Platoon Adjutant Adrian Băluțoiu (53 years old) has been in charge of training the intervention dogs of the Gorj County Gendarmerie Inspectorate for over 20 years.
Adrian Băluțoiu has been active in the Gendarmerie since 1991 Photo: Gorj Gendarmerie
He has been working within the Gendarmerie since 1991, and since 2001 he has been training and training intervention dogs. Adrian Băluțoiu works in the Mobile Detachment, Service Dog Handlers Group, together with the other four-legged handlers and partners. He attended training courses at the Sibiu and Ciorani Kennel Center.
Training a service dog with all the necessary skills to be the partner of the gendarmes in missions is a very complex and long-lasting activity. It starts with training through play, socializing, later depending on the presented attributes, more orders are accumulated and it goes on to specialization for missions.
“A canine handler-service dog pair is hard to form, it performs missions only together, in a team and learns different specializations also together in the unit and at training centers. He is currently explaining the secrets of dog training to younger colleagues who are going to take over the activity of service dog handlers at the Gorj Gendarmerie“, said Alin Ivan, the spokesperson of the Gorj Gendarmerie.
He was attached to Tina, a Category I dog
Adrian Băluțoiu took care of the training and care of four dogs, with whom he participated in various missions: patrol-intervention, demonstration and tactical exercises, search for missing persons, football matches, rallies, marches.
He became most attached to Tina, a German Shepherd dog that he adopted and is now in his care after retirement. He was a Category I dog, which averaged 9.70 at the end of the four-year course and at the re-certification that takes place every two years. “I got lower grades than her”jokes the gendarme.
Adrian Băluțoiu joined his four-legged colleagues Photo: Gorj Gendarmerie
“I felt sorry for her and I couldn't abandon her, especially since I've raised her since she was three months old. He was an extraordinary dog. He was very fond of the intakes. He was going through the fire. We were organizing various demonstrations and he participated in many of them. We have an obstacle course and it was going through a flaming circle. He did everything freely. I could let her loose, even on the street, because she wouldn't leave my side“, says Adrian Băluțoiu.
“People are generally afraid of the dog and the gun”
Adrian Băluțoiu participated in numerous interventions and the dogs helped him more than a gendarme: “I participated in various missions, mostly maintaining peace and public order. There were many situations and scandals in which dogs intervened. People are generally afraid of the dog and the gun. We have had interventions in the more notorious neighborhoods. Two or three dogs do as much as 10-15 people in interventions of this kind, and I am not exaggerating anything”.
This year, Adrian Băluțoiu will retire from activity, as he has become a grandfather for some time.
