The beginnings of training dogs for the needs of the Slovenian police date back to 1947, when part-time instructors started executing their learning programmes. Although there was not a tradition in this field of work, and work conditions were quite modest, the dogs achieved great results, which resulted in establishing a police dogs training centre.
By establishing the Service Dog Training Section or school on 1 January 1949 in Ljubljana, the systematic development of dog handling started in Slovenia and other parts of Yugoslavia. The decision on the foundation was adopted in 1948. With expertise and hard work, the school has had an important impact on the development of dog handling in Slovenia and has obtained a reputation that it still enjoys among the expert public and among police dogs training schools in other European countries.
In its first year, the school trained its own expert staff - instructors for police dog training. Therefore, in 1950, the school started undertaking the permanent training of handlers and police dogs. After eight months of training the handlers also conducted field work at people’s militia stations. The first received their work placements in the autumn of 1950.
Soon after its foundation, the school started providing expert help to training participants from Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.
The first school premises were at Vodnikova cesta in Ljubljana, the current location of Peter Držaj Hospital, but in 1950, the school moved from the main building to the premises on the courtyard.In 1951, a large military cabin was set in the garden and rearranged into an accommodation facility for dogs.
Since the school was in the immediate vicinity of the city, barking dogs disturbed the neighbours and the environment itself was inappropriate for dogs. Therefore, the school started looking for a new location. In 1954, the school moved to Podutik, where the premises were held until 2008 - 54 years.
The school in Podutik, where police dogs were trained from 1954 to 2008.
The school in Podutik had a leading role until 1991 in the training of police dogs to service the needs of the whole of Yugoslavia. In its long and rich history, the school has trained many handlers and a remarkable number of police dogs for other state authorities such as the Customs administration of the Republic of Slovenia, Slovenian Army, the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Slovenia and the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia. The applicability and success of police dogs in field work as well as the great results achieved by the handlers and police dogs on an international scale warrant special recognition for quality and expert work.
On 17 April 2008, the Service Dog Training Section moved to new, better and larger premises at Gmajnice in Ljubljana, thus resolving a long period of problems faced by instructors and police dogs.
New premises ensure better conditions for work and accommodation of dogs, as well as a good starting point for achieving the best results possible.
Service Dog Training Section at Gmajnice