News

Lots of new videos on the Youtube Channel: www.youtube.com/TarheelK9

March/April newsletter will release at 10:00am...if you aren't recieving the newsletter and want to, please email me your address to: malinois_jb@mindspring.com

Check out the new videos on the blog's youtube channel.....

www.youtube.com/TarheelK9

Watch the instructor pictures scroll.....

http://www.invictustactical.com/

February 22-24 2010, Tuscany Hotel Las Vegas

Here are new seminars were working on scheduling:

January- US Virgin Islands PD, 18-29

February- FT. Benning GA Patrol/Detection (tentative)

March - OLEKA Dayton OH,Decoy Seminar, 3rd - 5th

April - Portland PD ME-High Risk Deployments, 19th - 21st

May - New Orleans LA - High Risk Deployments - Tentative

May - Maryland - advanced problem solving - TBA

June - Pennyrile Narc Task Force KY-Advanced Detecion Sem/competition, Week of 14th - 18th

July - Newport News Sheriff Office VA - Decoy Seminar TBA

Call Jerry to schedule a seminar in your area 919-244-8044 - narc, explosives,SAR Cadaver, trailing,patrol, decoy...

Advanced Narcotics & Explosives Detection Seminar

Pennyrile Narcotics Task Force

November 18, 19, 20, 2009

Hopkinsville, KY

The seminar will be open to Law Enforcement K-9 handlers and supervisors. The class will be open to up to 15 handler/dog teams. Spectators, including supervisors are welcome to attend. The class will comprise both classroom instruction and practical handling in scenario based problems. Advanced Detection will cover practical detection scenarios and problem solving all aspects of detector dog teams in both explosives detection and narcotics detection.  This seminar will also include operations for searching warehouses, tractor trailers, checkpoints, and vehicle stops. Includes classroom and field work.

                                                  Participants Will:

• Learn to properly deploy their K9s in real-world scenarios.
• Be challenged on hides of varying height, depth, weight and permeation times.
• Prepare to perform above currently existing canine certification protocols.
• Prepare for the NORT explosives detection certification.
• Prepare for Scenario-based NTPDA certifications  www.tacticalcanine.com
• Learn techniques for more efficient deployment: free searching & scanning
• Learn techniques through hide placement to create a more independent K9
• Reduce the handler dependency of their k9 in difficult problems.
• Learn how to set up training to extinct responses to distractor odors.
• Learn how to set up maintenance training plans to improve performance
• Improve final response behaviors: scratching or passive-stare to source.

"Innovating the future of dog training.”

Registration Form.

Please send this in to register for the seminar. Send to: Tarheel Canine Training, Inc. PO Box 1694, Sanford, NC 27330. Registration can also be taken on first day of seminar for a late registration, but please call ahead to reserve a spot, 919-774-4152 or 919-244-8044. Hotel Info & Schedule of events will be provided by contact persons, or after registration has been received.

Name _________________________________________________________________

Agency Affiliation _______________________________________________________

K9 Certified with ________________________________________ (Agency or Organization)

Address ___________________________________ State__________ Zip ____________

Tel # ____________________ (C) ____________________ (W) E-Mail________________

K9 Team participating $200.

Spectator participating $80, shall not be pro-rated.

$_______ is enclosed. Make Checks Payable to Tarheel Canine Training, Inc.

     This release is intended to discharge National Tactical Police Dog Association, Tarheel Canine Training, Inc.  and their owners, officers, agents, and sponsors, The Pennyrile Narcotics Task Force, KY, the state of Kentucky, Hopkinsville, KY or any of the seminar host’s  agents and assigns, from and all liability arising out of or in connection with my participation in any of the seminar events for which I am registered or in which I am participating.

     I understand that serious accidents can occur during police dog training, events, and other dog-related activities. Participation in such activities may occasionally result in serious personal injury and/or property damages. Knowing and appreciating such risks, nevertheless, I hereby agree to assume those risks and full responsibility for the actions of my dog(s) and myself.

     By signing below I acknowledge that I have read, understand, and agree to this hold harmless agreement.

_____________________________           __________

Applicant’s Signature                                     Date

Seminar Location:

First day assembly – 0800 Hours.

Location TBA

Hopkinsville KY

Contacts:

Detective Tye W. Jackson

Pennyrile Narcotics Task Force

K9 Supervisor/Chief Trainer

tyewjackson@yahoo.com

 Jerry Bradshaw

Tarheel Canine

malinois_jb@mindspring.com

Hotels:  TBA

Upcoming Decoy Seminar in Cumming GA with Forsythe County SO......

Police K9 Decoy Seminar

November 2, 3 & 4, 2009

Forsythe County GA K9 Unit

Cumming, GA

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.

 “Innovating the future of dog training”

 Registration Form.

Please send this in to register for the seminar. Send to: Tarheel Canine Training, Inc. PO Box 1694, Sanford, NC 27330. Registration can also be taken on first day of seminar for a late registration, but please call ahead to reserve a spot, 919-774-4152 or 919-244-8044. Hotel Info & Schedule of events will be provided by contact persons, or after registration has been received.

Name _________________________________________________________________

Agency Affiliation _______________________________________________________

Decoys should bring a dog to work on other decoys if possible.

Yes, I am bringing a patrol K9 _______ No, I am unable to bring a patrol K9 ______.

K9 Certified with ________________________________________ (Agency or Organization)

Address ___________________________________ State__________ Zip ____________

Tel # ____________________ (C) ____________________ (W) E-Mail________________

Decoy participating $200.

Spectator participating $80, shall not be pro-rated.

$_______ is enclosed. Make Checks Payable to Tarheel Canine Training, Inc.

     This release is intended to discharge National Tactical Police Dog Association, Tarheel Canine Training, Inc.  and their owners, officers, agents, and sponsors, The Forsythe County Sheriff’s office, the city of Cumming, GA, their agents and assigns, from and all liability arising out of or in connection with my participation in any of the seminar events for which I am registered or in which I am participating.

     I understand that serious accidents can occur during police dog training, events, and other dog-related activities. Participation in such activities may occasionally result in serious personal injury and/or property damages. Knowing and appreciating such risks, nevertheless, I hereby agree to assume those risks and full responsibility for the actions of my dog(s) and myself.

     By signing below I acknowledge that I have read, understand, and agree to this hold harmless agreement.

_____________________________           __________

Applicant’s Signature                                     Date

Seminar Location:

First day assembly – 0800 Hours.

Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office-South Precinct

2985 Ronal Reagan Blvd.

Cumming, GA 30041

Contacts:

DFC Rodney Pirkle

770-861-5574

rbpirkle@forsythco.com

Sgt. S. A. Wilson

404-392-0713

sawilson@forsythco.com

Hotels:

Holiday Inn express

Nightly room rate: $80.00

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/

I left to come to NY for the seminar on Monday evening, and as I approached the end of the NJ turnpike, I got a hit of nostalgia. I grew up in Monticello, NY and made the trip from there to NYC many times, and as I got on Rt. 17, and then the NYS Thruway, I passed a lot of very familiar territory from my childhood. I haven't been up in this area of NYS for some time, and it brought back a lot of memories. I arrived in Latham, NY at the hotel aroud 9pm, and I met Sean Siggins, Southern York Regional PD, my co-instructor for the seminar, and we had dinner and talked about the plan.

