks of training, pets and their human handlers may be registered as a therapy pet team. Therapy animals visit and cheer up people in hospitals and nursing homes. Sometimes a warm, cuddly animal is great medicine to a lonely patient.
Teams of animals and human handlers may also visit classrooms and help teach kids about proper pet care and handling. Therapy animals may be dogs, cats, rabbits, even horses!
Some animals are working actors. Each time you see an animal in a television commercial, on the big screen in a film, or even on stage in a play, that animal is a well-trained working animal. Animal actors must be calm, obedient and respond to spoken commands and hand signals. They must be comfortable around all types of people and keep focused during confusing, noisy times. There are animal trainers who specialize in training all types of animals for acting work, from wild animals like lions, tigers and bears, to companion animals, like puppies, kittens, rabbits and mice. There are even talent agencies that represent only animal actors!
Even when animals are pets, they are performing jobs. Cheering you up if you've had a bad day, making you smile when you're sad and being your loyal companion are important jobs, too! Animals are truly amazing, and we are lucky to have them working alongside us in all sorts of ways.
Animals at Work
Therapy Cats
Cats can have jobs too! There are some very special cats who live in a cat sanctuary at the North Shore Animal League in Port Washington, New York, and their work brings joy and friendship to injured, sick and elderly people. The cats visit hospitals and nursing homes and provide patients with some furry companionship that can help them recover from an illness or injury. Bill and Margaret Edwards started the program and are the proud parents of the cats. The Edwards spoke of one cat, Madison, whose presence helped a very sick woman who couldn't speak. Upon stroking, the first words she uttered in six months were "Nice Kitty." There are currently twelve cats who work with the Pet-Partners program, sponsored by the ASPCA and Delta Society. This program registers the cats and their human partners to be able to visit hospitals and nursing homes. The program continues to register more cats at the sanctuary. In January 2007, there will be ten more cats registered who will bring happiness to people who need it the most.
Lights! Camera! Action!
Animals are often cast in movies and TV in numerous settings. Thanks to the American Humane Association's Film and Television Unit, these animal actors are supervised throughout the film's production. If you have ever seen the credit line at the end of a movie that says "No animals were harmed in the making of this movie," you can be certain that American Humane was on this movie set and can verify this statement as true. American Humane has been working to protect animal actors since 1940, when many horses were hurt during the filming of popular westerns. American Humane also works on TV shows and commercials and protects all animal actors, from insects to dolphins to dogs.
Stryker and Styx--Two Cool Dogs!
Stryker and Styx are two very cool dogs with an important job. They are Search and Recovery dogs and are certified by the Midwest Police Dog Association. These dogs are trained to search out someone who is missing, whether in a snowstorm or in a forest. They had to go through training in Lawrence, KS and one of their special learned talents is that they can now search and detect one single drop of blood in a one-acre-square field--pretty amazing, huh! Stryker, who is nine years old, is ready for retirement and currently does a lot of school programs to teach students about search and recovery and dog bite prevention. Styx, who is two years old, recently finished training and will have two jobs. She will be able to do search & recovery and apprehend a criminal if a situation arises. Tiffany Mahaffey, the Manager of the ASPCA National Outreach Disaster Preparedness Department and the proud parent of Stryker and Styx, feels lucky to have these wonderful working dogs in her life, "I'm very proud of what these dogs have accomplished and can't imagine not being able to work with them on a daily basis the way that we do. Their abilities truly amaze me every day."
Choice #2: MONKEYS WITH A MISSION
by Suzanne Wilson
Wilson, Suzanne. "Monkeys with a Mission." National Geographic World. April 1999: 24-27. SIRS Discoverer. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
Well-Trained Monkeys Shine at Helping Human Friends Overcome Limits. A man is thirsty and wants a drink of water, but he can't get it for himself. The man, George Boyle of Cleveland, Alabama, can't move his arms or legs because his neck was broken in a car accident. So his good friend Gizmo gets the drink for him. Gizmo is a helpful, playful monkey. Gizmo gets ready to place a water bottle in a holder, open it, and insert a straw. Gizmo does other tasks for Boyle, who gets around using a wheelchair.
