Exercise 1.5 - 10/28/13

For this exercise, I will be determining my research question and whether it will lead to a successful project.  This will include a brief proposal that outlines my research plan.  I may change my mind or change the inquiry question later once I start researching.

For step 1, I will be determining my inquiry question on the topic that I plan to research.

Step 1: Inquiry Question
What is the relationship between dogs and law enforcement?

For step 2, I will be determining the primary purpose to explore and argue this inquiry question by asking more questions that will help in the research process and finding a hypothesis and/or a tentative main claim.

Step 2: Primary Purpose
Explore -
What kind of training do K-9 dogs go through?
How often are K-9 dogs used?
Why are dogs used in law enforcement?
What kind of dogs are used in law enforcement?
When do K-9 dogs start training?
When were dogs first used in law enforcement?  Who thought of this idea?
Do K-9 dogs suffer abuse of any kind?
Argue -
I do not know enough about this topic to adequately give a theory, hypothesis, or tentative thesis about this subject until I know more about it.

For step 3, I will be including any prior knowledge that may be based on personal experiences or mindsets and any previous or current thoughts about this topic.

Step 3:
Without knowing much about this topic, one of my previous beliefs is that dogs are used to help police hunt down criminals and sniff out illegal substances.  I still believe that is true today, but I want to know why they began using dogs in the first place and who thought of the idea.  Also, when I was in public high school, there were a few times when the police would do random locker searches and bring in K-9 dogs to search for any drugs that may have been stored in the lockers.  There were a couple times when the dogs did find drugs hidden in the lockers and those students were arrested and taken to the police station.  I have also seen TV shows such as NCIS that show depict scenes where K-9 dogs are used to smell out drugs and to follow the scent of the criminals in order for the police to find them.  This is the only kind of experience and preconceptions of using dogs in law enforcement, and I want to know more about the history of it and everything that goes into making a dog suitable for K-9 status.