Officer Li Peng trains Cub to attack suspects. Photo: Cui Meng/GT

Li Peng gives Cub some water during a break. Photo: Cui Meng/GT

Defu follows Liu Xin's commands and stands up. Photo: Cui Meng/GT

Defu leaps over Liu Xin, his handler. Photo: Cui Meng/GT

After he receives a command from his handler, Defu leaps out of a window. Photo: Cui Meng/GT

Liu Xin rewards Douding after he completes a training task. Photo: Cui Meng/GT

Tracking, bomb-sniffing and searching for drugs, despite facing the scorching Urumqi heat while wearing a fur coat, highly-trained police dogs carry out a key role in Urumqi police's daily patrols and anti-terrorism tasks.

Li Xiangrong, vice director of the SWAT department of Urumqi's Public Security Bureau, told the media last year that dogs will play an important role as the police up their number of patrols and increase their supervision of the city.

Urumqi police expanded their canine corps last year. Last June, four members of the SWAT department traveled to police dog training centers in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, and Kunming, Yunnan Province, and chose 40 dogs to join their team. Aged between 8 and 15 months, they include Malinois, Kunming wolfdogs and Rottweilers. After three weeks of intensive training for seven hours a day, the rookie pooches officially joined the 30 veteran canine cops of the SWAT department.

According to Yan Jun, head of the police dog unit, a dog can usually work for 8 to 10 years. Due to the intense training and challenging work environment, their life span is usually shorter than that of domestic dogs. "It takes around a year's training for a dog to be able to finish a task independently. It's not easy to turn them into professional, responsible police dogs."

Global Times