Tarheel Canine's head trainer Janet Dooley and her K9 Zuko went to Raleigh to be on G105 Radio morning show: "Bob and the Showgram" for the "Spin The Wheel Feature".
People love using analogies as a way to prove an argument, or show the absurdity of your argument. “That’s like throwing bricks in the Grand Canyon,” for some action that is too little too late, for example. The problem with making analogies is that not every analogy is a good analogy.
Take for example a recent article in a leading police magazine. Out of respect, I won't name the author here. My goal is to discuss the real issues in choosing between private trainers or a traditional academy. The thrust of the article was to compare private K9 training facilities to the old standby the Public 16 week police K9 course run by police officers dedicated to a training staff.
In the article the private facilities are referred to as “McTrainers” in an attempt to associate the product of private academies with “fast food” quality, where I suppose we are to assume the opposite comparison, that the 16 week academy course with green dogs and unskilled handlers would in fact produce a gourmet meal. Now, I have seen great dogs produced in both environments, so I don’t think generalizing is necessarily a useful activity. In fact I found the article to be divisive and completely to have missed the point of steering administrators towards the real issue in selecting a training program: quality training so that they can employ productive and well informed K9 units.
Considering that the author runs one of the 16 week academies, it seems to be rather thinly veiled advertisement to police administrators to send people his way, rather than to private companies. In today's world with competition at an all time high, we are all scrambling to justify our existence. One approach I suppose would be by trying to keep your job secure by trashing all the competition, as this article came across. However, one just might take another route and strive to produce the best product and service possible and make he best guarantees so that you are the most competitive supplier in the market. This is the approach I try to take every day as the CEO of Tarheel Canine. You will never find me talking anyone down. I prefer to concentrate on what I have control over, and that is my work.
Now, that said and being that I run a private training company, I took a certain amount of offense to the broad brush used to paint all private companies as producing a rushed and therefore poor quality product. Let’s be fair, there are poorly trained police dogs everywhere, certainly not only from private companies, either. I don’t necessarily believe that the type of academy you go through, whether it is a 16 week academy with green handlers starting with green dogs, or with a private company is really the issue.
In the end, I believe the different type of courses are about equally as likely to produce a solidly trained dog, as long as the trainers in charge are good ones. That, in my opinion, is the real issue, not the structure of the training course, but rather the content of the training course. This is the point that the article completely misses!
Many people believe that 4 weeks isn’t a long time to be with your dog before going out on the street. Yet in the end, in a 16 week course, by the time the dog has most ofhis behaviors fully trained to a point where you can actually practice scenarios as you would see them on the street (traffic stops, building searches, etc.), you are about equivalent in terms of spending time with a trained dog practicing deployments. The last 4 maybe 5 weeks in a traditional course are the crucial weeks for deployment, and putting it all together. In the end it is all just about equivalent.
I think the real issue has to do with the trainers that are training the dogs and running the classes, not how the classes are structured. I have seen a lot of very nicely trained dogs come from traditional academies, and I believe we also put out very solid trained dogs in our program at TK9. In the end it comes down to convenience. Some agencies cannot afford to lose an officer for 16-20 weeks, so a private company allows them to get a K9 where they may not be able to if this option is not available. Further, making the right choice boils down to quality. Are the dogs coming out of whatever academy or private trainer you are looking at producing for the agencies that have them? If they are, you are going in the right direction, no matter how the training class may be structured.
There are a lot of trainers who have popped up after 9/11 to get their hands into the profit opportunities, no doubt. There are bad trainers out there in private practice. But there are also some of the best trainers in the country who are in private practice out there selling trained dogs to the police. If you are thinking about buying a K9, do your research. Demand references, and a lot of them. Call the references. Also, dont assume that because a particular class is run by police officers doing the training, that the product is good. Just like any trainers, there are good ones and poor ones who work for police departments too. Check with other local agencies who have been through the academies to give you a reference, and to give you an opinion on the quality of their dog. Is he utilized? Does he locate people and contraband outside of training?
Another issue: Ask trainers for their guarantees on their dogs if you are going private, and if you are going to an academy make sure the dog brokers that the academy uses are reputable and will stand behind their guarantees. Check the wording of guarantees.
Be advised, if you go through a traditional academy and your dog passes the certification, he is forever more your problem if you have a training or productivity issue that the trainers can’t fix. If you buy from a private trainer and the dog becomes a problem later on, you may have recourse if the trainer provides a performance guarantee, as we do at TK9 (lifetime performance guarantee).
