The Finnish Defence Forces' Dog Service Unit (FHTE) breeds dogs and trains them for serving military units. The so-called military patrol dogs are trained, among other things, to search large areas such as airfields and track people.
"The patrol dogs can defend themselves and their handlers, but at the same time they are very kind," says Peter Öhrling, exercise leader for the international dog handler course.
To make the training as realistic as possible, exercises take place in an arena, a farm and a service depot for commuter trains. The dog handlers also receive training in medical care if the dog should be injured while on duty.
Cooperation between countries has been going on for several years
The training is carried out every year and the hosting varies between the Nordic countries. In addition to neighbouring countries, crews from three NATO countries are also participating: England, the Netherlands and Belgium.
One of those who have come is Davey Slingers with the dog Stich, who is a Malinois, a Belgian herding dog.
"Sweden is known for having good search dogs and I hope to learn a lot from how to work here," he says.
Stich the dog is a Malinois (dog breed) and trained in the military in Belgium to bite on command. Dog handler Davey Slingers is currently on an international exercise held by the Swedish dog handler unit at the Swedish Armed Forces in Rosersberg outside Stockholm. Photo: Axel Rosenberg/SVT
The number of military dogs to be doubled
Since 2022, the service dog unit is part of the Air Combat School, which is located in Märsta and in Kungsängen, north of Stockholm. An increased need for military dogs means that the breeding of German shepherds is now expanding. Within the next few years, the number of dogs trained will go from 200 to 500.
See what some of the dogs practiced during the training in the video above.