Gizmo, 14, is a capuchin (kuh-PYOO-shun) monkey. She comes from Helping Hands, an organization in Boston, Massachusetts, that trains capuchins to help people with disabilities. In South America capuchins live in the wild. But the monkeys from Helping Hands are born at a special breeding facility in Boston. Intelligent and small, capuchins easily form relationships with people. Read on to find out more about these remarkable helpers.
FAMILY FIRST
"She's like my sister," says Elizabeth Ford, 13, about Sadie. The capuchin has lived with Elizabeth's family in Norton, Massachusetts, for three years. Sadie will spend another two or three years there, getting used to living with people. Then she'll be trained to help a person with a disability. Like Elizabeth, Sadie enjoys eating snacks. Unlike Elizabeth, though, her favorite hangout is on the roof. Elizabeth will be sad when Sadie leaves to start her training, but says, "I know she'll be helping somebody."
LEARNING TO HELP
Training follows the family stay. At Helping Hands, a monkey called Patty learns to turn pages of a magazine. "The monkeys are so curious, and they love doing the tasks," says trainer Sue Costa. Using a laser pointer, Costa indicates objects a monkey must work with or fetch. First the monkeys learn the basics--getting food and drinks or retrieving dropped objects. Then they learn special tasks such as loading a computer disk, putting a cassette into a VCR, or punching telephone buttons. After about 18 months, most monkeys are ready for work. Then Helping Hands carefully matches humans to monkeys, based on personality. Living 30 to 40 years, a capuchin is a long-term companion. People don't have to pay for their capuchin helpers. But training and caring for the monkeys is costly. Helping Hands can afford to place only six to ten monkeys a year.
WORKING
Gizmo finished her training. Now she doesn't monkey around when she's busy at work. She knows she'll earn a reward when she positions the magazine Boyle wants to read. Boyle blows through a straw to dispense fruit juice treats to Gizmo. While he reads, Gizmo watches traffic from the window, plays, or sits in the sun. She likes musical toys and watching TV commercials. At night she sleeps in a big cage with her stuffed animals and a blanket. Every morning a health-care worker helps Boyle bath and dress. Then Boyle and Gizmo spend the day together. "She's a lot like a child," says Boyle. He gives Gizmo presents on her birthday and knows when she's happy by the way she chirps. Gizmo often knows what Boyle wants before he asks her. Friends for five years, they will be together for many more.
by Suzanne Wilson
Wilson, Suzanne. "Monkeys with a Mission." National Geographic World. April 1999: 24-27. SIRS Discoverer. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
Well-Trained Monkeys Shine at Helping Human Friends Overcome Limits. A man is thirsty and wants a drink of water, but he can't get it for himself. The man, George Boyle of Cleveland, Alabama, can't move his arms or legs because his neck was broken in a car accident. So his good friend Gizmo gets the drink for him. Gizmo is a helpful, playful monkey. Gizmo gets ready to place a water bottle in a holder, open it, and insert a straw. Gizmo does other tasks for Boyle, who gets around using a wheelchair.
Gizmo, 14, is a capuchin (kuh-PYOO-shun) monkey. She comes from Helping Hands, an organization in Boston, Massachusetts, that trains capuchins to help people with disabilities. In South America capuchins live in the wild. But the monkeys from Helping Hands are born at a special breeding facility in Boston. Intelligent and small, capuchins easily form relationships with people. Read on to find out more about these remarkable helpers.
FAMILY FIRST
"She's like my sister," says Elizabeth Ford, 13, about Sadie. The capuchin has lived with Elizabeth's family in Norton, Massachusetts, for three years. Sadie will spend another two or three years there, getting used to living with people. Then she'll be trained to help a person with a disability. Like Elizabeth, Sadie enjoys eating snacks. Unlike Elizabeth, though, her favorite hangout is on the roof. Elizabeth will be sad when Sadie leaves to start her training, but says, "I know she'll be helping somebody."
