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London Dog Forum > Human/Dog Interaction > Special Human/Dog Relationships > Kevin Spencer and Murphy's Story
Kevin Spencer and Murphy's Story
Initially Murphy was to appear in the London Dog Forum’s ‘famous dogs’ section. He is well qualified and is already listed in the Guinness Book of Records 2010 as being the Nation’s first mobile phone sniffing spaniel; but it was something his handler, Kevin Spencer said in our last communication that led to a change of mind.
Kevin first contacted London Dog Forum to tell us that we had misinformed our readers in news item that appeared on 9th August, 2010 reporting a dog called Max was the first mobile phone sniffer dog. In fact Murphy has been fully licensed since 2007 and Kevin has been working with him for the last four years at HMP Norwich and HMP Bure, so it was clear that we had made a gross error.
Naturally we were devastated and promised to make amends. After further communications, it was evident that Murphy’s talent was worth far more than a mere apology, but it was Kevin’s response to an e-mail asking if we could use his name that made us realise that Kevin and Murphy’s story belongs in the special human/dog relationship category.
Kevin’s words were, “You have my permission to use my name. He’s my boy and I like to see him get the recognition he deserves.”
Mobile phones have become an increasing problem in prisons. They are used for a number of criminal activities including drugs dealing, intimidating witnesses or victims, plotting escapes and it has been known for paedophiles to use them for grooming minors. Last year 10,000 phones and SIM cards were found in prisons over the UK. Mobile phones are hot currency in prison, a £10 phone from Tesco’s can fetch between £300 and £400 and one with a camera may command up to £900. Since Murphy was introduced as a mobile phone detector dog in 2007, mobile sniffer dogs have become an indispensable part of prison life.
Murphy, a lively English Springer Spaniel came from a local rescue home and, as a pioneer in his department, he took nine months to train. These days the training methods for this work have been improved and a dog can be trained in 6 to 8 weeks.
“If a dog can play with a tennis ball, that’s all I’ll look for. And they mustn’t be too timid. You need to train a dog between the ages of ten months and two years ideally. You can’t take them as puppies as they’re just too lively.” Kevin says.
Kevin was originally a prison officer but moved over to dog training ten years ago. He had always loved dogs but, as a prison officer working shifts, he was reluctant to own one. He felt it would be unfair to both him and the dog. Now he claims to have the best of both worlds, although we have it on good authority that Kevin spends more time with his dogs than his wife!
Most working dogs live with their handlers but Murphy ‘lives in’. That means Kevin has to start his day at the prison at 5.30am and does not finish until the last check of the day. This enables him to walk, groom and feed his dogs as if they were living with him at home. Kevin maintains that there is no job in the world he would rather be doing and it is easy to see how he and his dogs, in particular Murphy, have formed such a close bond.
For Murphy, being a mobile detector dog is not just 'sniff and reward'. Often the prisoners or visitors will try and abuse the dogs verbally or kick out at them. When searching a cell, Kevin has to ensure that nothing has been left to harm the dogs such as bits of razor blades.
To raise the public’s awareness to the importance of this work, Kevin, Murphy and drug sniffing dog, Monty occasionally take part in public demonstrations.
When the day comes that Murphy has to retire (it is usual for a sniffer dog to retire at nine), there is absolutely no doubt that Kevin will be heartbroken.
You can see Kevin and Murphy in action on the BBC’s Inside Out programme aired on 7th Feb 2011.
Here is the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yctx6 but hurry as you only have 5 days left to watch or download from BBC iplayer.
09/02/11
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