Classroom for the seminar started the next morning at 9am, and we met the semiar participants. We have a nice group of K9 teams mainly from area K9 units including  Cohoes PD (Host), Guilderland PD, SUNY Albany PD, Albany PD, Ulster County SO, Pittsfield MA, and the NYSP and NY Dept of Environmental Conservation. All the participants have been open and friendly and willing to try some new things, as well as sharing their experiences to add to the richness of the material discussed.

On the first day we did lecture on the tactical building search, including approaches to searching adapted from SWAT methodologies, back-up selection and rsponsibilities, and an explanation of how to implement the clear, down and cover method. We then moved to the first training location which was a house and did bitework evals and then started single room clearing work using variable decoy placement. We then walked through 3 man teams doing residential building searches, and also multiple decoys. We talked about and demonstrated methods for improving bite quality.

Many of the dogs had issues with the multiple decoys, as in their inservice training they used a single decoy, and once the dog finds the decoy, the search is called, so the dogs didn't want to go back into the house, because they believed their work was done. So we discussed the importance of making the dog re-enter the house and find multiple rewards (decoys) during searches. We also worked some of the newer dogs on how to get good head sweeps at doorways, and not have dogs run through doors and bolt to the back of the house. Some of the new dogs also needed work on coming down stairs on the grip, and biting on stairs comofortably. The day adjourned and some stayed late to work on some other issues, some had to get back to prior obligations, and we agreed to meet at 8am the next morning to do searches in a different environment, a high school.

The high school searches began with a simple on leash alarm call, where the teams found a passive subject hiding in a dark room. We worked on having the dogs alert properly on the passive subject, and tactics involved in bringing the subject into custody without a bite, and then with an attack on the back-up officer, and handler. All the dogs performed better than the previous day.

Next we took two officers who were not K9 from the Cohoes PD who came to work with their guy and walked them through back-up responsibilities of a clear, down and cover search. The guys jumped in and were clearly tactically sound cops. They did an awesome job working around the dogs and maintaining their responsibilities. We ran all the teams through with back-up guys, and a hidden suspect. There were good opportunities to instruct the handlers on tactics, dealing with the particular problems that schools present. The dogs did well, and the teams worked well together clearing the building section.

The afternoon was spent doing K9 felony vehicle stops, setting up proper vehicle formations, with appropriate cover positioning, and extraxcting suspects from vehicles, and using the dogs to clear the vehicles once the subject was extracted to be sure nobody else was lurking. The seasoned dogs performed strongly, with only some comments on how to variably reward the sends to the car so the dog will search it multiple times before the approach of the officers to visually clear the car.

Sean Siggins has done outstanding decoy work and has explained the tactical information extremely well. His experience in the field of K9 and as a SWAT team operator give him a unique perspective on using K9s in high risk deployments. Sean McKown of Cohoes PD also did a considerable amount of excellent decoy work both tuesday and wednesday, and has been a tremendous host! As a previous graduate of our decoy seminar, he implemented excellent training in the course of working the scenarios.

Tomorrow we will be starting the day with lecture, and then working on area searches. Pictures from the seminar will posted by friday as a link to our photobucket account, so stay tuned!

 This class will take place over 3 working days, 24 hours of instruction, and be open to Law Enforcement K-9 handlers and supervisors. The class will be open to up to 18 handler/dog teams. Spectators, including supervisors are welcome to attend. The class will comprise both classroom instruction and practical street work.  Classroom work will cover tactical approaches, deployments, and apprehensions, using trained police dogs in building/area searches and felony vehicle stops.  K9 teams will run through scenario-based problems in these areas. Instruction will also cover the integration of K9 patrol teams with tactical teams in these scenarios.  Additional instruction will cover proper decoy techniques, including proper use of bite suit, hidden sleeve and muzzle. The methods taught in this seminar allow for safer approaches to high risk deployments, easier integration into tactical units, and significantly reduced liability exposure. Additionally we will cover progressive use of e-technology for distance control of K9s both in training and under deployment. Explanations of how to train with e-collars, and integrate them into the functions of your K9 unit will be covered in detail.

Participants will:

• Learn progressive methods for deploying in high risk scenarios
• Deploy in building search, area search, and felony vehicle stop scenarios.
• Learn how to achieve fundamental training goals while practicing common high risk scenarios.
• Learn integration of K9 Patrol Teams with Tactical teams: Both Entry and Perimeter Usages.
• Learn proper decoy technique for training these high risk scenarios
• Learn progressive use of e-technology for distance control and deployment.

  “Innovating the future of dog training”

                     Registration Form.

Please send this in to register for the seminar. Send to: Tarheel Canine Training, Inc. PO Box 1694, Sanford, NC 27330. Please call ahead to reserve a spot, 919-774-4152 or 919-244-8044. Hotel Info & Schedule of events will be provided by contact persons, or after registration has been received.

Name _________________________________________________________________

Agency Affiliation _______________________________________________________

Yes, I am bringing a patrol K9 _______ No, I am unable to bring a patrol K9 ______.

K9 Certified with ________________________________________ (Agency or Organization)

Address ___________________________________ State__________ Zip ____________

Tel # ____________________ (C) ____________________ (W) E-Mail________________

Handler participating $200.

Spectator participating $80, shall not be pro-rated.

$_______ is enclosed. Make Checks Payable to Tarheel Canine Training, Inc.

     This release is intended to discharge National Tactical Police Dog Association, Tarheel Canine Training, Inc.  and their owners, officers, agents, and sponsors, Cohoes Police Department, the city of Cohoes NY, from and against any and all liability arising out of or in connection with my participation in any of the seminar events for which I am registered or in which I am participating.

     I understand that serious accidents can occur during police dog training, events, and other dog-related activities. Participation in such activities may occasionally result in serious personal injury and/or property damages. Knowing and appreciating such risks, nevertheless, I hereby agree to assume those risks and full responsibility for the actions of my dog(s) and myself.

     By signing below I acknowledge that I have read, understand, and agree to this hold harmless agreement.

 _____________________________           __________

Applicant’s Signature                                                         Date

Hotel Information:

HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS

400 OLD LOUDON RD

LATHAM NY 12110

518-783-6161

GOVT RATES ARE $111.00 A NIGHT INCLUDES FULL BREAKFAST BUFFET DAILY

CENTURY HOUSE CLARION HOTEL

997 NEW LOUDON RD

LATHAM NY 12110

518-785-0931

GOVT RATE $103.00 A NIGHT ALSO INCLUDES HOT AND COLD BREAKFAST

ALL ARE WITHIN 5-10 MINUTES FROM TRAINING LOCATION

Check out the upcoming semiar events by clicking here: http://www.tarheelcanine.com/seminars-consulting-events.cfm

If you or your agency are iterested in hosting a seminar, please read over the procedures for hosting (could be completely cost free for the host) and contact Jerry at malinois_jb@mindspring.com

The Law Dog Conference is coming to the East Coast on September 8-10, 2009 in Orlando FL.

