The final day of the semiar began with some Q/A and a brief discussion on E-Collars and how we integrate them into the training of our police dogs when requested to do so. Many SOPs preclude the use of e-collars, and we discussed the reasons why using e-collars adds an additional line of safety and would actually reduce liability for the agency. We also talked about the relationship between temperament and the e-collar (For a free copy of an article on teaching the e-collar for email Jerry at malinois_jb@mindspring.com).

We then discussed the most hairy of all the tactical deployments, the area search, using the same method of clear, down and cover. In the scenarios we set up, the 3 man teams (K9 and two back-up officers) had to clear about a 5 acre area which included old buildings, and wooded area, with a large amount of open space and 2 hidden subjects.

All the teams did well. We had to set up training for some of the very newly trained dogs who had difficulty understanding the context, or who were used to finding only one subject and so didn;t want to continue searching after the first find.

 Each officer had tactical control of the deployment, and each used his best judgment about how to work the area. There were opportunities for us as instructors to suggest improved approaches and arrest tactics to keep the teams as safe as possible in this scenario.

Instructor Sean Siggins decoyed and hid himself under one of the buildings in an open crawl space, and all the dogs made quality apprehensions in the tight / dark space. The other decoy was former Tarheel K9 employee Ariel Peldunas, who hid on a metal platform about 10 feet off the ground, and most of the dogs alerted without problem to the high find. Ariel played a great "crazy lady," in the scenario and the K9s had no problem working on a female decoy which was nice to see.

The final exercise was Instructor Siggins demonstrating proper shoulder carry technique for attic insertions with his police dog "Jack" – Jack was inserted onto the roof for lack of an attic.

Pics from all there days are available on the controlled aggression facebook page, accessible from the blog by clicking on the facebook icon at the right of this page, or on the TK9 photobucket account:

http://s412.photobucket.com/albums/pp207/TarheelCanine/