In Spain, the police have different types of canine guides, some trained in explosives detection, others in attack and defence or in rescue and lifesaving. However, the Mijas Local Police has a very special one in its team, Bobby, the first dog in the country trained to improve children's reading skills, increasing their fluency and comprehension, something that is achieved, according to officer David Gutiérrez, "through the bond created by the person reading and the hearing dog".

 

Taking advantage of these abilities, the Mijas Local Police have started a pilot programme with the school El Albero (Las Lagunas), which works with seven students with special needs. It has only been running for a month, but progress, they say, is evident. Every week, David and Bobby attend to each of these children in 45-minute sessions. "The key is that the dog interacts with the child but never corrects him, the dog never judges him, never scolds him; the child can make a mistake once, twice or five times, but the dog doesn't care and a bond is created between the animal and the child, a bond, that will motivate the child, so, as he achieves the objectives set, he will have more contact with the dog, like playing with him or walking him", says the guide officer.

 

At four months old, Bobby, who was born in Galicia, became part of the family of David Gutiérrez, who since a child had dreamed of sharing his life with a beagle, what he never thought was that his dog would also become his professional colleague. It was the sub-inspector of the Mijas Local Police and  tutor officer, Ángel Blanc, who encouraged David to train Bobby to integrate him into this innovative programme.

 

But this three-year-old beagle is taking more steps. He trains daily, for about an hour and a half, and every fortnight he visits a trainer, with whom he is now also receiving additional training based on the search and detection of narcotic substances, a task that he will soon be carrying out, because, for the moment, his mission is in class with this project. "For us it is very gratifying, we are very excited because again from the Local Police of Mijas we have created a new project, we can say that it is the first Local Police in Spain to work with special education children through a dog, so we are pioneers, and hopefully, this will be followed by other police forces", added Gutiérrez.

 

From the educational centre, they also advocate for more canine officers with these 'superpowers'. "This figure should be in all the centres and not only with children with special needs but for the rest, I think a lot of things could be worked on with the children and with other Bobbys, I think it should be transferred to other centres, it is a super positive experience for them, what we don't achieve, the animals do, I think they can help us", concluded the Early Childhood Education teacher Ana María Rodríguez.

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