Topics include: Officer Safety, urban Tracking, Legal Updates, High Risk EDD, Interdiction, Handler Aggressive & Dominant Dogs, Obedience, Tactical Tracking......get the details by going to the Invictus Tactical website at......

http://www.invictustactical.com/

They are running a special for registration on June 8 & 9th if you register by midnight on the 9th the 3 day conference fee is only $200!

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

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/

Finally, we get to sleep in for the first time since arriving in Brazil. We have lunch a little after noon with Luiz Gabriel and Supervisor Cesar from Diadema, exchanging a few more gifts and some CDs with photos and videos. Trades are made fr some of the clothes we brought, and then we return to the room for a couple hours, during which we packed, and during an exchange of jokes between Shawn and I he thought I was joking about him needing a slip of paper we were given upon arrival, to turn in at departure. He tore the paper and then spent the next 5 hours worried that he would be stuck in Brazil. His plan was to rat me out as a pig flu patient if he didn't get through.....

We were then picked up for our last bit of sightseeing before heading off to the airport. Over night, my head cold kicked into high gear, and I was feeling pretty miserable, but heading into downtown Sao Paulo took my mind off of it. We started the afternoon with a visit to some of the military surplus stores. We were also taken to a place that sews patches, and found out that Luiz Gabriel made a patch for the class and gave Shawn and I a few of them each. Very nice. The rest were to be distributed to the attendees.

We then went to the Mercado Municipal, which is a big central food market which carries virtually every food Brazilian you can imagine. Varieties of fresh fish, meats, mountains of fruits, nuts, candies are everywhere to be found, as well as restaurants upstairs where you can order up some of the foods for lunch. We stopped and got some dried fruits, and sampled a bunch of the candies and fruits, amd we could have stayed a while longer but time was drawing late, and we walked around the streets for an hour or so around the market looking at the goods the street sellers were peddling. The guys at the seminar joked about the goods in the streets being "made in China" and they weren't kidding.

We decided to start off toward the airport, and the traffic was hell. Shawn fell asleep in the back and the exhaust fumes that came off the trucks into the car were choking me, being that I had such a bad cold. Whoever designed the exhaust pipes to blow directly into the cars adjacent to the trucks needs to be shot. Finally we made it to the airport, and we went to the United counter to check in. The ticket agent made Shawn think he was in serious trouble for ripping up the immigration form, which I thought was hilarious, but he was relieved to know that the woman was just kidding, and he wouldn't be detained after all.

We upgraded from Economy to Economy plus, got good seats, and settled in for a long 9 hour flight home to our families. We arrived on time. I was so Nyquilled-up I barely remember getting the car from the long term lot. Shawn drove to Baltimore (I recall none of that part of the trip except for a brief moment looking at the washington monument wondering how that got moved to I-495), and then I took the car to the house. I slept the majority of the day between coughing fits.

As I sit here writing this, and reflecting on the 5 days we spent there I have to say the people were very warm and open, and extremely hospitable. The culture is a lot like America, with a mix of cultures melting into one Brazilian culture. Everything about the culture is eclectic from the food to the music, and they are very proud of what they have, and they are a very hard working people. They love to speak about their country. To think they were governed by a Military dictatorship only 20 years ago, they have come a long way from that. We listened to countless conversations about friends they knew who went into the Amazon basin, and some who even lost their lives (evidently a trip to that region is not to be taken lightly). They told us about the industries, what they produce, where they work, and how they see their country progressing. They are not afraid to ask for help, to learn new things, to improve what they do. That was evident from the reaction to the seminar, with people taking notes, and asking a lot of questions.

Shawn and I will miss our friends, and hope to see them again soon, as we were invited to return in the early fall for another adventure this time in Rio. We hope we can get it arranged, so we can both come back and see a new place and also see some of our old friends from this seminar.

Thank you to Luiz Gabriel of LGK9 for taking the time to contact me and set up the seminar which gave Shawn and I a great experience we will remember for a long time. Thanks also to Shawn Edwards for being a great partner in teaching the seminar. We had a lot of laughs over the 5 days that is for sure.

The official seminar was concluded yesterday, and today (tuesday) we were picked up in the morning at the hotel by the Guarda Civil for the district of Diadema. The Guarda Civil for Diadema was established in November of 1999 in order to reduce the violence in that district. The homicide rate was through the roof in the 1980s and 1990s, and in addition to establishing the Guarda Civil, the authorities limited bar hours to closing at 11pm instead of being open 24 hours, and installed cameras in high crime areas and streets.  By 2007 the violent crime rate was reduced by 75%.

We were introduced to many of the administrators on our tour, including the comandant of the Guarda. We got to see the K9 Unit Kennels, which were very well designed and spotless, and also were shown the Motorcycle Unit, and were taken to the transportation authority which houses the traffic cameras and crime surveillence cameras. Interestingly, many of the officers carry revolvers, and the supervisors carry .380 semi-automatics. Each police car is equipped with a 12 Guage shotgun as well. We put up some photos of the K9 cars, but the dogs rarely ride in the cages, preferring the back seat and open windows.....

We then were taken on a drive around the city. The district has about 375,000 people, and we got to see the markets, and the city center, and took some pictures of the local area before being taken back to the police station.

In the afternoon, we were interviewed by the local paper, the regional newspsper, and Brazilian TV. Questions were asked of us about the differences and similarities of US and Brazilian police departments, as well as our impressions of the police dogs in Brazil and how the seminar went off. They are even sending one of the supervisors to us in the morning with a CD of the photos and TV clip so we can have it before we return. Shawn did a demo with a couple of the K9s letting them bite him, and that seemed to be big excitement for all the reporters. I almost had the TV reported talked into taking a bite from one of the dogs, but she chickened out at the last second. They also did a drug detection demo with one of the labs handled by one of the K9 unit supervisors. Click here to go to the TV Interview:

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

After the press interviews, the 3 K9 officers who attended our seminar took us to a Churrascaria for a great lunch. Shawn amazed them with the sheer qualtity of food he was able to consume. After lunch we made out way back to Sao Paulo and said our goodbyes to the K9 guys, with agreements to trade some patches and t-shirts by post.

Dinner with our host Luiz Gabriel and translator Roberto Bautista followed at about 8pm, and we discussed another trip to Brazil in the near future to do 2 seminars, one in Diadema and another in Rio. Hopefully we wuill be able to return. Although we have had a great time here, we both miss our families back home, and it will be a welcome relief to be back home sleeping in our own beds and with our loved ones. Tomorrow is an easy day, we finally get to sleep in, and then we go to the famous Mercado Municipal in Sao Paulo a la Anthony Bourdain on the Travel Channel. We are going to pick up some gifts for the home front and some rememberances of our travels, and get to sample some of the more unique foods available here in Sao Paulo. More on that tomorrow!

