Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-19T01:05:34.806Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Causes of loss or retirement from active duty for New Zealand police German shepherd dogs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

AJ Worth ,
M Sandford ,
B Gibson ,
R Stratton ,
V Erceg ,
J Bridges  and
B Jones
AJ Worth*
Affiliation:
Centre for Service and Working Dog Health, Massey University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Private Bag 11-222, Palmerston North, New Zealand
M Sandford
Affiliation:
New Zealand Police Dog Section, Trentham, New Zealand
B Gibson
Affiliation:
New Zealand Police Dog Section, Trentham, New Zealand
R Stratton
Affiliation:
Institute of Veterinary, Animal and Biomedical Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
V Erceg
Affiliation:
Centre for Service and Working Dog Health, Massey University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Private Bag 11-222, Palmerston North, New Zealand
J Bridges
Affiliation:
Institute of Veterinary, Animal and Biomedical Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
B Jones
Affiliation:
Centre for Service and Working Dog Health, Massey University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Private Bag 11-222, Palmerston North, New Zealand
*
* Contact for correspondence and requests for reprints: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The aim of this study was to determine the causes of loss from active duty amongst German shepherd dogs in service with the New Zealand Police Dog Section. Current or previous police dog handlers (n = 149) completed a postal survey for each dog they had worked with during their career including their current dog. Causes of loss were categorised as either retirement, euthanasia whilst still in active duty, death from illness/natural causes, or being killed whilst on duty. Of 182 dogs with completed questionnaires, 48 dogs were still in service, leaving 134 that were retired (94), had been euthanased (24), had died (11) or had been killed (5). The mean and median age at loss for all dogs no longer in service was 6.6 years. The nominal age for planned retirement (8 years) was only reached by 40% of dogs. The single most important cause of retirement was the inability to cope with the physical demands of the job (61/94 dogs or 65%). Degenerative musculoskeletal disease was cited as the primary factor in 42/61 of these dogs (69%). When both retired and euthanased dogs where considered together, 27% were retired or euthanased due to back/spinal problems, and a high proportion of these were believed to have involved the lumbosacral joint. Greater research efforts should be targeted at identification of the factors that lead to degenerative musculoskeletal and lumbo-sacral disease to determine methods of lowering their incidence in police working dogs. Such research could lead to increasing the average working life and ‘in work’ welfare of a police German shepherd dog in New Zealand.

Keywords

animal welfarecanineGerman shepherdpoliceretirementworking dog
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Welfare , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , May 2013 , pp. 167 - 174
Copyright
© 2013 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

References

Bergknut, N 2011 Intervertebral disc degeneration in dogs. Doctoral Thesis No 2010:91, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Uppsala, Sweden and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, The NetherlandsGoogle Scholar
Damur-Djuric, N, Steffen, F, Hassig, M, Morgan, JP and Fluckiger, MA 2006 Lumbo-sacral transitional vertebrae in dogs: classification, prevalence, and association with sacroiliac morphology. Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound 47: 32–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-8261.2005.00102.xGoogle Scholar
Dutton, R and Moore, GE 1987 Clinical review of death or euthanasia in 123 military working dog necropsies. Military Medicine 152: 489–493CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evans, R, Herbold, JR, Bradshaw, BS and Moore, GE 2007 Causes for discharge of military working dogs from service: 268 cases (2000-2004). Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 231: 1215–1220. http://dx.doi.org/10.2460/javma. 231.8.1215CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fluckiger, MA, Damur-Djuric, N, Hassig, M, Morgan, JP and Steffen, F 2006 A lumbo-sacral transitional vertebra in the dog predisposes to cauda equina syndrome. Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound 47: 39–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-8261.2005.00103.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glickman, LT, Glickman, NW, Schellenberg, DB and Lantz, GC 1997 Multiple risk factors for gastric dilatation and dilatation-volvulus in dogs: a practitioner case/control study. Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association 33: 197–204CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanna, FY 2001 Lumbo-sacral osteochondrosis: radiological features and surgical management in 34 dogs. Journal of Small Animal Practice 42: 272–278. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-5827.2001.tb02040.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haverbeke, A, De Smet, A, Depiereux, E, Giffroy, J and Deiderich, C 2009 Assessing undesired aggression in military working dogs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 117: 55–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2008.12.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kippenes, H and Gondalen, J 1999 Helsetilstanden hos politiets patruljehunder og et utvalg schaferhunder. Norsk Veterinartidsskrift 111: 145–150. [Title translation: Health status of police patrol dogs and selected German shepherds]Google Scholar
Lang, J, Hani, H and Schwalder, P 1992 A sacral lesion resembling osteochondrosis in the German Shepherd dog. Veterinary Radiology 33: 69–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-8261.1992.tb01962.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mathis, KR, Havlicek, M, Beck, JB, Eaton-Wells, RD and Park, FM 2009 Sacral osteochondrosis in two German shepherd dogs. Australian Veterinary Journal 87: 249–252. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-0813.2009.00418.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meij, BP and Bergknut, N 2010 Degenerative lumbo-sacral stenosis in dogs. Veterinary Clinics Small Animal 20: 983–1009. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cvsm.2010.05.006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, GE, Burkman, KD, Carter, MN and Peterson, MR 2001 Causes of death or reasons for euthanasia in military working dogs: 927 cases (1993-1996). Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 219: 209–214. http://dx.doi.org/10.2460/javma.2001.219.209CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, JP, Bahr, A, Franti, CE and Bailey, CS 1993 Lumbosacral transitional vertebrae as a predisposing cause of cauda equina syndrome in German Shepherd Dogs; 161 cases (1987-1990). Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 202: 1877–1882Google Scholar
Olson, RC 1971 Physical evaluation and selection of military dogs. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 159: 1444–1446Google ScholarPubMed
Patterson, DF 2000 Companion animal medicine in the age of medical genetics. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine 14: 1–9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-1676.2000.tb01492.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scharf, G, Steffen, F, Grunenfelder, F, Morgan, JP and Fluckiger, M 2004 The lumbo-sacral junction in working German Shepherd dogs: neurological and radiological evaluation. Journal of Veterinary Medicine. Series A51: 27–32Google Scholar
Ward, MP, Patronek, GJ and Glickman, LT 2003 Benefits of prophylactic gastropexy for dogs at risk of gastric dilatation-volvulus. Preventative Veterinary Medicine 60: 319–329. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0167-5877(03)00142-9CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wigger, A, Julier-Franz, C, Tellhelm, B and Kramer, M 2009 Lumbo-sacral transitional vertebrae in the German shepherd dog: prevalence, classification, genetics, and association with canine hip dysplasia. Tierärztliche Praxis Ausgabe Kleintiere Heimtiere 37: 7–13Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Worth et al. supplementary material
Download undefined(File)
File 266.7 KB