I suppose my conclusion is this: When choosing between a private trainer and a traditional academy, pay attention to the important issues, such as expertise (number of years training is not necessarily indicative – if you have pedaled the same poor skills for 20 years), and the productivity of the dogs coming out of the training. Look to references, and find out how productive the dogs are for the agencies that are running them. Once you are comfortable with that, then ask yourself which type of academy fits your agency best, from a manpower perspective, and you will in the end make a good decision.
Special Thank you to Dr. Katrina Kardiasmenos for her excellent photography. She always seems to catch those key moments of K9 action! Thank you for sharing your pictures with us!
A real street bite is the one thing that as police dog trainers, we cannot actually set up and practice as it would happen on the street. Because of this, we have numerous techniques that we use to simulate a real street bite. One of those techniques is the muzzle fight.
There are numerous brands and types of protection muzzles. Be sure you have an actual agitation muzzle and not just an everyday wear muzzle. Most agitation muzzles have a reinforced steel bar framing the leading edge of the muzzle to keep the leather from collapsing on the dog’s mouth when he makes contact. This feature is crucial. The typical agitation muzzle you see is a “Dondi” style three strap muzzle, which buckles behind the ears (this is the part that secures the muzzle) and one strap that goes over the head, between the ears, and secures to the head strap. There are also “Belgian Ring” style muzzles of similar design but these often come with bite-bars covered with leather and affixed to the inside of the muzzle for the dog to grip during a muzzle fight. Some muzzles only have the two straps that fasten behind the head, and do not have the over head strap. These muzzles are safe to use if properly secured. The over head strap is not the key part of the safe operation of the agitation muzzle. Make sure you choose a muzzle that fits the dog comfortably. The dog should be able to breathe and pant normally, and even bark and clack his jaws inside the muzzle. Manufacturers make many sizes. You should try a few different ones and settle on one that secures nicely and is comfortable for the dog. An experienced trainer can help you select the right size.
Once the muzzle is securely fastened, a safety check must be performed. The handler should grab the muzzle underneath and gently but firmly lift the dog straight up by the muzzle. The muzzle should stay securely fastened. Next, grasp the muzzle top and bottom in both hands and try to “roll” the muzzle down off the dog’s snout to mimic the pawing action the dog can make to insure that the muzzle cannot be taken off by a determined dog. Do this gently but firmly, and don;t wrench the dog's neck. Some people allow the decoy doing the actual muzzle attack (since it is his ass on the line with no equipment on) to make a secondary safety check. I don’t like doing this because it ruins the realism of the encounter to some degree. I do like having a second person (most preferably the training instructor presiding) do a safety check. I also encourage having some back-up by having a decoy with a sleeve hidden in close proximity just in case the muzzle comes off.
It goes without saying that before doing any muzzle fighting the dog should be conditioned to be calm and accepting of the muzzle. This part of the training should not be rushed, but unfortunately, it usually is. Put food in the bottom of the muzzle, a number of times a day, and allow the dog to dip his nose down into the muzzle and pull out food. As he gets accepting of the confinement, strap him up for a few seconds letting him eat the food like he has on a feedbag, and then reward him when you take it off. Strap him in the muzzle and do short, quick, obedience, ending with rewards. If the dog tries to get the muzzle off by pawing at it, try to redirect his behavior into some heeling or a recall, something active, rather than correcting him for pawing the muzzle. Punishment will only serve to create a negative association with the muzzle.You can also muzzle him and let him watch some decoy work on another dog, and when he is barking in the muzzle, pull it off for a bite or two. Take your time with this part, and make it a positive experience. If you watch a Belgian Ring dog do muzzle work, you will see the dogs generally enjoy the muzzle, and willingly stick their heads into it for you to strap them up, because they are taught to expect some fun when the muzzle comes out. Take your time so you will not have a career of fighting your dog over the muzzle. Further if the dog never learns to fully accept the muzzle, he will never put his all into the muzzle work, but rather be preoccupied with always trying to get the encumberance off.
Many times I have witnessed muzzle training where the dogs are sent off leash, and the dog and decoy roll around on the ground. I do not allow any dogs to be sent completely off leash for muzzle work or hidden sleeve work, simply because it is too dangerous to not have a way to positively control the dog. I will send the dog dragging a 15' long line so the handler can pick up and work the line. If there is no line, and if the dog breaks off the attack because he is unsatisfied or he is pawing at the muzzle, there is no way for the handler to control the session. The handler may end up chasing his dog as it moves away from him upon approach. If the dog breaks off the attack on his own, intensity can go from 60 to zero quickly. In such a case with no back line, if the dog leaves the engagement, there is nothing to do but have the decoy attempt to attract the dog back into the fight with agitation. Wrong, wrong, and more wrong!