Some of my impressions of Brazil.....

Nothing is as it seems from the street. Almost everywhere, stores, small shops, specialty markets, look like a garage from the outside, and once the roll up door is open you see a plethora of entrepreneurial activity. Little Bars, hardware stores, pet shops, cantinas, etc are literally on every street.

Napkins made of a wax-paper substance in some of the resturants.

They need some toilet engineers to help them design a toilet that actually flushes the first time you press the handle.

The food is very good.....lots of meat and lots of great fruit is available. There are Churrisacria Restaurants literally on every corner, and unlike in America they are relatively cheaper by a long shot.

Americans take our technology, and its portability for granted....Shawn's Ipod Touch was a big attraction. I forgot to pack my power cord for my Blackberry, and nobody seemed to think one would be available for purchase, or perhaps it would have been too much of a pain to find a store that sells it.

Traffic in Sao Paulo is a serious issue. Everything revolves around traffic and there are a million side streets. When we went to the Seminar it seemed we went a different way almost every time.

There are speed bumps on virtually every side street every .25 of a mile or so it seems to keep traffic slowed down.

The city of Sao Paulo is gigantic. The city has a population of around 11 million people, and the entire Sao Paulo Metropolitan area has something on the order of 21 million people.

The dog business is booming here. Pet shops, kennels, agility clubs, schutzhund clubs are popping up everywhere!

The people are warm and genuine, sometimes passionate, but empethetic and hospitable. We were treated with great care and in the small K9 circle we travelled in, we were treated kindly and with great resect. 

The last day of the seminar there was again a miscommunication regarding who was to come and pick us up from the hotel, and we arrived about 20 minutes late. Once we arrived, there was coffee waiting, and we began with Shawn doing some lecture in obedience theory. With the language barrier, it is very hard to discuss the nuances of obedience, so we did a rough outline in lecture, and then came out to the training area to show them the ideas.

Shawn took a few of the dogs, and demonstrated the procedure for using the Jute roll in obedience, and how to develop attention in heeling. We also demonstrated how to use food. Both the food reward and toy reward methods were well received, and it struck us how different the US is from the rest of the world when it comes to using reward in obedience for police dogs. In my travels all across Europe, almost all trainers, be they in ring sports, IPO, SVV or Police use a reward method to, at a minimum, teach new behaviors in obedience.

The Argentinian handlers and trainers go even further, using an instrumental method, where by the dogs are first taught "concepts" of following, left, right, up down, etc. and then these concepts are used to develop actual behaviors using a clicker training method. The dogs are expected to work around their rewards (toys, decoys) and are sent to the rewards for a successful chain of behaviors. We spent a fair bit of time having the spanish translated to Portuguese, and back to English, so it is amazing that we were able to understand what the trainers were saying about the methodology thyey used.

The last part of the morning was spent with Jerry explaining the method for using the e-collar. Everyone was very interested, as there seems to be very little information available in Brazil for good E-Collar methodology. The class was very interested to see how we used the e-collar in heeling, recalls, outs, redirects and call-offs, and to learn both the advantages and limitations that had to be considered with this tool when training police dogs.

The lunch break was called, and for the third day we went to the cantina in Sao Paulo. Upon our return, some photos were taken, gifts exchanged, and contact information was exchanged. Many of the participants expressed a heartfelt thanks for us coming to share our experiences and methods with them. In return we expressed our gratitude for the invitation and thanks for their attention and good questions.

We went on to bitework, and showed some techniques for building and improving bite quality in some of the younger dogs. As a rule they move to far too fast, and don;t take enough time to develop drive channelling so when the dogs work in prey they are very impressive, but when defense is brought the dogs have a hard time staying committed and even engaged, so we showed them techniques to slowly step-by-step build the dog's confidence when working in defense.

To end the afternoon session (we decided to call the end at 4pm as many had to travel from very far away) we set up a tactical building search exercise to clear a room with a 3 man team. We showed them how to position the dog handler, how to take consideration of cover, and manage the suspect once extracted. We set the extraction up so the dog would ebter through a window, and we did the extraction exercise a couple of times. The Argentinian dog did beautifully. The team did a nice job of maintaining proper position, and doing a tactical removal once the suspect was to a previously cleared position. The participants seemed to enjoy this application, and were very interested in the method.

What ensued next was a discussion of arrest techniques using a K9 and a cover officer, and we showed the procedures we teach fr avoiding cross-fire, and for using the dog to impress the subject. These were no bite scenarios of arrest. We then began discussing various other tactics, until we called the seminar over. Everyone was very interestyed in what we do and why.

The last part of the afternoon was spent handing out certificates and taking a lot of pictures with everyone at the seminar. In 3 days we made some new friends, and even with the language barriers managed to make some jokes that will be remembered. As I travel to ever more places, it strikes me that people do live somewhat differently, but on the whole, it always impresses me how similarly we all live. Despite what you hear on the news in America, people look to America as the example of what prosperity can bring when people are left to their own abilities. They always ask us how we live, what we eat, what our daily routines are like, what cars we drive, and unlike what you may hear in the media, we are still the example of what is posssibe. I think when people have a chance to meet as individuals there is a big difference, as everyone sees how alike they really are at the core.

Even more Pics are up on Photobucket........

Shawn and i woke up and realized we hadn't set our clocks to Atlantic time (Sao Paulo is in the Atlantic time zone, one hour later than EST) so we were a tad late getting to the seminar. However, once we arrived, we were introduced to the ranking Lt. representing the Brazilian Military who welcomed us to Brazail and to the seminar. They actually have a protocol to turn "command" over the instructors, and so we did.

The facility that is hosting the seminar is a large agility center and boarding kennel, and from the street you woud never know how nice a place it was.....there was a full agility field, covered, and lined with astro-turf, and surrounding that pavillion were some training fields. There were swimming pools for the dogs, classroom area, grooming, boarding kennels, and plenty of parking. The owners were also very gracious and hospitable. The agility class was running in the morning when we got there, and I have to say they looked very competitive, and the training looked very tight.

Back to our gig...Seminar attendees wanted to learn how we train narcotics/explosives dogs at TK9 - so we spent the better part of the morning in classroom instruction, with a translator and a white board. We also had some attendees from Argentina so the English was translated into Portuguese, then Portuguese into Spanish.....but surprisingly it all went very well. The attendees all took detailed notes, and asked a number of questions at every hour break. There was a wide variety of experience among the attendees, as some were experienced trainers and some were new handlers.

Once the classroom was finished, we began working the dogs, and we tested a number of the dogs for detection, and the quality of the dogs was generally good. As is usual, they do too much obedience, and supress some of the dogs too much, so we explained how to build the dogs without taking the intensity out with too much obedience and making the dogs too "polite."

Lunch was had at a Cantina in Sao Paulo, buffet style, and we got to try a few new foods. Overall, the food has been delicious. And the hospitality has been tremendous. Both of our hosts Luiz Gabriel and Roberto Bautista, have seen to our needs and have been very gracious.

