Graeme Jones
Owner
Cerberesk Working Dogs
Graeme Jones is a retired UK Police Officer who served for 30 years. 21 years of my service was as an operational Dog handler and trainer. His main role initially was as a General Purpose (GP) dog handler, but he went on to specialise as a Tactical Firearms Support Dog handler (TFSD also known as SWAT). This involved conducting high risk searches and subject apprehension with Firearms teams. He also specialised as an Explosives Detection Dog (EDD) handler and responded to terrorist threats as well as protecting high ranking politicians and dignitaries.
He qualified as a Home Office Police Dog Instructor in 2002 and remained operational, supporting the training of Police Dog teams. This led to him becoming a full time trainer for his Police Dog department. In 2012 he became the Chief Instructor and was responsible for coordinating training across multiple disciplines (General Purpose, Narcotics Cash Weapons detection, Explosives detection and Tactical Firearms Support). He was the Police force’s risk assessor for all Police Dog related activities. He maintained the training records of the teams for external scrutiny and advised senior officers regarding all matters relative to the department. He was the SPOC (specified point of contact) for the training recording system for not only his force, but 2 other forces worked in collaboration with him. He was a member of the Directing Staff at national counter-terrorist training exercises for EDD teams. This involved conducting training exercises for Police, Prison and Military dog teams from around the UK.
He was fortunate to train alongside and learn from some of the most skilled Police and Military dog trainers from Europe including the Noord Brabant Police Dog School Holland, The Royal Netherlands Air Force (KLU) Volkel Air Base Holland and the counter terrorist unit, the Spezial Einsatz Kommandos of the NordRhein Westphalian Police in Germany. He is the first non-German to be qualified to work with the SEK as a decoy and remain 1 of only 2 UK Police Officers to hold this qualification. He has also acted as an advisor to Helsinki Police Finland regarding selection criteria for working puppies. In 2003 He hosted a 1-day seminar for Prof. Joseph Terkel, Head of Zoology at Tel Aviv University and senior advisor to the Israeli Military K9 branch known as the Oketz regarding early stage development of puppies used in Explosive detection.
He formed Cerberesk Working Dogs UK in 2014 and this was primarily concerned with the breeding, training and supply of Belgian Malinois’ to the UK Police, Prison Service and elite Military units. After leaving the Police in 2016, he focused on the training aspect and became an accredited trainer within the National Association of Security Dog Users (NASDU). He gained accreditation to deliver training in drugs, tobacco and bedbug detection alongside my main disciplines of General Purpose and Explosives Detection Dog teams for the security sector. In 2019 he became a qualified Level 2 Fire Investigator and gained accreditation to train Fire Investigation Search Dog Teams for a number of UK Fire Services. The teams are trained to locate ignitable liquids at suspicious fire scenes and this assists in criminal investigations.
He has created / produced the Cerberesk Working Dogs UK Public Services Decoy Course which has been accredited by CPD Certification Services. The course is designed to coach decoy skills, specifically those relevant to Law Enforcement and Military organisations. The course has been delivered to a number of dog sections within the UK Police, Prison Service, Ministry of Defence Police and Military and has been adopted as best practice by those units.
The course covers many subjects including:
- Drive identification and how to promote the dog in the appropriate drives and responses to equip it for operational deployment
- Correct bite mechanics
- Decoy and K9 safety
- Formulation of training plans
