Evening star., 1960-03-17
CANINE CORPS CODE
Dogs Learn Foreign Orders
BY GILBERT GIMBLE
Star Stan Writer

By GILBERT GIMBLE
Star stan Writer
To the wise guy who's think
ing of barking an order to any
of the three United States Park
Police Canine Corps dogs-for-
get it, unless you know Japa-
neSe. Spanish-Indian or Ger
man.
| This is a trick the police dog
trainers have pulled to thwart
those who think they have all
the answers. The foolhardy
hood who tries to turn the dog
against someone else by yell
ing "sic 'em" will find his yells
falling on long but linguistically
deaf ears.
The three Park Police dogs
have been trained to obey at
tack signals given them in the
foreign languages.
The command vocabularies
include about 10 words covering
such orders as attack, search,
release and heel. What those
foreign words are will have to
remain a mystery to all but
the dogs and their professional
colleagues. Once the command
signals are widely known the
trainers would have to BRAIN
wash their dogs and start from
scratch.
One Language Per Dog
Each Of the three dogs is
trained in one of the three
languages used. All the dogs
do not understand all of the
foreign words. Choice of which
foreign language to use is left
up to the dog handler who is
to train and keep the dog.
Sergt. Alfred D. Beye. who
rode a motorcycle for 10 years
prior to switching to the Park
Police mounted patrol about six
years ago, is in charge of the
police service dog section. The
program was started in 1857.
He uses the Spanish-Indian
signals. These include a smat-
tering of Spanish, some Navajo
and other Indian words.
Il figured this was one set
Of signals the average person
wouldn't be using, Sergt. Beye
explained.
He pointed out that the two
other. Park Police officers un-
der his command have chosen
separate languages so that
each dog has an entirely diff
ferent set of command signals.
"Sometimes-especially in a
crowd-a dog might mistake a
similar voice giving a command
to be that of his own handler"
Sergt. Beye said. But by using
entirely different signals we
avoid the problem"
German Shepherds
The other Park policemen
assigned to the dog service unit
are Pvts. Edward C. McAmis
and Richard A. Valentine. All
three dogs are German shep-
herds.
Pvt. McAmis gives commands
to Poker, a 22-months-old
l00-pounder, in Japanese. II
picked up a few words when I
was in Japan during World War
H." he explains. The word he
uses to command the dog to
let go of his victim is the same
used by the japanese soldier
to yell surrender.
Pvt. McAmis' dog has been
taught to respond to three
Japanese commands - attack,
release and come.
Pvt. Valentine has known
German all of his life and
chose that language with which
to train his dog. The dog he
now has is the Park Police
units latest arrival. He's a Is
month-old named Prince. A
few weeks ago a dog he had
ALREADY trained was found to
have a malformed leg and was
returned to its original owners.
Obstacle Course
The dogs are trained in
tracking by scent as well as
how to attack a fleeing bandit.
An elaborate obstacle course is
set up at the Oregon avenue
Park Police stables in Rock
Creek Park where Sergt. Beye
makes his headquarters.
The sergeant was instructed
on how to train and handle
dogs at the canine corps center
of the Canadian Royal Mount
ed Police in Novia Scotia.
He said the Mounties do some
unusual things with their dogs.
They train them to sniff out
illegal whisky. for example.
But Sergt. Beye, who's writ
ing a training manual on dog
handling for the Park Police,
says he sees no need for whisky
training here vet And no