A lack of decoy skill will reflect in the poor performance of patrol dogs. There is no way around it, decoy skills in the police K9 world need to improve to have the performance of patrol K9s improve. The good news is, these skills can be taught.

This class will take place over 3 working days, 24 hours of instruction, and be open to Law Enforcement/Military participants. The class will be open to up to 15 participants. Supervisors are welcome to attend. The class will comprise both classroom instruction and practical decoy work. Classroom work will cover reading K9 behavior during controlled aggression, drive manipulation, and goal setting for training sessions. Practical instruction will include proper technique in the suit and hidden sleeve. Proper mechanics for safely catching police dogs in training, and techniques to work dogs to their goals in foundation and skills training will be covered in depth.

Specific Skills Taught

• Decoy as an instrument of operant conditioning.
• Alert on passive suspects with no equipment
• Bringing out civil aggression.
• Drive channeling
• Eliminate equipment orientation in any dog.
• Proper sleeve mechanics: sleeves don’t create equipment orientation, decoys do.
• Proper Bite suit targeting and “catch” mechanics.
• Proper use of hidden sleeves and muzzle fighting.
• Explanation of decoy technique for training and maintaining control commands: out, guarding, hold & bark, redirects, and call-off (recalls).
• Integrating fundamentals into police K9 training scenarios.

Top level decoy work will increase the ability of your patrol K9s to make apprehensions with confidence, protect your handlers, eliminate equipment orientation, and be an asset in preparing your handlers for success in certification with clean, conflict free outs, and recalls. Improve the efficiency of your limited training time with your decoys by learning how to integrate fundamental & skill exercises into real-world scenarios.

Jerry Bradshaw, Training Director
Tarheel Canine Training Inc.
Police K9 Services
230 W. Seawell Street
Sanford, NC 27330
Tel. 919-774-4152
Fax. 919-776-3151
Cell. 919-244-8044 (Sales & Scheduling)