National Police Dog Trials at Leeds Castle, Kent - Part I

It was a lovely Friday the 24th of April when we decided to watch this National Police Dog Trials for the first time in the prestigious event's 49 year history.... and the final phase of the trials took place at LEEDS CASTLE in KENT, just 20 minutes away from where we live.The highlights were:

• Obedience - Sits, stays, walking to heel off lead
• Send away and redirection - Dog is sent to a given point 100 metres away and then redirected left or right for 50 metres
• Agility – Nearly one metre hurdle, 1.8 metre scale, window obstacle and 1.8 metre long jump
• Straight chase - Chase a fleeing criminal and bite and detain
• Stand off - As above but criminal gives up and dog must not bite, but must stand off and bark
• Emergency recall - Straight chase but when the dog is 30 metres away in full flight, must return to handler on command
• Weapon attack - Dog must bite an advancing aggressive criminal armed with a weapon
• Gun attack - As above but with criminal discharging gun
• Crowd control - Must first walk to heel through a passive/non threatening crowd then when crowd becomes aggressive – respond and through controlled canine aggression move the crowd to a determined point. The crowd will then become passive and then the dog must walk through with no aggression.

This is the LEEDS CASTLE, will blog about this castle shortly.