Award-winning bespoke security provider Ward Security has further strengthened the credentials of its dog handling section by becoming one of only a handful of companies to achieve National Association of Security Dog Users (NASDU) Inspected status.
The achievement sees the Rochester-based company join only three other businesses in the country to hold NASDU Inspected status, the prestigious accreditation that is now the national standard for all security dogs.
In addition to the Inspected status, Ward Security’s Associate Director Response, Peter Williams, who oversees the company’s dog section and response department and is responsible for delivering an outstanding level of training, has been accredited to be a NASDU trainer and instructor.
As a result, Peter will be spending the next six months training and assessing all of Ward Security’s dogs to the NASDU standard, the EDI Level 2 National Award, which becomes a qualification for the individual handlers.
Peter believes this will help elevate Ward Security above the competition. “Many companies get NASDU accreditation but don’t do the work with the dogs themselves,” says Peter, a former police dog handler and Home Office accredited dog instructor in general purpose, narcotics, weapons recovery and explosive search.
“But Ward Security takes a proactive approach to security dog training and it’s my job to make sure all the dogs are trained and assessed, rather than leaving the responsibility to the individual handlers or bringing in an external trainer. This means that when people engage our services, they know that our dogs are trained to the highest standard.”
The NASDU inspection is a comprehensive process that examined Peter’s qualifications as well as how Ward Security audits its dog section, the dogs’ welfare, accommodation, inoculations, training records etc. “It’s very in–depth,” says Peter. “But our dogs are treated on a par with how police dogs are treated, so we were confident that we would achieve the Inspected status.”
Ward Security will also be using the NASDU standard to formulate a structured progression programme for all its 24 handlers. “We plan to get all our
“Ward Security is always willing to achieve the highest standards possible within the security industry –and is almost always the first there,” adds Nigel.
