Special camp for sniffer dogs& handlers hosted

Metro India News | Hyderabad 

Hyderabad is playing host to a rare national gathering of India’s K9 professionals, with commanders, veterinary officers and handlers from leading police, security and disaster-response organizations attending the RRU K9 Masterclass 2026 at Kompally. The five-day specialized program, which concludes on September 8, is being conducted at Commando Kennels in association with Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU), an Institution of National Importance under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Participants include personnel from the NDRF, SSB, Assam Rifles, ITBP, BSF, Andhra Pradesh Police, Telangana Police’s OCTOPUS and the Swami Vivekananda State Police Academy in West Bengal.  The scale of India’s working-dog network underlines the importance of such training. BPR&D data cited by organizers puts the number of sniffer and tracker dogs deployed with State/UT Police and Central Armed Police Forces at more than 5,200.

K9 teams are used in explosive and narcotics detection, tracking, search and rescue, security duties and other specialized operations. The masterclass therefore focuses not merely on dogs, but on the people responsible for their deployment, health and performance. The program brings together three key areas of K9 operations command, veterinary care and handling while providing an avenue for professionals from different agencies to exchange field experience and learn contemporary practices. Col. B. S. Rao, Associate Professor at RRU, said structured training and inter-agency knowledge exchange were essential to developing stronger and more interoperable K9 capabilities. Philip Butt, Dean of the RRU Commando K9 Academy, said the nearly four-decade experience of Commando Kennels had been directed towards building professional K9 capabilities in India.

The program will conclude with a graduation ceremony at noon on September 8 at Commando Kennels, marking five days of specialized learning and professional exchange. For Hyderabad, the event adds another dimension to its national profile—one beyond its established IT and pharmaceutical identity.