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Canine cop loses job
18/10/2005 11:02 - (SA)
Rotherham - Buster the German Shepherd could have had a great career as a British police dog had it not been for one flaw: His complete lack of interest in fighting crime.
The canine cop took early retirement after bosses at South Yorkshire Police noted his poor motivation - and a fondness for making friends with rowdy drunkards, his former handler said on Monday.
Buster, who spent some six months on the beat, has been placed with a family in Sheffield, near this town in northern England, Police Constable David Stephenson said.
"He has a lack of drive and motivation when asked to do operational work," Stephenson said. "He's just a lovely pet."
Two-year-old Buster performed well at the start of his 14-week training programme, but his work gradually deteriorated and the problem worsened once he started patrolling the streets, he said.
On one occasion, Buster walked straight past a suspected criminal hiding in the garden of a house late at night and went off to cock his leg.
"I searched the garden myself and found the bloke. The dog had walked past the spot where I found him," Stephenson said. "You would have expected him to use his nose to locate him."
During a separate tracking operation, also in the early hours of the morning, Buster gave up while in mid-chase across a golf course. "He just downed tools," Stephenson said. "He just lay down and there was nothing we could do. He has got a very low drive for finding people."
When patrolling Rotherham at pub closing times - when the streets are often crowded with drunken revellers - Buster wagged his tail when people came up to him and ate their fries, instead of deterring potential troublemakers, his former handler said.
- SAPA
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South Africa