After lunch, we then ran a test of the more experienced trained dogs on 2 odors with distractor odors in the search area (they requested this, which I was happy to see). Here we saw many of the training issues that began with the young dogs. The handlers were not familiar with off leash searching at all(we tested in an agility ring so it was fenced off), and so they tired the dogs out in the large area with too much presentation and a lack of systematic search patterning. Many of the dogs did not have a strong alert, so the handlers talked the dogs into a number of alerts with Portuguese versions of "is it there?" and "what's that?" - one day a dog in a seminar is going to answer the handler with "Hell if I know, but it seems like you want me to alert right here, so here goes!"

We then showed them how to do independent search work, and the dogs all improved - the one lab danced around like an imbicile because he probably never had so much freedom - but he quickly came to his senses and performed well. It was hard for the handlers to not be involved, but standing back I think they could see their dogs' potential to search more efficiently and search independently.

Shawn then took one of the trained dogs and showed how to handle the dog, and flow in the pattern without stressing the dog or getting in his way, and the malinois performed nicely, and it seemed this helped them understand the handling aspect - The handler manages the search, and the dog does the search.

The day was finished with some work with green dogs, doing some basic drive building as the dogs were of medium intensity. All the dogs seemed to improve, and the participants had a lot of questions about how to proceed. We wrapped in the classroom with a quick summary, and some more questions.

In Brazil, Breakfast is at a normal hour, lunch also at about noon, however, dinner is customarily eaten at 10 or 11pm! By 9:30 pm our host Luiz Gabriel and his wife and daughter picked us up to take us to a big restaurant ... we arrived to one of the largest restaurants I have ever seen.....and the wait at 10:15 at night was estimated to be one and a half hours....we had a drink and decided to go elsewhere to a deli-style restaurant and has some Brasilian Pizza and Cheese-steaks....we had a chance to talk with Luiz Gabriel over dinner and discussed the seminar and how to proceed with the next two days.

On the way home we were informed that we would have a tour of the Military base, Federal Police Training K9 Center and we were going to be interviewed by Brazilian Television on wednesday......So far we are having a great time. I have never had to teach with a translator, and at times it was frustrating, not being able to say things exactly as i would to a US audience, but it has been an education in choosing my words carefully and being brief (not a strong point of mine) but complete in my teaching. At the end of the day i was exhausted, and Shawn was ready to get to the bitework where he will be more directly involved as the teaching helper for the attendees.

Shawn and I were 15 minutes eary to the seminar today.  The classroom was ready, although we still had some technical difficulties with the AV equipment (none available) which meant I had to lecture old school. We began with a discussion of Explosives recognition, and some of the newer advances in explosives training aids including NESTT, Scent-X (TATP & HMTD), and how we structured, specifically, the explosives training regimen. A lot of good questions followed the lecture, and we pressed on to the bitework.

As I began the lecture, discussing prey & defense drives, and drive channelling, one member of the class had some kind of objection to the theory - something to do with dogs don't go in defense in bitework - he was quite vociferous about it all....and then the entire class started arguing with one another about the veracity of what I said....never had such a thing happen in a seminar, so Shawn and I stepped out of the room, had some coffee while they continued to argue, and then when all calmed down, I tried to explain it again (was met with a disapproving look, again) and so I asked him if he had his dog with him (of course he did not) so instead we showed some video of Shawn doing a PSA style courage test, tried to relate a cop running after a suspect to a suspect fighting him for control of his weapon, etc to get the point accross thet defense is real and dogs experience it, and if they don't get trained in defense, they will more likely get run off a grip,

So we asked who had a dog thet could take the pressure seen on the video, and one guy from Argentina said his dog was very strong, so away we went to the agility field, moved some jumps and PSA in Brasil began. After Shawn ran the dog to a one tooth grip in the shoulder, the objections quieted, and we worked the rest of the dogs to introduce defense, teach drive channelling, and in some of the younger dogs, simple prey work, grip building, teaching the adjust, etc....

Lunch was called at about 12:40pm, and we adjourned to the Cantina for another lunch - some new stuff on the menu today (ribs, vegetable tempura, roast beef, abnd various rice preparations). After lunch we drove to the Brazilian equivalent of Costco (about 5 times bigger) and bought some DVDs so we could burn powerpoints, add pics and video clips to them, and that is what Shawn is doing now.

After lunch we discussed training skills of out and redirects, and demonstrated the out with a schutzhund dog who was having some out issues.....which we cleared up rather quickly. Nice solid black and red GSD and a very appreciative handler. We moved to the out with a couple other dogs, and then onto the redirects with the dogs from the Argentinian police. The dogs from Argentina were very powerful Malinois, big and strong, with very good fundamentals. Eartlier in the day we worked these dogs in the shoulder, PSA style, and they responded nicely, pushing into the grips, and moving with rather than against the helper. This afternoon, we  worked on the redirects, using both compulsion to work the out, and also with a couple other dogs, using only motivation to get them out. Some of the dogs with existing out issues, showed some improvement, but will certainly require more training to get the exercise. The exercise itself was well received and new to many.After re-directs we got a couple new people to decoy, one Brazilian and one Argentinian) - and both did very well.

We left re-directs to discuss a tactical application, felony vehicle stops & extractions, and there once again erupted an argument about tactics, cars were moved, bulletproof glass was mentioned, local laws in Sao Paulo that generally prohibit any apprehension bite save for one where the suspect pulls a gun to shoot an officer in plain view of that officer or another one. Once the dust settled we explained how it works in the USA, and they liked to see how we do things, even if they can't do it themselves.

The day ended with a short lecture on tracking by Jerry, and then the Brazilians did their version of a tactical perimetered night track. Unbeknownst to Shawn, they brought 3 dogs into the area, and he ended getting blinded by a flashlight and double dogged without any prior warning.....I guess the language barrier got the better of everyone. Shawn was unscathed. We left for showers at 7:30pm after starting a 9am sharp, so it was a very long day.

Oh, and during one of the coffee breaks, there was a Brasilian Jiu-Jitsu match with Shawn and one of the cops in attendance. Shawn won by tap out from an arm bar in about 10 seconds.......I was pretty impressed and the crowd of Brasilians was pretty shocked. Shawn was happy, it was a nice side note to his trip here.

We had an update on our press appearances (I say that tongue in cheek) but we will be going to the Federal Kennels in Diadema - SP Brasil. Evidently a car is being sent for us to go to the kennel for a tour, and then we will be interviewed by a local reporter. Still a possibility of a TV appearance on wednesday before we leave.

We miss our families, but this is a unique experience. There was talk of another trip in the fall to Rio de Janerio for a seminar for the local authorities in Rio in August of this year. Depending on how things go, maybe another return trip to Brazil.

 Photos are coming.....here is the URL of the photobucket folder where the pictures will be:

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

Shawn Edwards & I arrived in Sao Paulo Brazil this morning....9 hour plane ride from Washington Dulles. Weather is pretty mild, high 70s during the day, and showers in the afternoons.....city of 4 million people ... lots of traffic everywhere. Our host Luiz Gabriel of LGK9 picked us up at the airport and brought us to the hotel for some rest and a shower....then we went to a real Brazillian Churriscaria Barbecue a la Fogo de Chao for dinner.

