Anamika, 22, stood in a queue with other women before she was ‘chosen for life’ by Charlie. The handsome boy came up to her, sniffed, nodded and that was it―he was hers for life.
Charlie is no ordinary boy from the block. He is a four-month-old dog, a Belgian Malinois aka Belgian Shepherd at that, and Anamika is among the first lot of eight women being trained as dog handlers at the Indo-Tibetan Border Police’s (ITBP) National Training Centre for Dogs and Animals in Haryana.
“I found dogs doing work like bomb detection and tracking interesting. [That is when] I decided to become a dog handler,” said Anamika. “Charlie is bonded with me for life.”
An armed forces security dog bonds for life with its handler. Both train together, eat together, spend time together and are even transferred together. It is so much a bond nurtured and perfected over time and training that once on active duty the dogs will only listen to their own handler’s commands even while being around other dog handlers and sounds.
Nestled in the Shivalik foothills near Panchkula, the ITBP centre was designated as a national training centre in 2005. “We have been training dogs for central armed police forces and (many) state police forces for free,” said ITBP Inspector General Ishwar Singh Duhan. “The centre can train over 250 dogs at a time.”
Recently, Trade Records Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce (TRAFFIC) India sent its inspectors and dogs from various national parks for training in detecting wildlife-related crimes like poaching. Ilu, for instance, will head to Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, where cheetahs were recently introduced. The centre is getting interest from other countries, too. Police dogs from Nepal and Bhutan have been trained here.
A day in the life of a four-legged soldier starts early. Chow time is thrice a day for puppies and twice for adults. After a walk and morning rituals, there is physical exercise and grooming before basic training starts. This ranges from saluting and rolling to navigating obstacle courses, where the difficulty level is increased gradually.
Later in the day, the handler and the dog practise advanced tasks like narcotic drug detection, bomb detection and tracking culprits. There are various modes including some indigenously designed methods like carousel training. In this, similar-looking tiffin boxes are spun around, and the dogs have to sniff out the right one with explosives, and then sit silently beside it. When it comes to narcotics, they have to sit and bark. This helps the handler figure out correctly what the haul is.
There is also specialised training, say, for rescue operations during an avalanche, as many ITBP posts are in the snowy heights of the Himalayas. Canines sent to naxal areas or to borders on the plains are trained in landmine detection.
So far, the centre has trained 2,800 four-legged soldiers. Vinay Shankar Tyagi, second-in-command vet at the centre, said 60 Belgian Malinois and Labrador Retriever pups have been trained at the centre. Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s shoutout to Indian dog breeds in his ‘Mann ki Baat’ radio talk, the centre is now planning to train desi breeds like Mudhol Hound and Rampur Greyhound and even feral Indies. “We have started looking for suitable puppies,” said Tyagi.
Like many an ex-serviceman, these canine soldiers, too, do not put their feet up post retirement. “(Even) after retiring from service, these dogs are put to use in society,” said Dr Hitesh Shandilaya, second-in-command vet at the centre. “They are taken to NGOs working with autistic kids and in old age homes, where they play and do light work for them.”
True soldiers at heart, the call of duty does not end with the sunset roll call.