We do not want to do this for the same reason that we do not want a police dog to only alert when he sees a decoy make movement or crack a whip. This becomes the starting cue for aggression, but unfortunately on the street bad guys may run occasionally, but oiften we need the dogs to key on passive subjects. We want the dog to bring the energy to the fight, not vice versa, and in fact, as with all our work, we want the dog to bring enough energy to the fight that we can do a passive muzzle attack and expect the dog to remain engaged until the handler removes the dog. Too many decoys even in non-muzzle work, start the session with agitation to attract the dog, rather than making the dog alert and load first to make the decoy move, or load enough to send the dog on a passive bite. If your dog needs agitation to start his bite session, you need to retrain that before doing any muzzle work. Muzzle work is proofing work for civil aggression and passive biting. For these reasons we must use skilled decoys and keep the dog on line during this training, and work with dogs that have had proper foundation in their aggression training.
One of the big problems with muzzle fighting is that it requires excellent decoy work to make it worthwhile to the dog. In most instances when I watch muzzle work, the dog will engage briefly, is usually unsatisfied with simply punching the decoy (the dog knows he is restricted by the muzzle because normally he would bite), and break off the attack to return to the handler or try to paw the muzzle off. This is especially true of the decoy is unskilled in doing a muzzle attack. The worst thing a decoy can do, given that the dog is restricted by the muzzle, is to not react to the dog’s aggression. The decoy must act realistically and submit to the dog’s aggression. But most decoys are at a loss as to exactly what to do during the engagement.
If you are doing the dog's first muzzle attack, put the dog on a back-tie and do a normal bite session, with the decoy in a suit or hidden sleeve, where the dog is alerted in muzzle, and he shows aggression to make the decoy move in on him in a defensive way, and as the decoy approaches, he should deliver a prey bite pass to the dog. The dog should (if the foundation bite work was done properly) strike the target area with the muzzle. The decoy must react in a big way, falling back, and coming around for another passby miss, and then another delivery, and strike. If this goes well, hold the dog on line and proceed as below, doing a quick chase, and allow the dog to press forward on the decoy once he is struck and goes to the ground. Keep the ground session very short. Snatch the dog out, and make a big escape at the end with the dog losing the prey. Wean the equipment out of the session quickly - this is meant to be a civil exercise not a prey exercise.
Decoy Technique: One thing which I teach at my decoy seminars is to have the decoy use the dog's natural opposition reflex to keep the dog engaged. Often during a muzzle fight, the decoy gets hit on initial contact, and falls to the ground, and then the dog will come in on him again on the ground. When the dog comes in to tag the decoy, the decoy must both give ground when punched with the muzzle, but also the decoy should push the dog away, and then let the dog come in with another punch. The “fight” then involves a flow of energy from the dog onto the decoy, and then back at the dog in a pushing motion, where the decoy opposes the dog to make the dog drive in, and then the decoy pushes the dog away in a constant, flowing, but not sharp motion. This act of pushing the dog results in keeping constant tension in the forward press of the dog, and it acts like a tight back line in bite work training and causes the dog to want to continue forward in the fight. This is the nature of opposition reflex. Pushing the dog away makes him want to come forward. All the while the decoy is moving in response to the dog’s attack, staying vocal, and keeping tension on the dog’s chest and lower neck (the area that is to be pushed). The decoy can also manipulate (pinch) the dog's skin as he pushes against the dog to create some discomfort to peak the dog's aggression. These engagements should take place for a matter of 10 to at most 15 seconds at a time, and then the handler should pull the dog back by the line and collar when the dog is aggressively pressing forward. The handler keeps a loose line during the fight, and only snatches the dog out when he is most aggressive. This should be done on a variable (length of encounter) basis to increase the dog's focus.
A good decoy can use this technique to keep the dog engaged. The handler can snatch the dog out of the fight when he is at his peak of aggression in order to further frustrate the dog, and then let the decoy escape for a short distance. The handler will then have the dog chase the decoy for a short stretch (holding him back a little to make the dog dig hard against the back pressure) and release into another attack. The whole thing should be very fast and intense sequences of ground fighting and then frustration which can then be lengthened into longer, more intense sessions of engagement. Using this technique will help you develop a more focused and intense muzzle attack. Important note: The handler should keep the dog from floating to the face of the decoy during each encounter (which seems to result often as the dogs get highly frustrated, and because the decoy is on the ground) by handling the line properly. This is one more reason why good solid targeting work needs to be taught on the suit and hidden sleeve. Don't allow your dog to learn something you don't want him to learn.
