I never knew of this and it stinks that it "used to be the way"

http://www.abc.net.au/news/201...r-retirement/5049160

Years ago handlers could get their dogs out of service IF they had local council approval and RAAF approval and if they constructed an appropriate kennel. It didn't happen a lot however. That stopped when a handler did the wrong thing with his dog (from what I understand) and that was legislated by the government, not the RAAF, that we could not release an aggressive dog. That was for our old style dogs that were donated to the RAAF by civi owners. These were dogs that couldn't be controlled by their owners because of aggression etc. Now when it says that they are put down at the end of their service, we are talking about dogs that have medical issues, either HD or spondylosis or cancers.

If a handler gets out and his dog is still young enough he is reteamed with another handler. If it's getting a bit old it becomes a pool dog. That is a dog that is maintained by the section as a whole and is used on shift if another handlers dog is out of action for whatever reason. Now as we are breeding our own dogs we don't have the big aggressive donated dogs that came to us with issues so they are a lot more sociable but with what we call controlled aggression. We don't put down a healthy dog just because he a bit old. As I said, by the time they get to 7,8,9 as a working dog they usually have health issues. In the old style dogs HD was the most common issue and even with our own bred German Shepards we still get HD. Unfortunately HD is in GSD and I doubt anyone can breed it out.

Hope that answers your questions mate. That article has been a bit of a talking point here today.

Yeah tar,the writer of the article should have contacted you as someone in the job/know.

Gryph, the SGT they spoke to is a mate of mine and knows all of this as well (we went through basic course together). The reporter was told it but it didn't make the article. What do you do.

quote:

The reporter was told it but it didn't make the article.

Par for the course with reorters too..fug em!