LEARNING TO HELP
Training follows the family stay. At Helping Hands, a monkey called Patty learns to turn pages of a magazine. "The monkeys are so curious, and they love doing the tasks," says trainer Sue Costa. Using a laser pointer, Costa indicates objects a monkey must work with or fetch. First the monkeys learn the basics--getting food and drinks or retrieving dropped objects. Then they learn special tasks such as loading a computer disk, putting a cassette into a VCR, or punching telephone buttons. After about 18 months, most monkeys are ready for work. Then Helping Hands carefully matches humans to monkeys, based on personality. Living 30 to 40 years, a capuchin is a long-term companion. People don't have to pay for their capuchin helpers. But training and caring for the monkeys is costly. Helping Hands can afford to place only six to ten monkeys a year.
WORKING
Gizmo finished her training. Now she doesn't monkey around when she's busy at work. She knows she'll earn a reward when she positions the magazine Boyle wants to read. Boyle blows through a straw to dispense fruit juice treats to Gizmo. While he reads, Gizmo watches traffic from the window, plays, or sits in the sun. She likes musical toys and watching TV commercials. At night she sleeps in a big cage with her stuffed animals and a blanket. Every morning a health-care worker helps Boyle bath and dress. Then Boyle and Gizmo spend the day together. "She's a lot like a child," says Boyle. He gives Gizmo presents on her birthday and knows when she's happy by the way she chirps. Gizmo often knows what Boyle wants before he asks her. Friends for five years, they will be together for many more.
Choice #3: Dogs vs. Terrorists
By Burkhard Bilger
Bilger, Burkhard. "Dogs vs. Terrorists." Scholastic Scope. 14 May 2012: 4+. SIRS Discoverer. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
In Post-9/11 New York City, the police department takes extraordinary steps to keep the city safe from terrorist attacks. One of the major challenges is guarding the subway-a maze of 400 stations, 800 miles of track, 6,000 cars and, on any given weekly, 5 million passengers.
A Natural Super Soldier
Dogs serve in two roles within the New York City Police Department. Some are "detection dogs," trained to sniff out explosives and drugs. Others, like Thunder, are patrol dogs, which hunt down criminals.
Patrol dogs have one of the most dangerous jobs in public life--in the past year, four have been killed or seriously injured in the line of duty. They are also strikingly effective. Sending in "jaws and paws" intimidates even the most hardened criminals. In 2010, one subway station on the Lexington Avenue line was hit by 20 muggings and thefts in a matter of months. Once a canine unit began patrolling the station, the number dropped to zero.
As a species, dogs were made for this sort of work. No other animal so diligently aims to please humans. A good dog is a natural super soldier: strong yet acrobatic, fierce yet obedient. It can leap higher than most of us, and run twice as fast. Its eyes are equipped for night vision, its ears for supersonic hearing, its mouth for subduing prey.
But a dog's true glory is its nose. Dogs can detect just a few tiny particles of a substance--like the fleck of a cookie crumb at the bottom of your backpack. Just as astonishing is a dog's acuity; it can identify different substances within a scent, like the spices in a soup.
How? A dog sniffs with short, sharp breaths--as many as 10 per second--drawing the scent deep into its nasal cavity. The receptors there are a hundred times denser than in a human and can pick up on a wide array of particles.
Drug smugglers often try to mask the smell of their shipments by packaging them with coffee beans, air fresheners, or sheets of fabric softener. But it takes more than that to fool a dog.
Paul Waggoner, a behavioral scientist at the Canine Detection Research Institute at Auburn University in Alabama, conducted a test to prove it. He flooded his lab with different scents, then added tiny quantities of different illegal drugs. In one case, "The whole lab smelled like a Starbucks," Waggoner recalls.
The dogs had no trouble homing in on the drugs. "They're just incredible at finding the needle in the haystack," Waggoner says.
