Dalmatian that trains dogs

Max is a 12-year-old Dalmatian. When he was younger, Max was a corporate security dog.

Max patrolled shopping malls, making sure nobody would break in.

When his bosses collected money to pay wages, Max was there to make sure nobody would try to steal it.

Max was also trained to find stolen goods.

He could track down robbers and stolen goods by sniffing out their tracks.

Max could track in all weather conditions, even in the rain and at night.

Max was also trained to sniff out explosives - including those hidden in a plastic bag underwater.

Max retired when he was 10 years old. Instead of living in the company kennel, Max now lives with his old boss Val Santhanarajo.

But Max still works sometimes. Because he is so clever, Max has become a consultant. Max is teaching other dogs to be good security dogs.

Max and Val train young security dogs by example. The young dogs watch how Max patrols and tracks and then they copy what the old dog does.

Max is an old dog but he can teach other dogs plenty of new tricks.

What corporate security dogs do

Companies that run hotel resorts, shopping malls or theme parks need to make sure their customers are safe. Corporate security dogs can:

guard people and places

protect money sent to and from the bank

disarm and track robbers

find lost children

Popular corporate security

dog breeds

Security dogs have to be clever, obedient, and good at communicating. As they sometimes have to fight robbers, they also have to be big and strong.

Max the Dalmatian is not as heavy or as tough as some bigger security dogs. But Max is very clever. He is also very good at communicating. If something is wrong, Max can tell his handler where the problem is.

Common pedigrees that become security dogs include Rottweilers, German shepherds, Rhodesian ridgebacks, Dobermans, mastiffs, Belgian bouviers, and Kunming wolfdogs.

Spot on

Dalmatians were bred as a dog of war. Max's ancestors guarded the border of Dalmatian, which is in Croatia.

Also, in the old days, these dogs would run behind horse-drawn coaches. They got on very well with horses and would stop other dogs harassing the horses as they passed.

They are excellent guard dogs so they became a mascot to firemen. In the old days, fire fighters were pulled to the scene of the fire by horses. The Dalmatians would run ahead of the horses and show them the way. They were also used to find missing people at the scene.

We use a capital D when we write Dalmatian because these dogs are named after a place.

fab fact!

We have about 5 million smell cells in our nose. Dogs have between 200 and 300 million.

Dog joke!

Q: Why did the Dalmatian go to the eye doctor?

A: He kept seeing spots!