Features of the formation of professional competencies of specialists of the canine services of the Russian Federation

Bogdanov Sergey Gennad'evich ORCID: 0000-0002-3920-5949 Lecturer, Department of Cynology, Perm Military Institute of the National Guard Troops of the Russian Federation 614112, Russia, Perm Krai, Perm, Gremyachy Log str., 1 Bogdanovsergey13@mail.ru

Tregubov Aleksandr Vladimirovich Lecturer of the Department of Cynology, Perm Military Institute of the National Guard Troops of the Russian Federation 614112, Russia, Perm Krai, Perm, Gremyachy Log str., 1 Tregubovalv@rosgvard.ru

Introduction.

The Cynological Service of law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation is an organizational structure in the system of the law enforcement agency that provides a set of measures for the use of service dogs carried out in order to improve the effectiveness of the tasks assigned.

The cynological service includes specialists who have professional training and whose activities are very complex, associated with extreme conditions in which it is necessary to demonstrate the ability to effectively perform professional duties, observing the rule of law, skillfully managing the use of a special type of special means – a service dog, organizing the management of personnel.

But in modern conditions of the dynamics of the progress of service dog breeding, specialists in the cynological field experience serious difficulties in their personal professional activities, primarily related to the use of service dogs, the organization of professional training of junior specialists and maintaining personal abilities at a high professional level that meets state and social requirements ^[1-6].

This, in turn, suggests paying serious attention to the features of the professional training of specialists of the cynological service of the law enforcement agency, specifically studying the organizational components and accents of the formation of professional competencies of these specialists.

The interest in studying the features of the professional training of cynologists of the law enforcement agency made it possible to analyze educational activities in departmental educational institutions and civil educational organizations, the purpose of which is to produce cynologists with secondary professional or higher education, which in turn showed an insufficient focus of professional training towards the specification of professional components that are the basic criteria for the competence of cynologists. Such criteria can be complexes of professional cynological competencies that law enforcement specialists should be endowed with and successfully implement them in their official activities. There is also a need to develop pedagogical tools that allow to quickly, efficiently mobilize and implement the process of professional training aimed at the formation of the above competencies ^[7-9].

The purpose of the study is to solve the existing problem of the destructiveness of professional training of specialists of cynological units, carried out without taking into account the emphasis and relevance on the formation of the main complexes of professional cynological competencies and the lack of innovative pedagogical tools.

The object of the study is the professional competence of specialists of the cynological service of law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation.

The subject of the study is the peculiarities of the formation of professional competencies of dog handlers within the framework of educational activities and special training of the law enforcement agency.

The hypothesis of the study. Assuming that the level of competence of the specialist of the cynological service of the law enforcement agency will meet the modern requirements of state and social orders, if we introduce the developed pedagogical tools that contribute to the formation of basic complexes of professional cynological competencies.

Materials and methods of research.

This scientific work is based on the personal professional experience of the authors, the analysis of literary sources, including scientific dissertations, on the problem under consideration, interviews with specialists of cynological units of law enforcement agencies and their analysis, the study of the organization of professional training of cynologists in educational institutions and special training within law enforcement agencies, conducted a scientific study in a higher educational institution of law enforcement agencies.

The main materials of the study.

Currently, in the professional cynological sphere, the problems of competence of cynologists of law enforcement agencies are being actively investigated, which are reflected in the professional training that does not meet the requirements of the state and social order.

In his book "Attacking dogs" Myths and Reality of modern training, D.A. Fatin states: "I am sad and ashamed to look at the theoretical gurus from cynology, who enthusiastically speak like capercaillies on a current, and at the same time in practice they can't do anything but play ball with a dog" ^[10] D.A. Fatin focuses his attention on the emergence in the cynological sphere of fantastic claims of endowing animals with human cognitive functions, which cannot correspond to scientifically proven facts. The main problem of the modern cynologist is the instability of knowledge of the ethological characteristics of animals and the physiology of their behavior, which is paramount in this profession.