The Best of the Best
Police dogs are heirs to an ancient and fierce bloodline. For thousands of years, dogs marched into battle with their human companions. The great mastiffs and sight hounds of Mesopotamia wreaked havoc on the battlefield. Dogs ran with Attila the Hun's hordes and wore battle armor beside the knights of the Middle Ages. In 1495, when Christopher Columbus sailed to what is now the Dominican Republic, he brought greyhounds that could run down an enemy and rip out his guts. During World War I, Germany fielded 30,000 dogs and used them for everything from transporting medicine and wounded soldiers to carrying messages between trenches. The German shepherd, first registered as a breed in 1889 by a former German cavalry captain, was favored during the war for its intelligence and steadiness as well as its power.Today, a variety of breeds are used in police work. Labradors, for instance, are superior sniffers, while German shepherds are preferred for patrol. Regardless of their breed, almost all American police dogs are imported from Europe. They come mainly from Germany, where dogs have been carefully bred for centuries. Once in America, they receive a year of intense training at one of several canine training facilities around the country. Those that don't make the cut in training usually become service dogs (such as guide dogs for the blind). Only the most gifted are recruited to work for the NYPD.
Once a group of new police dogs arrives in New York City, each dog is carefully matched with a police officer. For the next six weeks, each cop-and-dog team builds its working relationship, learning each other's cues and idiosyncrasies.
But the real goal of this training period is to put the dog under the full command of the officer. An officer who loses control of his or her dog in a chaotic environment like a New York City subway station risks disaster. These dogs are inherently aggressive, and if they go too far, someone could get injured--or worse. This is the hardest part of canine work--being able to put "the emergency brakes" on a dog that is capable of biting through human bone.
A Unique Bond
To understand the raw power and energy of these animals, one needs to spend just a few minutes at the NYPD's canine training facility in Long Island City. There, the dogs are kept in cages when they aren't working with their human partners. They find the confinement hard to bear. When their partners walk into the room, the dogs go crazy. Foam flies from their muzzles. Some chew their cages, reducing steel to bits of twisted scrap metal. They often break their teeth, yet keep chewing.
The moment that the cages are opened, however, the noise stops. The dogs trot silently to their partners' sides, then sit back on their haunches--ears erect, eyes focused forward--and wait for instructions. As one trainer puts it, "It's like you've turned on a switch."
Indeed, canine police tend to talk about their dogs as if the animals are mechanical devices. They say that their dogs need "maintenance" to be "fully operational," and that a "dual-purpose dog"--one that has been taught both to chase down criminals and detect drugs or explosives--has "superior functionality." In the field, a dog is a piece of critical gear.
And yet, officer and dog forge a unique bond. Off duty, each dog lives with its partner and its partner's family. Like an enduring marriage, these partnerships tend to last for life.
Adapted from "Beware of the Dogs" by Burkhard Bilger from the February 27, 2012, issue of The New Yorker. ©2012 by Burkhard Bilger. Used by permission of the author.
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By Burkhard Bilger
Bilger, Burkhard. "Dogs vs. Terrorists." Scholastic Scope. 14 May 2012: 4+. SIRS Discoverer. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
In Post-9/11 New York City, the police department takes extraordinary steps to keep the city safe from terrorist attacks. One of the major challenges is guarding the subway-a maze of 400 stations, 800 miles of track, 6,000 cars and, on any given weekly, 5 million passengers.
A Natural Super Soldier
Dogs serve in two roles within the New York City Police Department. Some are "detection dogs," trained to sniff out explosives and drugs. Others, like Thunder, are patrol dogs, which hunt down criminals.
Patrol dogs have one of the most dangerous jobs in public life--in the past year, four have been killed or seriously injured in the line of duty. They are also strikingly effective. Sending in "jaws and paws" intimidates even the most hardened criminals. In 2010, one subway station on the Lexington Avenue line was hit by 20 muggings and thefts in a matter of months. Once a canine unit began patrolling the station, the number dropped to zero.
As a species, dogs were made for this sort of work. No other animal so diligently aims to please humans. A good dog is a natural super soldier: strong yet acrobatic, fierce yet obedient. It can leap higher than most of us, and run twice as fast. Its eyes are equipped for night vision, its ears for supersonic hearing, its mouth for subduing prey.
