K9 Transport Equipment, Explained
If you’re a K9 dog trainer or handler, you know just how much time and attention goes into training police dogs to be obedient and hard-working. However, it takes more than time and energy to care for a K9 pup. K9 transport equipment and handling accessories keep police dogs safe during training as well as on the job, and it’s important to use products that are built to perform and last. Let’s look at some common products that can help keep your partner safe.
Vehicle Inserts
Police K9 vehicle inserts are essential for all law enforcement personnel in order to keep your police dog and passengers safe and comfortable inside your vehicle during transportation. Not only do K9 vehicle inserts ensure that your dog is safe, but they also make it safe for an arrestee or prisoner to ride in the police vehicle without interacting with a trained K9 animal.
Your K9 police dog is highly trained to help apprehend suspects with force, especially in dangerous situations. However, once the suspect is in your custody and being taken to a secondary location, it’s important that you avoid any risk of your police dog interacting with the person while inside the vehicle. That’s where police K9 car inserts come in, with durable materials and customized fittings to suit your dog’s size and breed as well as your specific vehicle.
Depending on your preference and your dog’s training, your K9 vehicle insert can be designed to allow entrance and exit from the right or left of the vehicle. The insert is built with a thick aluminum divider that keeps your trained K9 dog from seeing the prisoner riding alongside them, which helps to keep them calm while in transport.
The small opening in the front of the vehicle insert allows trained personnel to interact with the dog in a controlled manner, and has a closable door so you can keep open communication with your K9 or restrict their vision depending on what keeps them more calm.
Police K9 vehicle inserts are customized to fit specific car models and will bolt securely into the floor of the vehicle without restricting the usage of the car’s front seats. Your dog will be kept comfortable with thick rubber mats and an LED light inside the vehicle insert, and the product is easy to install yourself; it includes pre-drilled holes for mounting and self-drilling screws.
Popper Kits
When it comes to keeping a K9 dog safe while in transport, there’s more to it than durable trailers or vehicle inserts. Once you have these items securely installed, a vehicle heat alarm and door popper are essential for your dog’s health and safety while inside the car.
These two functions are combined within a popper kit, which can be custom designed to suit your dog’s needs as well as your car make and model. The first main component of a popper kit is the temperature sensor, which keeps a consistent read of the temperature inside your dog’s trailers, vehicle inserts, or police K9 kennels.
This allows dog handlers to always be aware of the current temperature inside their dog’s K9 transport unit and quickly make adjustments if the unit is too hot or too cold for the dog’s comfort and safety. This system remains active as long as an animal is inside the transportation unit, whether or not the car’s ignition is on.
Another primary component of the K9 popper kit is the door popper and stopper, which allows handlers to pop the doors of the K9 transport unit with the touch of a button. While this feature makes it easy for professional K9 handlers to release their dog from the holding unit with ease, it also keeps the dog safe and secure during transport by preventing activation of the door while it senses motion from the vehicle. As soon as the car is put into park, the door popper device will be automatically rearmed.
Popper kits are also designed with a few additional features for easy use by K9 handlers. With the touch of a button, law enforcement personnel working with trained K9 animals can activate sirens or S.O.S. horn honks, prevent accidental deployment of K9 dogs from their holding units with Anti Bump software, and easily read the status updates of their K9 transport areas with clear LCD displays.
K9 Cages & Dog Crates
If the specific functions of your police K9 unit require your K9 dogs to remain in their transportation area for extended periods of time, a closed unit such as a vehicle insert or trailer may not be the best option. In this situation, K9 cages tend to be safer and more comfortable for your police dog as they allow more visibility and airflow within the transportation vehicle.
The bottoms and tops of police dog kennels and cages are made with diamond-plated aluminum and connected with aluminum TIG-welded bars, ensuring that your item will be both durable and long-lasting. Aluminum maintains high levels of durability and rust resistance while still being lightweight and resisting heat absorption from the sun.
The doors of police dog cages are double-reinforced with a stainless steel lock, but locking isn’t required for the door to be firmly latched and secured. Depending on the layout of your vehicle and your dog’s training, your K9 cage’s door swing direction can be customized to suit your needs.
The crate’s two side panels also have recessed handles — they remain tight against the crate’s sides while not being used but can be easily pulled out for transport.
Narcotics Storage Boxes
Part of the responsibility of law enforcement is to transport dangerous or illegal substances to safer secondary locations. Narcotics are a common substance that police officers collect from crime scenes, and it’s important that these harmful substances be kept safely away from other officers, suspects, and working K9 dogs once they’ve identified the substance.
Narcotics storage boxes are made with durable steel to keep their contents secure, and the padded interior helps to keep anything inside the boxes from jostling during transport. Depending on the needs of your K9 unit, you can use a full narcotic accessory kit that carries multiple individual narcotics storage boxes or simply carry individual boxes for the transport of small items.
