During the counter, whether it is with a young dog on the rag or with an intermediate dog on a sleeve, the key to the re-adjust is relaxing your arms or sleeve arm at just the right moment. In my experience, new helpers have a hard time relaxing their arm during bite work, and dogs that are learning to counter won’t readjust on them. Put an experienced helper in the sleeve and they will counter time and time again. I believe this is the case because an experienced helper knows how to show the dog weakness, by relaxing the arm. The dog perceives this momentary weakness to “counter-punch” and drive in deeper on the bite. In the wild, the feral dog or wolf will bite deeper, not when the deer he is catching is fighting, but when he becomes instantly still; the animal sees this opportunity to get a better grip to continue the killing process.

Never confuse motion with action. 

<>- Ernest Hemingway

The greatest loss of time is delay and expectation, which depend upon the future. We let go the present, which we have in our power, and look forward to that which depends upon chance, and so relinquish a certainty for an uncertainty.

<>Lucius Annaeus Seneca 5BC-65AD, Roman tragedian, philosopher, and counsellor to Nero  

It is not because it is so difficult that we do not try something, it is because we do not try that makes something so difficult.

<>Seneca 4BC-65AC, Roman writer and moralist  

Whatever you do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

<>Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749-1832, German poet, novelist and dramatist  

It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.

<>Epictetus c. 60-120, Roman philosopher  

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit. 

<> Aristotle

Go to.....  http://signaturek-9.blogspot.com/

Check out the interview.........

Recently I sold a green lab to a police department for an explosives dog class. The handler received the dog and took it for testing prior to the class, and the dog was passed by the trainers. The trainers also told him to take the dog to the mall, go on escalators, elevators, etc to get the dog familiar with these environments.

At first this seems like good advice, except for the fact that this green handler has no experience dealing with behavioral issues that might come up with this kind of environmental exposure. Without instruction otherwise, most people will treat a fear resonse in a dog the same way they would a scared baby - by trying to soothe the fear. This is exactly the opposite of the proper approach with a dog who has a fear response because a good trainer will decondition the fear using a classical conditioning approach such as playing with the dog in drive as you ease him incrementally into the new environment.

The phone call went like this: "Well Jerry, he was doing great on the floors in the mall, so I took him to the elevator, and walked him into it, and when it started to go up, he kind of flattened into the floor, and then when the doors opened he wanted to get out of there quickly." So I did it a couple of times, and praised him throughout the ride, but he kept staying flat on the floor, and every time he wanted to run out of the elevator. I explained to him that praising a fear response reinforces the fear response. It is like saying to the dog....."Yes, that's it, be afraid now, good boy." So although he thought he was doing some good, he was actually making the problem progressively worsse and worse each time he repeated the exercise.

To properly introduce the elevator ride, you need to first get the dog near the elevator doors, and engage him in play. Let him see the doors open and close while you play kong with him just outside the doors. Preferably use a kong or a ball on a string so you can use some opposition reflex in the play, keeping him busy tugging if he will. Then, hold the doors open and toss the kong in, and let him go in and get it, and come back out a few times. When he is comfy with that, toss it in and go up or down one floor, playing tug all the while, and as the doors open toss it in and out on the new floor. Take the stairs down, and do it all again. If you see the dog get a little startled by the motion of the elevator's floor, keep with the in and out for a session or two. It is unnatural for the dog to feel motion like that so keep his mind focused on the toy until he is immune to the ride. Go slow with your progression and let the dog acclimate. Anticipate the problem points - doors opening, tight space, moving floor, etc and get the dog as hign in drive as your can just prior to each of these potential problem points.

Whatever you do, do not praise the fear response. In fact if the dog shows fear, your job it to act completely oblivious to it, and keep on playing. Do not call attention to any negative reaction, that will only reinforce the response. If you see fear you can't overcome, back up the progression to a point where you had success, and stay there for a bit, until you feel like he is ready to move forward. Break the problem down even further. Open the door, toss the kong in, and open the doors before riding up and let him out, and do this over and over until he is comfy with being inside and playing vigorously before trying to move the floor again.

Classical conditioning is conditioning a response by association. As you associate play and good doggie endorphins with each of these objects, and introduce strange things slowly and incrementally in drive, you will not overload the dog, and you will keep his mind in a positive mood when he is introduced to new things.

The other point to be taken from this is to treat socialization and environmental conditioning like any other key trained skill. You wouldn't give a new untrained handler the instruction: "Go start the imprinting of your dog on narcotics, we will see you in a few weeks," and so as well, dont tell your unskilled handler to go "Socialize your dog."  If he doesn;t know how to resolve problems as they come up, you are likely to have him do more damage than good.

The alert on command, which places the dog’s aggression on the command of the handler, is an exercise that is often ignored, but it may be your most important exercise in police patrol training. In much of the training I watch, the dog is brought to the training field, the decoy starts the action by agitating the dog, and the dog is sent to bite. The problem with this sequence of events is that the dog learns that his cue to get aggressive is the agitation rather than the command word of the handler to alert. The problem stays hidden, until the dog is deployed and the suspect has no bite equipment on, and is passive (sitting down or laying on the ground). In many cases the dog shows confusion and begins to look around at back up officers who may be standing up and moving around (his familiar context for bite work). The dog fails to engage, and rather than blaming the training as incomplete, the dog is blamed.  