Tomorrow we go to the Military base in the morning to set up for the detection portion of the seminar. There are 40 people registered for the seminar, coming from the Brazilian Military & Federal Police and from Argentine Military and from Chilean Military. We meet with our translator Roberto tonight to go over the details, and tomorrow we let it rip!

I will post pics here as soon as we get them.......

Just a quick wrap up......Ft. Belvoir Patrol Seminar...Dave Colborn and I did a 3 day patrol seminar for the military at Ft. Belvoir - handlers from Belvoir and Ft. Meyer were represented, with about 13 teams all together....both lecture and practical work....we introduced some new techniques for Human Focused Aggression training and redirects....as well as shared some new techniques on the standoff exercise for them to incorporate into training. A lot of time was spent on fundamentals of alert training, passive apprehensions, and civil aggression work.

The HITS conference was a big success as well. TK9 Head Trainer Janet Dooley and I attended, and we had a chance to see some of the TK9 handlers and customers who were attending and spend some time developing new relationships with potential clients at other police agencies.

Jerry presented on "The Power of Reward" to 2 classes, one on tuesday afternoon and one on Wednesday afternoon. We had a great response to the material which covered integrating reward methods into obedience training to improve controil and K9 handler relationship in general. The talk then covered using reward methodologies in the control exercises for aggression  work in out training, developing more reliable recalls and outs (guard and returns) and redirects....

We had an excellent time and also had the opportunity to learn some new things as well to incorporate in our training programs.....

Last week Tarheel Canine hosted Dr. Terry Fleck for a K9 legal update in Baltimore, MD. We attracted close to 60 participants from NY, NJ, PA, MD, DE, VA and NC including handlers, supervisors and a state's attorney.  If you haven't been to a legal update, make arrangements to do so. Not only are the most recent federal cases discussed, but Terry also does research on state case law for the state in which the seminar is held.

I think one of the biggest eye-openers of the seminar for anyone who hasn't been to one before is how the legalities of K9 usage need to impact training. Issues in patrol work such as:  how announcements are given, when such announcements are given during a tactical operation, what kinds of methods should be used in training building searches (as in clear, down and cover which we teach at Tarheel Canine), and where the dog is TARGETED to grip in an apprehension. There will be a blog post on here shortly to discuss both the training and legal reasons why targeting should absolutely be taught, and police dogs should not be taught or encouraged to bite just "anywhere," despite the loads of conventional wisdom to the contrary, and active instruction to the contrary.

I want to thank Terry for his knowledge, insight, and expertise and if you haven't had a chance to work with Terry, visit his website and make contact with him. www.k9fleck.org he will be retiring from his work in 2012 - so take advantage of his expertise while you can.

Tarheel Canine welcomes agencies from around the east coast to the Terry Fleck Legal Update seminar in Baltimore, MD tomorrow at the Ramada Inn at the BWI airport.

Schedule your legal update with Terry Fleck at www.k9fleck.org

Terry Fleck’s K9 Legal Update

March 11, 2009

Baltimore, MD

Presenter: Terry Fleck, Sheriff’s Deputy II, El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department, CA

www.k9fleck.org

This seminar is presented by Terry Fleck, deputy sheriff and canine handler (retired) and author of the Canine Legal Update and Opinions for supervisors and administrators plus patrol, narcotic and contraband, explosives, tracking, search and rescue and accelerant dog teams. This seminar has been taught nationwide to over 21,000 students. Praised for reducing canine unit liability and increasing K-9 officer safety, this seminar has been updated and is now available.

This one day course will address the following issues:

• Canine deployment issues
• Canine policy
• Report writing
• Handler compensation Issues
• Accidental bites
• Canines as a less-lethal force
• Extensive case law on canine applications
• Canine training
• Vicarious liability issues
• Narcotic and contraband canine case law
• Explosive canine case law
• Tracking canine case law

The course will address the legal issues of canine usage, canine tactics, and the prevention of litigation.

TERRY FLECK

Deputy Sheriff II / Canine Handler (Ret.)

South Lake Tahoe, California

Terry Fleck, Ed.D, is a Deputy Sheriff II / Canine Handler (retired) in South Lake Tahoe, California. Terry has been in law enforcement for 27 years and has been involved with police dogs during that time. Terry has been a police dog handler and trainer for 26 years and has trained and handled three police dogs, patrol dogs cross-trained for search and rescue, narcotic detection, evidence recovery, cadaver recovery, avalanche recovery and tracking / trailing.

Terry is an expert in canine legalities. Author of the Canine Legal Update and Opinions for supervisors & administrators plus patrol, narcotic & contraband, explosive, tracking, search & rescue and accelerant dogs, Terry tracks and updates the canine industry on current case law and legal trends.

With a degree of Doctor of Education in Criminal Justice, Terry teaches Canine Legal Update and Opinions Seminars throughout the United States and Canada. He has taught over 21,000 canine handlers, supervisors, administrators, agency attorneys, prosecuting attorneys and risk managers nationwide. His classes focus on canine legalities, the prevention of canine litigation and canine tactics.

Terry is also an expert in canine tactics. He studies canine tactics and develops techniques to keep canine handlers safe, utilizing their dogs to maximum tactical advantage. In addition, Terry teaches several canine tactical seminars, including Defensive Tactics for K-9 teams, Tactical High Risk K-9 Tracking, High Risk Vehicle Stops and High Risk Vehicle Assaults with a K-9 Team, Chemical Munitions Deployment with a K-9 Team and Tactical Handgun and Urban Rifle Techniques for K-9 Teams.

Legal Update Registration Form.

Send to: Tarheel Canine Training, Inc., Legal Update Registration, PO Box 1694, Sanford, NC 27330. For any questions, please call Jerry Bradshaw at 919-774-4152 or 919-244-8044. See below for the schedule of events on March 11, 2009. This seminar is limited to Law Enforcement Personnel ONLY. Pre-registration is required by March 4, 2009.

Name _________________________________________________________________

Rank __________________________________________________________________

Agency Affiliation _______________________________________________________

Address ___________________________________ State__________ Zip ____________

Tel # ____________________ (C) ____________________ (W)

E-Mail_____________________________________________

The Seminar Fee $175, and includes a catered lunch.

Make Checks Payable to Tarheel Canine Training, Inc.

Tarheel Canine Training also accepts, Purchase Orders, Visa, MC, Amex & Discover.

To pay by credit card please call Jerry Bradshaw at 919-244-8044.

Return Registration Form & Seminar Fee of $175 to:

Tarheel Canine Training, Inc.

Legal Update Seminar Registration

PO Box 1694, Sanford, NC 27330.

 ____________________________________________________________________ 

Ramada Inn, BWI Airport

7253 Parkway drive

Hanover, MD 21076

www.bwiramada.com/index.htm

Hotel Rooms are blocked for overnight stays before and after the conference until 2 weeks prior to the seminar. Please contact the hotel directly and ask for the K9 Legal Update Seminar rate.

