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Local fashion designer Max Tan is doing his part in taking care of police dogs that have helped maintain Singapore’s security for years.<\/p>\n
Tan was speaking with media on Friday (Nov 6) as part of a feature on Singapore Police Force’s (SPF) K-9 dogs in conjunction with World Adoption Day, which falls on Nov 9.<\/p>\n
They are part of the police’s K-9 Unit, which consists of over 250 dogs which have been trained to detect narcotics and explosives, maintain public order, locate people and more.<\/p>\n
Tan, 42, adopted Dodger, a retired police K-9 Belgian Shepherd, about four months ago.<\/p>\n
“I think I’ve always had a deep soft spot for senior and rescue dogs, so I thought it would be really wonderful to give these these K-9 heroes a nice retirement home for them to spend the rest of their lives in,” he said.<\/p>\n
Dodger is his second adoption.<\/p>\n
Talking about his first K-9 adoption, he recalled how he had been afraid of the dog, wondering if it might be aggressive.<\/p>\n
He quickly overcame that fear, as he realised that dogs are “the most incredible gentle giants”.<\/p>\n
Even while deciding to adopt Dodger, Tan worried about whether it would be able to adapt to a more relaxed lifestyle.<\/p>\n
After three weeks and a proper routine, Dodger seems to have settled in well, he added.<\/p>\n
Tan also explained how the adoption process works, with some basic groundwork and introduction between him and his would-be pet.<\/p>\n
SPF also matched Tan to Dodger, working to facilitate their first exchange and improve <\/strong>the relationship between the two.<\/p>\n “This is just to make sure the K-9 unit screens through your lifestyle, your habits and your willingness to take on the responsibility of giving a K-9 dog a retirement home,” he said.<\/p>\n Once the police gathered all <\/strong>relevant information of Tan, he was finally allowed to meet Dodger.<\/p>\n Speaking on his transition from police K-9 to domesticated pet, Tan commented that the biggest challenge was <\/strong>that it doesn’t understand the concept of retirement.<\/p>\n The first day he was brought home, Tan was seen as the “bad guy” \u2014 Dodger was friendly towards his visiting friends, but would distance himself from Tan.<\/p>\n “Because I was a bad guy who took him [away], right?” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It took about three weeks for him to realise that I was his new handler.”<\/p>\n He gave Dodger his meals, took him for walks and gave belly rubs.<\/p>\n Even then, he would sniff at all of Tan’s shopping parcels \u2014 a habit from his glory days as a narcotics detection dog.<\/p>\n “Whenever anything comes in, he needs to give them a good whiff first. Once it’s all clear, he’ll go back to his bed, and that’s when I can open my parcels.”<\/p>\n Sharing advice for those who may be interested in adopting a dog, Tan also explained that proper planning is key to making a successful adoption.<\/p>\n Aside from planning for healthcare, adopting a dog is also a promise to routinely spend time with them, he said.<\/p>\n “These are things that you want to think about carefully \u2014 but that shouldn’t stop you from giving one of these lovely K-9 heroes a loving retirement home.”<\/p>\n On his job as a fashion designer, he admitted that Dodger hasn’t yet been an inspiration for any of his works.<\/p>\n Tan revealed: “He gives me a sense of space and calm when I’m working. He will always sit very close to me, and I enjoy that kind of companionship when I’m working.<\/p>\n “I’m usually just working alone on my computer, and it’s good to have a companion with me there.”<\/p>\n Tan owns the contemporary womenswear label MAX.TAN and has designed costumes for National Day Parade 2024 and 2017.<\/p>\n [[nid:746741]]<\/span><\/p>\n khooyihang@asiaone.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Local fashion designer Max Tan is doing his part in taking care of police dogs that have helped maintain Singapore’s security for years. Tan was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/98138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Adoption is commitment<\/h2>\n
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