Officers of the Police Dog Section, the K9 unit from the Civil Protection Department, K9 unit from the C.C.F (Corradino Correctional Facility), the E.R.R.C. Gozo and the Customs Dog Section, all recently attended a seminar hosted by Professor Dominique Grandjean.

Dominique Grandjean (DVM, PhD, HDR) is a Professor at the National Veterinary School of Alfort (France), where he works as head of the Canine Breeding and Sport Medicine unit and the Equine and Carnivores Clinical Sciences Department.As a faculty in Alfort, he has been focusing most of his work on dog nutrition and working dogs’ performance for the last 25 years, with a special attention to oxidative stress prevention and consequences. He is also a Colonel Veterinarian for the Paris Fire Brigade (military unit, 8500 fire-fighters) in charge, among other tasks, of the Canine Search and Rescue teams, of the management of dangerous animals, and of biological hazards. Dominique is also national and regional technical advisor of the civilian security for cynotechnics and biological hazards.

In 1999 he created and then developed a national post-graduate Diploma on Disaster and Environment Veterinary Medicine, and is also Professor at the National Superior School for Fire-fighters Officers. He is the actual President for the National Association of Fire-fighters Veterinarians.

As a researcher his works are focused on the consequences of stress and hostile environments (warm, cold, altitude) on the working dog, with a deep involvement in sled dog long distance races since 1980, and in search and rescue dogs since 1990.

His unit (Unite de Medicine de l’Elevage et du Sport -UMES-) also includes a physiotherapy service and a dedicated sub-unit for canine collective veterinary problems. Dominique already published more than 100 scientific papers on working dog physiology, nutrition and medicine, and a total of 29 books all related to this area.The Training Seminar covered updates on olfaction (the function of smelling in dogs); performance indicators for better performance such as genetic selection, prediction tests, environment, importance of nutrition and physical training and finally First Aid including prevention against heat or other risks.

From the general feedback gathered at the end of the Seminar, attendees said that the “training was very fruitful and is definitely an additional asset and aid for their everyday dog training and dog handling work which is very important and essential especially when faced with critical and emergency situations.”

During the day Professor Dominique Grandjean and some employees of Borg Cardona & Co. Ltd. had the pleasure to visit the Civil Protection Department and the Police Dog Section for further field work and one to one discussions where they could gain further insight.

The training was organised and sponsored by Borg Cardona & Co. Ltd., local representatives of Royal Canin and other top leading brands.

Permalink: Working dogs seminar is great success for both handlers and dogs