In his dissertation research, S.V. Sidorenkov reveals the insufficient readiness of graduates of cynologists of higher educational institutions to the difficulties of professional activity in the conditions of law enforcement agencies ^[11]. Especially S.V. Sidorenkov reveals the problematic component of dog handlers with higher education, who are in the role of commanders (chiefs) to organize and conduct professional training of junior specialists.

V.S. Dorofeev reveals the competence of graduates-dog handlers of higher educational institutions in the implementation of their professional activities of the law enforcement agency that does not meet the modern requirements of the state and social order ^[6]. Weak skills in the management of a cynological unit create huge obstacles in the development of cynology and improving the quality of the tasks performed by law enforcement agencies.

A.A. Votinov describes the insufficient effectiveness of professional functionality in his dissertation research ^[5], where he focuses on the performance of special duties by dog handlers, which consist in the ability to personally manage a service animal when performing tasks of official necessity.

In turn, A.Y. Bakhareva pays sufficient attention to the acute shortage of competent specialists of the cynological service of the law enforcement agency in connection with the increasing terrorist danger ^[12].

I.V. Shmonina in his research determines the need for dog handlers to master the ability to conduct a qualitative selection of dog breeds for their further training and use in professional activities ^[13].

Based on the presented scientific pedagogical and cynological research, analysis of professional activity and professional training, we can safely state the fact that the professional cynological competencies that a specialist of the cynological service of the law enforcement agency should possess should be divided into three complex groups: 1) a set of personal professional cynological competencies; 2) a set of pedagogical cynological competencies; 3) a set of management competencies of a cynological unit (service).

Personal professional cynological competencies structurally consist of professional abilities in the field of performing actions of the training process to form the necessary behavior in dogs and the ability to personally tactically competently apply them when performing official tasks. These competencies characterize a specialist as a dog trainer and a professional in animal management when acting in official tasks and consist in the correct awareness of the processes of animal behavior and algorithms for building training to form the necessary skills. These abilities are formed on the basis of knowledge, skills and abilities in the field of: ethology and physiology of dog behavior, methodology and technology of dog training, dog training practices, tactics of dog use and management.

Pedagogical cynological competencies are characterized by the ability of a cynologist to organize the educational process in the role of a class leader or his assistant among the staff of junior specialists in order for them to acquire the ability to form the necessary behavior in dogs (develop special skills for using the animal in the interests of the law enforcement agency). The peculiarity of possessing these competencies is the competent transfer of personal experience and the experience of professional specialists who have achieved high results in the training and use of dogs, as well as explanations of dog training algorithms (existing techniques), methods of using dogs with all the features to trainees (teacher - students (cadets), commander (senior instructor or inspector) of the canine unit (services) — subordinate staff of dog handlers). Pedagogical cynological competencies allow a competent specialist of the cynological service, acting as a commander (senior instructor or inspector) of a cynological unit (service), to use educational modern pedagogical approaches and principles filled with methods, techniques, forms of conducting classes that contribute to the formation and consolidation of personal professional cynological competencies in trainees. Pedagogical cynological competencies are formed on the basis of personal professional cynological competencies and knowledge, skills and abilities of pedagogical, psychological disciplines.

The competence of the management of the cynological unit (service) is primarily the ability to organize the daily activities of the cynological unit and the organization of the use of the staff of cynologists in the interests of law enforcement. Management skills already characterize the commander of the cynological unit in the role of moderator of the life processes of subordinate cynologists, their training (special training), application in the service, daily activities, recreation, personal time. All these processes should be clearly interconnected and have a systematic character, affect only positively the quality of the activities of each of them, especially the training and use of junior specialists in their official activities. These competencies are formed on the basis of previous professional competencies in combination with knowledge of: personality psychology and business relations; with skills and abilities: effective communication, public speaking, stress tolerance, the image of a business person; with important qualities: self-confidence, leadership, charisma, determination, motivation. Such knowledge, skills, and skills are formed in the disciplines of special psychology, moral and psychological training, organization of daily activities, and service cynology.

