Army dogs are about to get a £3m makeover – here’s what their new kit will look like

Straining at his leash, Tacho the German shepherd is barking so ferociously you would think he had spotted an enemy. In fact, he just wants a ball, and that ball is out of reach. 

Tacho – who is 10 years old and retired, but seemingly none the quieter for it – belongs to Alan and Sally Dickinson, the husband and wife team behind Von Wolf K9. The Surrey enterprise, based in a small, single-storey shop and office off a country road near Horley, has just been awarded a £3.1 million, five-year Ministry of Defence (MoD) contract to provide equipment for the training and protection of military dogs. 

I’ve come to find out what they do, why some dogs wear boots, and whether dogs can parachute (they can).

For now, though, my most pressing concern is the strength of Tacho’s leash. And whether he has been trained to bite someone’s arm. He has, says Alan. “He’s never done it in real life,” adds Sally. “Well, he did bite one of the extras on set on Masters of the Air,” replies Alan, not reassuringly. 

Tacho has enjoyed a portfolio career that includes appearing in films and television shows when a scene requires a dog. Among his other filming credits is The Batman (2022), starring Robert Pattinson. Beyond this, he has sired offspring that have gone to work as police dogs in forces across the UK. “He’s got puppies all over the place,” says Alan proudly.

The Dickinsons’ 18-year-old family firm has an association with the police stretching back several years, supplying them with not only service dogs but also training and equipment. From here, the business evolved to sell canine equipment to the Armed Forces too. It has been doing so since 2012, and this is not its first MoD contract, although the owners are delighted to have been awarded it.

“There’s no-one [else] in the country that sells this sort of kit to this scale,” says Alan, 64.

The latest deal with the Armed Forces will help ensure service dogs are given enriching and stimulating activities to keep them active and entertained, in addition to aiding their detection and protection work.  Everyday items like waste bags, bowls, balls, leads and harnesses are included in the contract, plus agility equipment such as tunnels, weave poles, jumps and toys. 

The shop’s stock is purchased not only for military, emergency service and prison dogs, but also by pet owners. Among other items for pets, they sell a protective vest for smaller dogs whose owners wish to protect them from an XL bully-type aggressor sinking its teeth into little Buddy’s belly. “The little dog wears the vest and if he gets attacked by another dog, he’s got a certain amount of protection,” says Alan.

Improbably, perhaps, Alan’s career began in the distinctly non-canine field of double-glazing. Dog competitions and training were a sideline, and a passion. “I don’t think we’d even thought about getting somewhere like this, but my dad phoned one day and said, ‘there’s a kennels for sale, do you want to have a look at it?’” he says. “It started from there really.”

They now rent out the kennels and, with their three members of staff, focus on dog training and the supply of dog equipment – of which there’s a baffling array on the shop floor. It ranges from the prosaic – leather leads in all shades of black; chains of varying lengths – to the highly specialised.

For working dogs, they do a multi-purpose harness with webbing down the sides to which a camera can be attached. A corresponding monitor worn by the handler allows him to see everything the dog sees. (One hopes and assumes this is more than just the rear end of other dogs.)

They also provide flotation packs that Special Forces troops can strap onto the harness when working in water with dogs and clips that can be attached, enabling a dog to be winched up and down.

One dog harness they stock is designed around parachuting, “but the UK forces don’t do that,” says Alan.  He points out the colourful “reward tugs”, which resemble thin and very uncomfortable pillows. “When you’re teaching the dog to bite, you start off on these sorts of cushions,” he explains.

The end point is teaching them to bite a human limb. The dismembered rubber arm on display in the shop is designed for this purpose. It’s disturbing when you don’t know the context; possibly even more disturbing when you do know the context is the training of dogs to bite humans. When would this be necessary? 

“If someone is running away from you, in crowd control, all sorts of situations,” says Alan. 

More heart-warming are the safety boots Von Wolf sells to protect the feet of service dogs when working on very hot or cold surfaces, or on ground strewn with flint or sharp stones. If rioters are hurling bottles, a police dog might wear the boots to protect their paws from broken glass. 

There are doggy goggles, too. “The military use them a lot when they’re getting on helicopters with the dogs,” says Alan. “They need to protect the dogs’ eyes from the dust.” 

The doggy ear defenders on sale may be used to counter the noise of rotor blades – or, says Sally, by pet owners on Bonfire Night. 

Sometimes the Dickinsons come up with their own innovations: a double lead (in case one breaks); a special new kind of harness. But the dog equipment business is cut-throat. “You create something and another company copies it,” says Sally, 61. “That’s the dog world,” adds Alan, resigned. 

In total, there are 300 items in their military “canine catalogue”. Some of the kit is cutting-edge. “These helmets with a camera on top are coming into fashion,” says Alan, continuing our tour of the shop’s inventory. 

Announcing the contract last week, the MoD’s procurement arm, Defence, Equipment and Support (DE&S), said military working dogs were well looked-after and trained not only for detecting explosives, arms, vehicles and drugs but also for providing protection and assistance to their handlers.

“Von Wolf will be instrumental in contributing to the continued prosperity and security of the UK, ensuring we continue to deliver the highest level of training and protection for all MoD working dogs day-to-day, and during specialist operations and directed tasks,” said Liam Brown, operations manager at DE&S. 

Today’s war dogs follow in a long tradition, with the story of canines in the British military dating back more than a century. In 1917, the British War Dog School was set up in Shoeburyness, Essex, to train hundreds of creatures for deployment in both world wars.

They have, rightly, been recognised for their role. An official report on the exploits of British war dogs was published in 1918. Medals followed later. 

At first, canine recruits came from dog homes, but there were also reports of pet owners volunteering to send their own animals to the front during the First World War.

During the Second World War, the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) Dickin Medal was introduced – the animal version of the Victoria Cross.

Today, there are more than 500 military working dogs in the British Armed Forces, with the modern Defence Animal Training Regiment based in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. Among them are German shepherds, springer spaniels and Labradors. The animals work across the Army, RAF, Ministry of Defence Police, Germany Guard Service, MoD Guard Services and Regimental Mascots.

When a dog is lost while serving, “it’s a big deal” to the troops who have worked with it, says Alan. Inevitably, a sentimental attachment can be formed.

“Handlers have put themselves in harm’s way protecting their dogs,” writes the American author Rebecca Frankel in her bestselling 2014 book War Dogs. “[S]ome have even died trying to save them.”

But the equipment sold by Von Wolf doesn’t just help dogs do their jobs; it helps to keep them safe. (Those paw-sized boots aren’t just cute accessories.) 

Over the years, Tacho has doubled as a guinea pig, trialling some of the stock. As he continues to bark at a ball he can’t reach, Alan compares working dogs to hyperactive children. “They have to be of a certain temperament: ready to go any time, but equally very sociable.”

The teeth the German shepherd is bearing don’t scream “sociable” to me, but I probably just need to get to know him. Another day, perhaps. On this occasion, I don’t stick around to find out whether his bite is as fierce as his bark.