Schedule

Date: March 11, 2009

Time: 8am – 5pm (Check-in starting at 7am) Lunch from 12:00pm – 1:00pm

Location: Ramada BWI Airport, 7253 Parkway Drive, Hanover MD 21076

Rooms: $99 includes continental breakfast

Phone: 410-712-4300

Fax: 410-712-0921

Cost: $175 includes all materials and a full catered lunch.

Pre-registration is required by March 4, 2009

*Limited Capacity*

Questions/Contact:

Jerry Bradshaw

Tarheel Canine Training, Inc.

Malinois_jb@mindspring.com

Tel. 919-244-8044 (cell)

Fax. 443-817-0761

Seminar is classroom only. Please, no dogs in classroom.

Kingsport TN........

I couldn't be happier with how the two decoy seminars went off. The TN group was interested and attentive, despite the frigid single digit temps....thank god for the building at the Ammo Plant!

Overall, a lot of well selected high quality dog, some were just in an academy and some were on the road for some time. Many of the usual issues with strong dogs - which we dealt with by using a balanced approach of reward and compulsion, with emphasis on the reward component. Many attendees were amazed by how much this one simple change mattered in getting these strong dogs to come around to releasing and calling off.

Attendees had a lot of opportunity to jump in and learn how to get their dogs releasing quicker, redirecting, and calling off. We also emphasized civil aggressin, and using the decoy as an instrument of operant conditioning in training the building search alerts.....

Thanks to Kingsport PD and Randall Gore and Kevin Hite especially for their hospitality.

Wedstwego LA.....Det. Sgt. Shawn Edwards accompanied me as a co-instructor. Great hospitality and amazing food was a highlight of this trip.

Another great group of people who were receptive to some new ideas, and some new takes on some familiar training procedures. With this group we emphasized human focused aggression, and developing the dogs defensive side to bring out aggression on passive subjects.....

There were also a number of well trained dogs that by having the decoys learn some new skills such as out techniques, and redirects and call off drills, showed marked improvement in how they performed....

Special thanks to Ronell Mason of Westwego and Mike Davis as well for their hospitality. Look forward to coming back to Louisiana for more training.

Tarheel Canine Training Inc – Police K9 Decoy Seminar

Jerry Bradshaw, Tarheel Canine Training Inc., Instructor

Kingsport Police Department

 Please wear comfortable athletic clothing that you would normally decoy in. I recommend wearing cleats or duty boots for outdoor work, and sneakers or duty boots for indoor work. Please bring water and keep hydrated. If you have your own suit, bring it with you. Thursday and Friday will be COLD! Dress warmly.

Wednesday January 14, 2009

7:30am – Meet & Coffee

8:00am – Introduction & Foundation Theory

9:30am – 12:30pm - Field Work –Training Area - Outside

·         Equipment Orientation

·         Decoy’s Goals (Bite Mechanics, Searching, Independence)

·         Working in the Sleeve - Safety & Mechanics (no dogs)

·         Working in the Suit – Safety & Mechanics (no dogs)

·         Working in the Hidden Sleeve – Safety & Mechanics (no dogs)

·         Working in the Sleeve – Catch Mechanics & Drives

·         Working in the Suit – Catch Mechanics & Drives

·         Working in the Hidden Sleeve – Catch Mechanics & Drives

12:30am – 1:00pm – Lunch Break (Eat Lightly)

1:00pm – 3:30pm - Field Work – K9 Unit Training Area

·         Continuation of Mechanics (Sleeve, Suit, Hidden Sleeve)

·         Decoying Skills – Passive bites (suit)

·         Decoying Skills – Out on Command (out/guard )

3:30pm – 4:30pm – Debrief – Conference Room K9 Unit Training Area

4:30pm – 5:00pm – Clean up and Dismissal

January 15 2009

7:30am – Meet & Coffee

8:00am – Theory: Human Focused Aggression & Decoying Search Skills

9:30am – 12:30pm - Field Work – K9 Unit Training Area - Outside

·         Civil Aggression

·         Human Orientation – Decoy Mechanics (sleeve, suit, hidden sleeve)

·         Human Orientation – Muzzle Work

·         Search Skills – Area Searches

12:30am – 1:00pm – Lunch Break (Eat Lightly)

1:00pm – 2:00pm - Theory: Redirects, Out & Return & Call-offs – Classroom

2:00pm – 4:30pm - Field Work – Building (TBA)

·         Decoying Skills – Redirects (suit)

·         Decoying Skills - Out & Returns (suit)

·         Decoying Skills – Call-offs (suit)

·         Injecting skills training into scenarios

4:30pm – 5pm – Debrief – Classroom

5:00pm – 5:30pm – Clean up and Dismissal

January 16 2009

7:30am – Meet & Coffee

8:00am – Theory: Decoying Scenarios & Integrating Key Skills – Back Chaining

9:30am – 12:30pm - Field Work – Building Search – Building (TBA)

·         Building Search Decoy Techniques

·         Building Search & Passive Bites with Human Orientation & Out Training

12:30am – 1:00pm – Lunch Break (Eat Lightly)

1:00pm – 2:00pm - Theory: Redirects, Out & Return & Call-offs – Classroom

2:00pm – 4:30pm - Field Work – Outside

·         Jump & Run Scenarios

·         Felony Vehicle Stop Scenarios (permitting)

·         Area Search with Human orientation

·         Remediation Issues

4:30pm – 5pm – Debrief – Classroom

5:00pm – 5:30pm – Clean up and Dismissal

Any other questions, please contact Jerry Bradshaw, 919-244-8044.

The Decoy School is full for Kingsport TN and I look forward to seeing all of you that are registered there. Please note, I got this email from the host:

Jerry,

Just thought I’d let you know that the weather service is calling for really cold temps. Thurs. and  Friday (highs in the mid to upper 20s and lows in the single digits to teens). Didn’t know if you’d want to send something out to the folks coming from out of state letting them know to bring some warm clothes.

Thanks,

Randall

So, bring your long Johns!!

Looking forward to seeing you all there! I will post a schedule for the seminar on this blog tomorrow before I leave to Kingsport.

The following seminar dates have been set up. For more information email Jerry Bradshaw at malinois_jb@mindspring.com

January 2009

Police K9 Decoy Seminar - Kingsport TN - January 14, 15, 16 2009

Police K9 Decoy Seminar - Westwego Louisiana (New Orleans) - January 21, 22, 23 2009

February 2009

Law Dog Conference - Las Vegas NV - February 23 - 26 2009 (TK9 will attend as a vendor)

March 2009

K9 Legal Update Seminar with Terry Fleck - Baltimore MD - March 11, 2009

Police K9 Decoy Seminar - Montgomery TWP PA (Philadelphia) - March 24, 25, 26 2009

April 2009

Police K9 Magazine HITS Conference - April 20 - 23 2009 (www.policek9magazine.com) - Jerry will speak on "The Power of Reward" in Police K9 Training.