Each cynologist of a law enforcement agency should concentrate his activities on the formation of abilities in himself corresponding to the level of his qualifications and with his position (Table 1).

Table 1 shows data on the classical idea of the structural and official formation of the cynological unit (service) of the law enforcement agency. The rest of the specialists should relate themselves to the category whose official duties they perform in their daily and official activities.

The target component in the system of the cynological service of the law enforcement agency are service dogs. All the activities of dog handlers from trainers to commanders (chiefs) are aimed at their performance according to their intended purpose. But it is important to realize that a service dog is not a mechanical tool, technical special equipment, weapons or armored vehicles, it is a biological being, an animal that, under the influence of evolution and selection, through training, is able to solve those tasks that modern innovative technical means, devices, complexes are not able to perform.

The category of dog handlers of the law enforcement agency performs directly official tasks with a service dog in the positions of trainers, instructors, inspectors. These specialists should have a solid knowledge of the physiological processes of animal behavior, the methodology and technique of building the training process in conjunction with the tactics of using service dogs.

The peculiarity of the claimed pedagogical tools in this study is the organization of the process of professional training of dog handlers in educational institutions, using the principles of integrativity and modularity of the competence approach. The modularity of the training process is characterized by the planning of classes in a complex of theory and practice on a single school day on topics including the physiology of animal behavior, algorithms for constructing the training process and practical actions directly with animals. Theory and practice should be inextricably planned in the curricula and, when drawing up lesson schedules, move away for more than one school day. Conducting theoretical classes should be saturated with a large amount of methodological material with mandatory reinforcement by practical actions. Otherwise, the effect will be minimal, the trainee will not remember and will not assimilate all the features in the training of dogs, but it is possible that he will form a false understanding of the behavior of animals and the organization of the training process, which will subsequently be almost impossible to reverse.

 Table 1. Correspondence of professional competencies to the position of a specialist in the cynological service of a law enforcement agency and disciplines (subjects) affecting their formation

The integration of pedagogical tools consists in the creation of interdisciplinary relationships, manifested in the organization of interaction with animals in conducting classes, directly forming the abilities of a specialist as a structural unit of a law enforcement agency: "Tactics", "Fire training", "Physical training", "Engineering training" ^[2,3]. Dog handlers should be clearly aware that the quality of the formation of the skills of their service dog depends on daily direct contact with her, activation of motivational behavior and the realization of the goal of motivation (encouragement). In addition, specialists must clearly own weapons and special means in any conditions and environment, collectively managing a service animal, therefore, integration of interaction with service dogs during classes that are not related to dog training is a necessary component.

Daily (special) training is a complex, but very important process in the activities of any specialist, aimed at maintaining his state of combat readiness and combat capability in combination with the improvement of professional competencies. The experience of organizing professional training of dog handlers in educational institutions is an example for integration into the daily activities of specialists.

In order to maintain and improve the complexes of professional cynological competencies, the process of special training of cynologists with service dogs should be systematically organized. From the beginning of working hours to its completion, the commanders (chiefs) of the canine units (services) organize the interaction of junior specialists with service dogs as much as possible during almost any events. At the same time, dog handlers are in uniform and with those special means, weapons and armor protection elements in which they constantly perform special duties. This practical orientation will allow specialists to form stable professional skills, eliminate the possibility of future discomfort in advance by adapting to appropriate practical actions, thereby significantly increasing the level of formation of professional competencies.

The practice-oriented method of pedagogical tools is aimed at maximizing the workload of a specialist with educational tasks in interaction with the objects of the field of cynology in creating and working out conditions similar to those performed in official activities.

In addition, it is important for a specialist to realize that a dog is an associative animal and its behavior is controlled by instincts that provoke motivation through emerging needs. In the training process, the need is realized through a given algorithm of the animal's actions, leading it to the goal of motivational behavior – encouragement.  The more repetitions that lead the dog to encouragement, the stronger the skill.