Each narcotics storage box is watertight for up to 1 meter and 30 minutes of submersion, and the interior prevents the crushing of items with its soft foam lining. Narcotic accessory kits also come with metal-lidded glass jars for the safe carrying of substances and items. Each storage box is specially built with a valve to equalize pressure inside the box to provide additional protection from breakage.
Cooling Fans
It’s important to have temperature reading technology inside your K9 car transport unit in order to remain aware of your dog’s safety and comfort while in transport. However, what can you do when the temperature reading inside your dog’s area is too high but you can’t interrupt the task at hand to roll down a window or let the dog outside?
Cooling fans are an essential part of any K9 transport method for this reason. Police K9 vehicle inserts aren’t built with airflow as a main priority, and even police K9 kennels with open spaces between bars can become stuffy for your K9 dog.
Depending on your preference, your K9 cooling fan can be designed to switch on automatically when your dog’s holding unit reaches a certain temperature, or you can opt for a manual control system. Cooling fans come in sizes 10″ and 12″ diameter sizes and are easy to install yourself.
K9 Dog Trailers
Trailers are one of the most popular types of K9 transport for law enforcement personnel. Trailers are useful for police dogs because they can be hitched to multiple different types of vehicles, including large and small automobiles and motorcycles. This means that no matter what your mode of transportation is, your K9 pup can ride along safely and arrive at your destination alongside you.
K9 dog trailers are built with a sturdy frame of welded aluminum as well as durable aluminum axles, bearings hubs, and high-quality 6-ply tires. The all-aluminum model makes these K9 transport carriers strong and long-lasting while also being lightweight enough to be pulled easily by many different types of vehicles.
These trailers are built to house two large dogs comfortably. They have rubber mats inside as well as a noise-reducing interior design, which keeps your dogs calm and relaxed while in transport.
There are additional storage compartments built on the top and front of your K9 dog trailer with carpets, dividers, and locks to keep any items secure as you move from place to place. These K9 trailers are made to order, which means you can add or remove additional specifications to have them built to your liking.
FAQs
What Is a K9 Dog?
A K9 dog is a service animal that is highly trained in a variety of skills in order to assist law enforcement professionals. Some K9 dogs are specifically trained to perform substance detection or human search and rescue, while others carry out these tasks along with a variety of other responsibilities, including suspect apprehension, remains detection, and landmine or explosive detection.
The best breeds to be trained for K9 teams are intelligent breeds with many generations of herding, scent following, hunting, and strength in their genes. These often include German Shepherds, Dutch Shepherds, and Belgian Malinois. K9 dogs need to be dependable, obedient dogs that can carry out various commands quickly in order to keep themselves and their handlers safe in dangerous situations.
Why Is Proper K9 Transportation So Important?
K9 transportation is important for many of the same reasons that safe transportation of a pet in a car or other vehicle is important. Any dog owner or handler wants their pup to feel safe and calm while in a potentially uncomfortable situation, and many dogs don’t take well to the movement of vehicles or the enclosed spaces of vehicle inserts, trailers, and crates.
For K9 dogs, however, vehicle safety is even more crucial, especially when the dog is on the way to a suspect apprehension or a search and rescue situation. K9 dogs need to be in their best physical and mental form in order to complete their duties, and this starts with safe and comfortable transportation.
Additionally, secure K9 transportation becomes a human safety concern when arrested suspects are carried in the same vehicles as K9 dogs. Since K9 animals are specifically trained to apprehend suspects at the direction of their handlers, having both K9 dogs and suspects in the car together could be dangerous without secure vehicle inserts that keep the arrested person out of the K9 dog’s line of sight.
How Long Does It Take for a K9 Dog to Complete Training?
Once a K9 puppy is paired with its handler, K9 training can take anywhere from eight months to one year to be fully completed. Multiple aspects of K9 dog training will combine to create a well-rounded police dog that is equipped to handle the responsibilities of the unit.
For example, while complete training may take several months to finish, individual training regimens like explosive or narcotic detection may take only a few weeks. It all depends on the type of K9 unit and what situations the dog will be expected to maneuver, in addition to how well the dog takes to training and how experienced the trainer is.
Are K9 Cages Safe?
K9 cages are designed with dog safety as the #1 priority. Every K9 cage is uniquely built to suit the specific law enforcement officer and K9 handler’s vehicle as well as the size needs of the dog. There are also many ways to make K9 cages more comfortable and enjoyable for the dog, including cooling fan installation, LED lights for additional visibility, and cushioned mats for the bottom of the cage.
Do You Offer Used K9 Vehicle Inserts for Sale?
Used police K9 inserts can be effective at keeping your police dog as well as any passengers in your vehicle safe during transport. However, for optimal security and comfort for your dog as well as space optimization inside your vehicle, it’s best to use a customized vehicle insert that’s suited perfectly for your vehicle shape and size as well as the space needs of your K9 dog.
That’s why we don’t offer used K9 vehicle inserts for sale and recommend customized inserts for all law enforcement personnel working with K9 dogs.