Military and Police K9 Seminar - LGK9 Sao Paulo Brazil - April 25-28 2009 ( www.lgk9brazil.com.br )

May 2009

Police K9 Decoy Seminar - Paducah KY - Elite K9 Sponsor - Date TBA (www.elitek9.com)

Summer 2009

Police K9 Seminar - National Association of Security Dog Users of Australia (NASDU) - Date TBA www.nasdu.com.au

If your agency is interested in a seminar, please contact Jerry Bradshaw at malinois_jb@mindspring.com Seminar slots for the hosting agency are free, and there is minimal cost to hosting a seminar on Police K9 Decoy, High Risk Deployments, Advanced Detection, or using E-Collar for Ultimate Performance. Jerry is also available for custom designed seminars.

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!

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.

There are a number of upcoming events sponsored directly by TK9 or in association with TK9.

Police Dog Events

We have a number of exciting police dog events coming up in the next 6 months. First, we will be holding Police K9 decoy seminars in Baltimore MD and Kingsport TN. Our decoy seminars are geared toward teaching decoys more than just the mechanics of proper decoy work, but teaching decoys how to properly function as the reward mechanism for the dog, so they learn improved techniques for training building and area searches, out on command, call-offs and the like. Decoys learn how to catch in the front, in the legs and how to train equipment orientation out of the dog - any dog!

We also have a seminar with Brad Smit of the West Covina police department, and Canine Tac Ops. The CATS school will be run in december, also in Baltimore, and will be geared toward high risk patrol operations with the patrol K9. http://www.k9tacops.com/index.asp

Finally in March 2009, Terry Fleck will join us in Baltimore for a K9 Legal update course. http://www.k9fleck.org/ Terry's course is excellent, and the standard for Legal update in detection, Patrol and tracking. If you are due for a legal update, the March class will bring you current.

If anyone needs registration information for any of the upcoming classes, please contact Jerry Bradshaw at malinois_jb@mindspring.com

Event Dates:

October 6, 7 & 8: Police K9 Decoy Seminar, Baltimore MD.

October 22, 23 & 24: Police K9 Decoy Seminar, Kingsport TN

December 7,8 & 9: CATS Tactical School with Brad Smith, NASA Greenbelt MD

March 11, 2009: Terry Fleck Legal Update Seminar, Baltimore MD

Just back from the Law Dog 2008 Police K9 Conference in Las Vegas. This was my second year participating as a presenter, and the second year I had the opportunity to meet an excellent group of speakers and attendees.

Highlights for me were the opportunity to see Stewart Hilliard, Ph.D. who is currently the Chief of MWD Course, DOD Lackland. Stewart came to Tarheel Canine twice for seminars about 4 or so years ago, one for my staff and some outside attendees, and once to teach with me for the K9 Unit at Ft. Bragg, NC. It was a great opportunity for us to catch up with each other, and it was great to see him. In Las Vegas, Stewart spoke on "Out Problems" as well as PSD selection testing. As usual he gave a thorough treatment of the behavioral foundations of out problems, and how to remedy them. He presented video of the numerous dogs he has had the opportunity to work with in the DOD courses he has conducted over the last few years. If you have a chance to get to a seminar by Stewart Hilliard, do it. There is nobody more knowledgable about dog training theory and its practice. In addition, he is a great teacher.

I also had the opportunity to meet Steve White of the  Seattle PD K9 Unit., and I2IK9 (www.i2ik9.com)  He gave an excellent presentation on training techniques for Hard Surface/Urban Tracking. Steve uses positive reinforcement methods to teach tracking on hard surfaces, article search , and many other police dog skills. Steve and his wife Jennifer White are passionate trainers, and very nice people. I am glad to have had the opportuity to meet them both, and look forward to interacting with them both personally and professionally in the coming years.

I also want to take the opportunity to thank the seminar participants who came to my presentation titled, "The Misapplication of Force in Police Dog Training." The goal of my talk was to convince listeners to look first to positive reinforcement in teaching new concepts in training, before teaching with negative reinforcement techniques. I covered four examples where force is traditionally used, and in my opinion, often creates more problems than it solves. The examples I used were: Handler Aggression, Obedience Training, Out on Command, and the Call-Off (Recall) exercise.

In my recently released manual, "Controlled Aggression in Theory & Practice," (available at www.tarheelcanine.com) I cover in detail, the approaches to training obedience, out, and the call-off to achieve better results by emphasizing motivation and reward balance in training, and that reward is essential in building a proper foundation for learning, and to limit  stress and the cross-over effects of stress. In my talk I explained new and different approaches to dealing with handler aggressive dogs to achieve better results and a better relationship, where this kind of behavior doesn't interfere in the effecient use of K9 resources.

I came away from this meeting noting that K9 handlers are hungry for more information to use in their training. I also came to see that many of the handlers who came to this conference are willing to see beyond what they may have been taught in the past, and be open to new ideas. I applaud those of you who came, learned, and will go back to your units and enrich the training experience of your K9s.

I want to thank Danny King, Invictus Tactical, for putting on an excellent event in Las Vegas. Go to www.invictustactical.com for more information on the Law Dog conference, and to get ready for 2009!

Two years ago, the National tactical Police Dog Association Inc. (NTPDA) was founded as an organization designed to provide real-world training certifications as well as a platform for relaying new information on training and deployment to K9 handlers and civilians in the police dog business.  Please look at the website, www.tacticalcanine.com in the coming weeks, to see the new certification standards, and to see the new Accreditation Process for Training Facilities (all facilities not just police K9 facilities). Also, look at the upcoming events for seminars. NTPDA will keep costs for ongoing education low (average of $40 for a three day seminar per K9 team!).  There are a lot of new member benefits aside from accreditation and low cost seminars, such as a new discussion board for members, and discounts from K9 retaillers for members.

Jerry Bradshaw

I am off to Las Vegas to present a seminar at the Invictus Tactical Law Dog 2008 Seminar at the Tuscany Hotel & Casino. This will be my second consecutive appearance at the seminar. Last year was an excellent opportunity to learn cutting edge information in our field, and to network with other K9 professionals.

Last year I presented on the topic of "Resolving Behavior Issues in Police K9s" & This year I will be presenting on the topic: "The Misapplication of Force in Police K9 Training."  

This presentation will discuss the application and misapplication of compulsion in police K9 training by using the examples of the misapplication of force in specific training situations including: dominance/rank issues, general obedience/behavior problems, out on command, and the recall (or call off).

 Alternative ways to achieve training goals will be discussed, including proper application of punishment and negative reinforcement, the balancing of reward/compulsion, proper methods for de-conditioning rank and other behavior problems, and improved methods for teaching control commands such as the out and recall commands that minimize conflict and speed the acquisition of desired training goals.

I will have copies of the training manual, "Controlled Aggression" (see post below) as well as pre-prepared copies of both last year's and this year's power point presentations on presentation CDs.

I look forward to participating. For more information on the seminar, click on:

http://invictustactical.com/flyer.html

See you in Vegas.....