police dog

plural police dogs

1. A dog trained and employed by the police to pursue suspects or sniff out contraband.

   1 more example

   A man who attacked three police officers and a police dog at Nottingham on April 4 has pleaded guilty to two counts of actual bodily harm, assault with intent to resist arrest, assault of an emergency worker, possession of a bladed article, possession of an offensive weapon, and causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.

   2020 April 22, “Network News: Man attacks BTP officers after being refused travel”, in Rail, page 11

   Synonyms: K-9 unit, service dog

2. datedSynonym of German shepherd.

   Contrary to popular opintion, the shepherd or police dog has not been crossed with the wolf, and has none of the qualities of such a mongrel.

   1930 March, Stephen Sherman, “Was Your Dog Once A Wolf”, in Popular Science Monthly, page 57

   3 more examples

   Finding myself, the other day, in New London, Conn., the thought occurred that it would be a good time to pay a visit to my old friend, Henri I. Baer whose kennel of police dogs (German shepherd dogs) at East Killingly, Conn., was only an hour or so away.

   1917, Dogdom: Monthly - Volume 18, page 596

   For instance, we will take a police dog, and no doubt you are all aware, as I am, of the fact that the police or German shepherd is one of the hardest dogs that we have to treat.

   1926, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, Volumel 69

   By the mid-1920s, the annual registrations of German Shepherd Dogs surpassed 21,000 dogs a year in America and the breed had become one of the most well-known in the country. Unfortunately, to meet this demand for “German police dogs” too many puppies were bred indiscriminately and the breed's reputation suffered.

   2016, Janet Vorwald Dohner, Farm Dogs: A Comprehensive Breed Guide to 93 Guardians, Herders, Terriers, and other Canine Working Partners, →ISBN

   Synonyms: German shepherd