In the process of scientific research, the fact of a negative component of the actions of a specialist in the use of dogs in official activities was revealed, which is characterized by the absence of an element of reinforcement of the animal when the formed skill is triggered. This fact is the main mistake and an indicator of the lack of formation of a proper level of complexes of professional cynological competencies.

The association of memorizing such conditions often leads to the fact that service dogs are able to work in training conditions, but when they are promoted to perform official tasks, they are not. Many dog handlers do not realize these features of the training process and dog management when performing tasks. Therefore, the organization of various elements of dog training by specialists should clearly reflect the tasks of their regular use for official purposes, and the conditions and conditions of the training process should completely coincide with the tasks performed and most importantly: the number of proven algorithms of the dog handler's actions with the service dog, leading it to appropriate encouragement, and the dog handler to achieve the goal, should be ten times higher the number of such applications in a service aspiring to a hundred (Table 2).

The formula given in Table 2 is a mathematical, quantitative component of pedagogical tools, leading to the qualitative formation of a specialist's competence.

The formula is based on the rule of formation and consolidation of skills, which occurs after dozens, a hundred or more repetitions.

Table 2. The formula for organizing the process of training dog handlers together with service dogs in quantitative ratio from the actual application

The results of the study.

In two departmental universities, the PVI VNG of the Russian Federation and the PI of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation, an experimental study was conducted on the introduction and testing of appropriate pedagogical tools, the principles of modularity and integrativity of which were implemented when drawing up the curriculum for a year of training of cadets, trainees. The implementation of the modular component was assigned to specialized cynological disciplines, where "Theoretical and methodological foundations of dog training" and "Training of service dogs" were aimed at the implementation of personal professional cynological competencies, "Methods of special training" and "Service cynology" for the rest. The principle of integrativity affected the interdisciplinary component of the subjects of several departments: cynology and biology (cynology and animal science) – the implementation of knowledge complexes of the physiological foundations of dog behavior and methods of their training, cynology and military pedagogy, and psychology – the development of the pedagogical foundations of future activities for the training of junior specialists-cynologists, cynology and tactics – the formation of the ability to manage a cynological unit.

The practice-oriented method was implemented within the framework of elective classes, briefings.

The approbation of the mathematical formula took place during the hours of independent training, the reference point of which was control classes in the disciplines "Training of service dogs" and "Service cynology", where the student in the form of practical actions performed the solution of the corresponding task (analogous to the performance of service tasks).

As the results of the control group, graduates who completed the appropriate training course with service dogs, who were not affected by the developed pedagogical tools, were selected. The relevant components of the approved tools have been fully applied to the 3rd year students at the moment.

The results were indicated both at the beginning of the experiment and at its completion. As objective results, the overall academic performance of students during the course of work with service animals was taken (Figure 1).

Since all students undergo the same selection with strictly defined requirements and parameters, and according to the results at the time of admission to the university, the respondents of both groups did not have strong deviations in educational activities or professional psychological selection, it can be concluded that the reliability of the progressive results obtained by the respondents of the experimental group compared with the control group.

Figure 1 – Diagram of the progress of the control and experimental groups

As can be seen from Figure 1, the developed components of pedagogical tools have a positive impact on the formation of complexes of professional cynological competencies. In part, these elements were also introduced into the training programs of the linear cynological units of law enforcement agencies, where they also demonstrate an improvement in the quality of the formation of relevant competencies.

Recommendations.

The main feature in the formation of complexes of professional cynological competencies among junior specialists of the cynological service and their systematic maintenance is his presence in conditions in the image and likeness similar to actions when performing official tasks, together with a service dog, during his free working time.