The proper sequence, which should be trained during each and every bite session from the very start of the dog’s training, is that the decoy always starts out passive, and the handler alerts the dog on the passive subject. Once the dog shows aggression, the decoy reacts to the aggression either by pressing the dog in defense, or by fleeing in prey, depending on the exercise. The aggression is placed on a variable reward system, where sometimes the passive decoy will flee after one bark, then the next time we would make the dog bark at the decoy for 15 or 20 seconds before motion or advance on the dog, and back to 5 or 10 seconds of barking, varying the amount of aggression required to bring the decoy alive. In the dog’s mind, he is bringing the passive person “alive” by his aggression. The decoy must reward this behavior at all times. Once it is done well, you can point your dog at anyone, give an alert command, and expect aggression and focus.

This teaches the dog aggression on command, rather than on the context (movement or threat) the dog perceives from the decoy. In fact, as the handler, you may perceive an apprehension situation well before your dog, and so if you can put the dog in an aggressive mood on command he will be ready to react immediately, and not be caught off guard. Work your bite sessions with the decoy in a hidden sleeve, sitting in a chair, or laying on the ground. You can work on a slick floor to slow the entry down, and set up furniture to protect the exposed areas of the decoy, and always send the dog on a long line to maintain positive control. The dog learns to alert on passive subjects in all positions, and becomes aggressive on your command. 

A further extension of this exercise is to roll up to a strange place where you have already stashed a decoy behind the corner of a building or a dumpster, and take up a tactical position and give your alert command. Your dog may at first be confused, but be patient, and when he gives one bark, the decoy should jump out and flee, and in response send your dog for a reward grip. Do this in a bunch of different contexts with that one bark bringing out the decoy. Then ask for a few more barks, and then finally place this reward on a variable schedule so that the dog learns he has to sometimes bark for a while to get this result. The dog learns he can both turn a passive person alive by getting aggressive on command, and as well he can make people appear from behind objects and around corners when he becomes aggressive on command. I think you can see how this will help develop the start to your building search.

NTPDA is seeking members, evaluators, and thse interested in hosting NTPDA scenario based certifications. NTPDA is on the verge of growing significantly in the coming 6 months, as many agencies are looking for an alternative, scenario based police K9 Certification on which to base their in-house certs.

Our next push for 2010 will be a themed educational conference. We will announce the venue and topics for the seminar, and we will encourage trainers to submit abstracts of their proposed presentations. The conference will provide substantial discounts to NTPDA members, and will be open to non-members as well.

Take a look at the certification standards, and see if this isn;t something you have been looking for!

www.tacticalcanine.com

Kentucky State Police Special Operations

Police K9 Decoy Seminar

Lexington KY

May 18-20, 2009

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 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.

Location:

Kentucky State Police

Special Operations

Bluegrass Station-BLDG 30

5751 Briar Hill Road

Lexington, KY.  40516

Contact:

Shawn Podunavac, Kentucky State Police, shawn.podunavac@ky.gov, telephone # 606-232-7087

Jerry Bradshaw, Tarheel Canine, malinois_jb@mindspring.com, telephone 919-244-8044

Something which has been bothering me lately when i see certain individuals test dogs, is how some agencies have developed testing criteria that they have placed down in print on a sheet of paper, where on each attribute the dog is rated, say 1-5, with one being poor and 5 being excellent, and all the gradations in between.

The evaluator writes down the number, and at the end of the test, the numbers are added up and if the dog falls below a certain target number.....how they arrive at THAT arbitrary number I have no idea....the dog fails, and if the dog scores above a number the dog passes.

In my entire career buying dogs, I have never used a numerical test, as I believe that dog training is more art than science in respect to selection. I can test a dog and look at his performance, and the overriding issue for me is, "Can I get this dog to do what I need him to do?" Thgis is a subjective evaluation, that in no way lends itself to a score.

What about the dogs that come up 1 or 2 points apart? one dog failing and the other passing? That seems silly. A good trainer should be able to make a call based on experience rather than relying on some possibly flawed numerical test. If the evaluator has to make a judgment call on dogs close to the failure tipping point, than why do we need the numerical evaluation at all?

One of the big flaws I often see in these numerical score tests is giving equal weights to each aspect of the test. There are some attributes, such as sociability which cannot be overcome necessarily by other aspects of the dog's temperament - hunting drive perhaps - and so should not be assigned equal weight. Sometimes certain environmental aspects (i.e. stairs, tight spaces, slick floors) are each assigned a numerical score, but in the end, how the dog does on the test is of little importance if the dog can be worked through some of the lack of exposure he might have had. So scoring something like "recovery" should be scored rather than an absolute measure of how the dog showed on some environmental test.

In the end it comes down to having an eye for dogs. An eye for what can be worked, and an eye for what is a deal breaker.

Brazillian TV Interview, Link:

http://www.redetvmais.com.br/tvnews/index.asp?idnoticia=118

Pictures on Photobucket for the Brazil Seminar:

http://s412.photobucket.com/albums/pp207/TarheelCanine/Brazil%20Seminar/