Pupils meet Fred for careers in policing and animals

Last week we welcomed PC Steven Davies and Fred from the British Transport Police. Steve joined us to talk to pupils from across all year groups about careers in Policing and the different aspects of working with animals. 

During the afternoon workshop, Steve demonstrated how his dog, Fred, is trained to seek and indicate that explosives are present in an area: Pupils hid a dupe explosive substance in the Rose Garden whilst Fred stayed in the Conference Suite. When Fred was instructed to search for the substance he investigated one area of the garden, until a breeze triggered Fred to run across the garden to the hidden substance. Fred was rewarded with his favourite tennis ball and a game of fetch with pupils. 

Ms Smith said, "It was amazing to see Fred behaving like a pet five year old labrador, until his Police harness was put on. Fred immediately transformed into a focussed Police dog, fixed on Steve's every verbal and non-verbal command. 

She continued, "Steve's talk was insightful and covered different Policing roles, application processes, career progression, different aspects of training the dogs for specific roles and the issues surrounding living and working with a dog. Our youngsters left enthused and with the skills to train their own dogs to find their mobile phones!"