But a dog's true glory is its nose. Dogs can detect just a few tiny particles of a substance--like the fleck of a cookie crumb at the bottom of your backpack. Just as astonishing is a dog's acuity; it can identify different substances within a scent, like the spices in a soup.
How? A dog sniffs with short, sharp breaths--as many as 10 per second--drawing the scent deep into its nasal cavity. The receptors there are a hundred times denser than in a human and can pick up on a wide array of particles.
Drug smugglers often try to mask the smell of their shipments by packaging them with coffee beans, air fresheners, or sheets of fabric softener. But it takes more than that to fool a dog.
Paul Waggoner, a behavioral scientist at the Canine Detection Research Institute at Auburn University in Alabama, conducted a test to prove it. He flooded his lab with different scents, then added tiny quantities of different illegal drugs. In one case, "The whole lab smelled like a Starbucks," Waggoner recalls.
The dogs had no trouble homing in on the drugs. "They're just incredible at finding the needle in the haystack," Waggoner says.
The Best of the Best
Police dogs are heirs to an ancient and fierce bloodline. For thousands of years, dogs marched into battle with their human companions. The great mastiffs and sight hounds of Mesopotamia wreaked havoc on the battlefield. Dogs ran with Attila the Hun's hordes and wore battle armor beside the knights of the Middle Ages. In 1495, when Christopher Columbus sailed to what is now the Dominican Republic, he brought greyhounds that could run down an enemy and rip out his guts. During World War I, Germany fielded 30,000 dogs and used them for everything from transporting medicine and wounded soldiers to carrying messages between trenches. The German shepherd, first registered as a breed in 1889 by a former German cavalry captain, was favored during the war for its intelligence and steadiness as well as its power.Today, a variety of breeds are used in police work. Labradors, for instance, are superior sniffers, while German shepherds are preferred for patrol. Regardless of their breed, almost all American police dogs are imported from Europe. They come mainly from Germany, where dogs have been carefully bred for centuries. Once in America, they receive a year of intense training at one of several canine training facilities around the country. Those that don't make the cut in training usually become service dogs (such as guide dogs for the blind). Only the most gifted are recruited to work for the NYPD.
Once a group of new police dogs arrives in New York City, each dog is carefully matched with a police officer. For the next six weeks, each cop-and-dog team builds its working relationship, learning each other's cues and idiosyncrasies.
But the real goal of this training period is to put the dog under the full command of the officer. An officer who loses control of his or her dog in a chaotic environment like a New York City subway station risks disaster. These dogs are inherently aggressive, and if they go too far, someone could get injured--or worse. This is the hardest part of canine work--being able to put "the emergency brakes" on a dog that is capable of biting through human bone.
A Unique Bond
To understand the raw power and energy of these animals, one needs to spend just a few minutes at the NYPD's canine training facility in Long Island City. There, the dogs are kept in cages when they aren't working with their human partners. They find the confinement hard to bear. When their partners walk into the room, the dogs go crazy. Foam flies from their muzzles. Some chew their cages, reducing steel to bits of twisted scrap metal. They often break their teeth, yet keep chewing.
The moment that the cages are opened, however, the noise stops. The dogs trot silently to their partners' sides, then sit back on their haunches--ears erect, eyes focused forward--and wait for instructions. As one trainer puts it, "It's like you've turned on a switch."
Indeed, canine police tend to talk about their dogs as if the animals are mechanical devices. They say that their dogs need "maintenance" to be "fully operational," and that a "dual-purpose dog"--one that has been taught both to chase down criminals and detect drugs or explosives--has "superior functionality." In the field, a dog is a piece of critical gear.
And yet, officer and dog forge a unique bond. Off duty, each dog lives with its partner and its partner's family. Like an enduring marriage, these partnerships tend to last for life.
Adapted from "Beware of the Dogs" by Burkhard Bilger from the February 27, 2012, issue of The New Yorker. ©2012 by Burkhard Bilger. Used by permission of the author.
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