Gendarmerie in France advertises to recruit… your dog
The public is asked to get in touch if their four-legged friend is ‘playful, confident and sociable’ as this could be the role for them
The French gendarmerie is recruiting domestic dogs to join its brigades
Photofort 77/Shutterstock
A gendarmerie in the south-west of France is recruiting for its canine brigade with a tongue-in-cheek call out directly to people’s dogs.
"If the gendarmerie has a majority of human beings, it also needs you, our canine friends," the Gironde gendarmerie writes on its Facebook page.
"We're offering you some very interesting positions where you can be of service to humans in ways other than fetching the ball."
The ideal candidate
The recruitment campaign is not just aimed at the Gironde, with the Centre national d'instruction cynophile de la gendarmerie (national sniffer dog training centre) recruiting domestic dogs all across France.
The requirements are they must be playful, confident and sociable, aged 10–24 months old.
Dogs of any breed are welcome as long as “their personality meets the selection tests,” said the recruiters.
To sign your dog up for the chance to join the gendarmes, call 05 65 10 16 95 or email cnicg@gendarmerie.interieur.gouv.fr.
Canine police
The gendarmerie’s dog unit has around 480 handlers and 550 dogs at all times.
The animals are used for a range of tasks from drug searches to avalanche victim searches as well as explosive search dogs.
The Saint-Hubert breed has become increasingly present in the gendarmerie due to its hyper-developed sense of smell – the breed has 300 million olfactory cells (more than five times that of a human).
Other breeds present include German Shepherds, Labradors, Belgian Shepherds and Springer-Spaniels.
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