Male dog organised search for a criminal (7)
I believe the answer is:
manhunt
'search for a criminal' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'male dog' is the wordplay.
'male' becomes 'man' (man is a kind of male).
'dog' becomes 'hunt' (hunting is a kind of dogging).
'man'+'hunt'='MANHUNT'
'organised' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for manhunt that I've seen before include "Organised search for a fugitive" , "Pursuit of missing person" , "Search for wanted person" , "Police search operation" , "in which one wanted to be found?" .)