Senior instructors (junior inspectors with the rank of warrant officers) should ideally be selected and appointed from the best representatives of junior specialists of the cynological unit and undergo appropriate professional development or professional training, only in this case it is possible to competently form the necessary complexes of professional cynological competencies indicated in Table 1. These cynologists are the main assistants to the commanders (chiefs) of cynological units, their main activity is aimed at working directly with the personnel of the unit as part of its daily preparation for the performance of official tasks.

Having passed the appropriate training and advanced training from a trainer to an instructor (junior inspector), having received the necessary practical experience of official activity, senior instructors (junior inspectors – warrant officers) are able to carry out organizational activities and control the implementation of measures for the training of personnel of the cynological unit.

These specialists are characterized by the development and improvement of methodological knowledge, skills and organization of classes, control of the formation of professional cynological competencies of junior specialists. Their distinctive feature is the fact of the presence of a service animal, which must be used as a visual sample of the complex of formed personal professional cynological competencies in the process of organizing and conducting training sessions for subordinates.

Commanders (chiefs) of cynological units are specialists, ideally with higher biological education, who, in the process of studying at a higher educational institution, form complexes of professional cynological competencies under the influence of modular distribution of related academic disciplines and integration of other disciplines that comprehensively affect the formation of professional knowledge, skills and abilities of future specialists in all aspects that they are touched upon in the study of biological and special topics.

Directly, in the line of duty, the training of commanders (chiefs) in the specialty should be organized during the training camps by the senior chief, where it is necessary to monitor knowledge and professional skills in the specialty and further remind and improve them in accordance with new innovative technologies in the field of cynology. When checking professional cynological competencies, it is necessary to touch upon the practical work of these specialists with any service dog presented to him to demonstrate the formation of the latter's skills used in official activities. Commanders (chiefs) must have and constantly keep up-to-date the experience of interacting with animals, especially their training and application, for a full and competent awareness of the processes of animal behavior in order to organize and conduct the training process of subordinate personnel of the cynological unit.

Based on the analysis of the specifics of the activity of commanders (chiefs) of canine units (services), it follows that they do not conduct personal training and tactical use of service dogs, but are only the organizers of this activity of subordinate personnel. Therefore, for high-quality meaningful professional activity in the position of commander (chief), these specialists, being students (cadets) of a higher educational institution, should form personal professional cynological competencies aimed at training and using service dogs, consolidate them on appropriate training practices and in the process of interaction with cynological organizations of the region where the higher educational institution is based establishment. Otherwise, they will not be able to have a complete understanding of the processes of training dogs and their competent use in official activities, which qualitatively affects the special training and condition of the team of dog handlers, as well as the level of performance of their duties.

Recently, at some higher educational institutions, practicing dog handlers have organized refresher courses on dog training programs for the formation of various skills. Specialists in the positions of senior instructors (inspectors) and commanders (chiefs) of canine units should be involved in such training activities according to the established procedure.

Cynological interaction takes place not only in the training of students (cadets) at a higher educational institution, but also should be organized in each cynological unit with cynological organizations of the region of deployment. It is during the cynological interaction that the professional cynological competencies in the training of dogs are improved, which contributes to improving the tactics of their use in the interests of the law enforcement agency.

Conclusion.

Summarizing the above, it is necessary to conclude that the main feature of the formation of professional cynological competencies among specialists of the cynological service of a law enforcement agency is their clear distribution into specific specified complexes, awareness of this fact, as well as their formation and practical consolidation in accordance with a certain functional of the position through the developed pedagogical tools.

The special training of a dog handler in the law enforcement agency should correspond to the developed mathematical formula for organizing the process of training dog handlers together with service dogs in a quantitative ratio from the actual application, which will minimize the impact of stress factors of official activity on the quality of professional abilities.

All this is carried out by the complex work of commanders (chiefs) of all degrees, consisting in the daily employment of junior specialists in interaction with service dogs, middle-level dog handlers in the qualitative performance of duties for the training of junior specialists, and commanders (chiefs) in the comprehensive management of all processes of daily activities and the performance of official tasks of a subordinate unit (entrusted personnel).