Our June talk

Meet Tom, the police dog

At our June meeting, we heard from PC Neal Nightingale from the Metropolitan Police Dog Section at Chadwell Heath.  

London has five dog bases. A large number of officers handle two dogs, a general purpose dog and a specialist dog, which could be a drugs dog, an expo dog trained in explosives, a blood dog that finds forensic evidence, a passive drugs dog trained to sniff queues of people at transport hubs, or even a cyber dog trained to recognise digital devices. There are also urban search and rescue dogs, which search with the Fire Brigade, and Trojan support dogs, experienced, friendly dogs for tasks where they have to be passed from officer to officer. 

When they retire, dogs often stay with their handlers as pets.

Neal has been busy during the Jubilee, and his dog Tom, who is marine trained, often works on the river. They've been searching Clipper boats, cruise boats, foreign yachts visiting London and sugar boats delivering to the Tate & Lyle factory – Neal took us through how dogs are transferred safely from boat to boat.

We heard how officers have to give plenty of space to public order dogs working in volatile situations, as a worked-up dog won't discriminate between the public and officers.

We learned just how complicated the issues are around dangerous dogs, from different interpretations of breeds to different reactions from owners, from those keen to agree to the measures required to get their dogs back to those who leave them in kennels. 

Then Tom showed us some skills... Neal had taped something to find under one of our seats, sent Tom around the room to search and within seconds, he'd found it. Job done, Tom got his favourite tennis ball. 

A big thank-you to Neal and Tom for a fascinating evening and a special mention for Heather's marvellous mini Victoria sponges.

Our next coffee morning

Friday 24th June, 11.00 at The Hub, Victoria Park, East Side, right next to the children's playground, skate park and pools play area. Buses 276, 488 and 339. We also plan to explore the tree trail we mentioned at our AGM.

See us at the East End Canal Festival on 16 and 17 July!

We're very excited to be running a tea and cake stall at our first big event since the start of the pandemic. Get in touch if you'd like to bake or help and come and visit. We'll be at the Arts Pavilion in Mile End Park. More on the festival here.

Look out for more on our July events

Look out for our July newsletter for more on what's coming up, including our next talk, on artist Madge Gill.