At the very end of the muzzle session, the decoy should escape as the dog is being held back. Too many times I see muzzle sessions end when the dog gets frustrated and aggression is low. Our goal is to keep the aggression short and intense. Once the dog is pulled from the encounter by the line, the decoy can escape behind a door, where a sleeve is waiting, or a hidden sleeve can be slipped on, and the dog then is taken out of the muzzle quickly and sent to bite around the corner of the door, where the sleeve or hidden sleeve can be used. Sometimes just let the dog lose the prey - he doesn't need the bite every time. Mixing this technique with pure civil aggression sessions with no equipment and passive bites on hidden equipment (hidden sleeves, hidden suits) which then result in very satisfying fights, will go a long way to getting your dog street ready.
(c) Jerry Bradshaw, Tarheel Canine Training Inc. All Rights Reserved. Contact Jerry Bradshaw, malinois_jb@mindspring.com for permission to reprint this article.
I had the pleasure of instructing, along with Shawn Edwards of Baltimore City PD, a Police K9 Decoy school which was graciously hosted by the Anne Arundel County police K9 unit. Brian Fleig and Mike Edmundson and Sgt. Grover of the K9 unit set everything up perfectly, from the classroom area to the training areas.
We had quite a few people new to decoying, and we worked for most of the first day on sleeve mechanics, targeting, prey drive development, and drive channeling exercises. All of the dogs we had to work with were strong biters, and this gave the new decoys a good sense of what to expect, and they were able to fully implement the techniques that were taught. In the afternoon we moved to the bite suit, and worked on frontal catches, and drive mechanics in the suit.
The second day was spent discussing civil agitation, passive decoy work, and further drive channeling work. We then shifted to skills training - Inour decoy seminars we work on mechanics, but more importantly we set the students up so that they can learn to decoy the skills: Out, redirects, builoding searches, area searches, transports, and very importantly the call-off exercise.
The third day was spent doing building searches, and teaching the decoys how to break down the search exercises for dogs of different training levels, and how to incorporate skills like maintaining the out and tactical liftoff during scenario training. The afternoon was spend discussing and doing muzzle work, and we ended the day woth some area searches and more suit time.
We had representatives from Montgomery County Police, AA County Police, AA County Sheriff, and Annapolis PD. Dave Pappalardo from K9 Unlimited and Katrina Kardiasmenos from Metropolitan K9 were also there to provide training assistance, dogs for the decoys to train on, and Katrina also shot over 2000 photos of the 3 day event. I hope to post a few of these shots in the coming days. Thanks to both of them for their participation and assistance with the seminar. A special thank you to Shawn Edwards of BPD VCID for co-teaching this seminar with me. Shawn's enthusiasm is inspiring to everyone around him, and he clearly had an impact on our class of decoys.
Tarheel Canine is proud to announce that we have agreed to donate a green German Shepherd to the winner of the NJ Police K9 Association Raffle. The drawing will be held on October 18, 2008.
In the past two years, Tarheel Canine has been fortunate to do an increasing amount of business in the north east, and especially forge relationships with many of the trainers in the NJ area to provide quality K9s for their K9 classes.
Jimmy Kaelin, of Gloucester TWP Training Center in Gloucester, NJ, was kind to place an ad in the September 2008 Issue of the USPCA K9 Courier announcing the raffle and making the following statement on behalf of the NJ Police K9 Association:
"The executive board of the NJ Police K9 Association would like to personally thank Mr. Jerry Bradshaw, owner and operator of Tarheel K9 considered by many as the #1 broker in the country of police dogs, for his generous donation of the canine. In the event the winner is someone other then law enforcement, he or she will be asked to donate the canine to a law enforcement agency."
If anyone reading this post wishes to purchase tickets or get more information, e-mail me malinois_jb@mindspring.com and i will pass along your request to the NJ Police K9 Association.
I wish to thank Jimmy for the kind words, and to say that i am greatful to the brave men and women who proudly risk their lives on behalf of us all, and especially to those officers on the street with Tarheel K9 dogs!
I look forward to making the presentation of the k9 to the department winning this raffle!
TK9 on the Radio: G105 Raleigh
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