Stray dogs to be trained and pressed into service as guards

Stray dogs roaming around Central Delhi, India, may soon find themselves attending grooming school with the New Delhi Municipal Council planning to adopt and train them as guard dogs.

The civic body will enlist the services of police dog trainers in an attempt to train the dogs and press them into service. Accompanied by in-house home guards, also a new initiative by the civic body, the dogs and the men will share the mandate of keeping the area safe and secure.



“If these dogs are going to roam the area, they might as well work,” NDMC chairman Jalaj Shrivastava said on Friday. “Our plan is to adopt these strays and train them as guard dogs.”

The civic body has, in the past, constituted committees and worked with the Animal Welfare Board to sterilise and keep the numbers of stray dogs under check after repeatedly receiving complains about incidents of dog bites. This initiative is meant to address two issues: take the strays off the streets, thereby tackling the dog menace, and make the city safer for residents, added Mr. Shrivastava.