I just finished reading your book and had a couple of questions for you regarding some of the techniques you described. First it was a great read and I really enjoyed it and I am definitely recommending it!
Countering Techniques:
Pushing the Head.
Do you find that this technique develops a dependency? I have only seen it used by a few trainers but I have found in most that use it their dog's either only counter when their handler uses this technique or counter when they seem to anticipate this (ie the handler coming up the line and moving towards the collar or neck...much like the anticipation or dependency of a choke off.). I would imagine this would be most useful when part of a decoy's repertoire to first teach a reluctant dog to counter but if over done it may lead to a dependency or if only used in rare form to keep from developing a dependency? Do you find any conflict for the dog that has needed a method of induced gag reflex to teach the out? Just curious on your thoughts and experience with this.
Jaw Manipulation.
From your description this technique sounds a lot like implementing a traditional forced-retrieve method to bitework. Is that essentially what it breaks down to and how much repetition do you find is required with this method? Is this something you only use from time to time or does this method have a starting and end point (ie a "finished" retrieve)? Also curious if there is a rate of dependency with this method?
After reading your book and watching more KNPV footage I have been wanting to ask someone why the KNPV Decoys do their face attack as they do?
It looks as though they absorb the hit and pretty much jam the dog every time. I have little experience with KNPV other then videos etc. but was curious what your thoughts are on this decoy approach in trial.
Answer:
Good questions. I think with almost all techniques for countering, there is some kind of physical cue from the decoy/handler (stillness, setting the sleeve parallel to ground or perpendicular, pushing the head, etc) that preceeds the actual physical counter, which is then rewarded. This is why we use the "walking backwards" technique to get the dog to push himself into the grip with the helper doing a natural movement, walking. This is done in conjunction with the head push, and so the dog learns to push in on his own. Also, doing it after a drive, so the drive becomes a cue for the adjust, allows the dog to learn to push both in prey and defense on his own. In the case of how I work dogs, mostly the dog cues on being set down to re-grip (the head push somewhat secondary) and that is easy to fix, using successive approximation, and voila the dog regrips on his own. In PSA and KNPV or Police work, a "pulsing" grip isn't penalized as it is in schutzhund so our dogs tend to constandly drive into the grip while biting, and this is often a more natural bite for a malinois, instead of getting munchy sideways, they drive in to release some of their frustration.......if decoyed properly you eliminate the help from decoy and handler on the adjust and then reward it when it happens on its own......aghain a successive approximation technique at work. I also use the stick over the head, hooking on the back of the neck, and pulling the dog into the grip with the stick itself, so that the dog cues to come into the grip from the stick motion.....
You are right, that it can be over done, and the dog comes to rely on the handler helping the grip, which is also why we have the decoy, handler, and often a 3rd party who may be working the out line, do it as well, as with police dogs, there can be multiple people over the dog during an arrest. This deconditions the dog to this kind of behavior as well.
The Jaw manipulation technique is not one I prefer, but i have seen it used a lot in Belgium with different dogs, and yes, there will come a time when the dog learns that poor grip position is uncomfortable relatiuve to good grip position, but it is a technique that has to be used carefully. I have seen it used a lot on Malinois puppies at a young age, but again by experienced people. The same thing can be done as described above, you slowly eliminate the assistance from the helper, and reward adjustment when it comes without help, and the dog will do it on his own.
The KNPV is a traditional sport, and the decoy work in a trial has been done that way forever - it is often described as Gladitorial. Because the dog bites in the bicep, the jam isn't as bad as it could be, but you won't see the decoys spinning the dogs. If a dog knocks down a decoy on a trial exercise, the dog automatically gets full points, so the decoys fight against falling down (easier to do if you are spinning the dog on the hit - falling that is). If that rule was eliminated, there would be fewer jams, since the cost of falling would be eliminated, but as well, handlers select big powerful dogs to try to take the decoys down, and that is what people like about KNPV....not so much the points byt the strong bullies the KNPV produces....
I had an interesting question come up in a conversation the other day. A police department has a dual purpose dog (narcotics/patrol) and the handler left the department. It is a small agency so the only one willing to take the dog was a narcotics officer, who doesn;t have the need or the time available to maintain the patrol functions in the dog. He is only interested in the narcotics detection and the tracking functions.
His question was: "If I just recertify with him in the drugs and tracking, does that present any liability issues to the agency?"
My answer was, yes it does. Case law argues that a K9 must be trained, certified and reliable. Allowing any training to lapse presents a problem, but especially the apprehension training should not lapse. Because the dog was trained to apprehend and bite in a controlled fashion, allowing the training to lapse, as well as the certification, opens the handler to liability for not making sure the dog responds to all of his verbal commands properly. If the dog makes an accidental bite it could be argued that the impetus was the lack of control due to lapsed training, making a bad situation (accidental bite) worse by turning it into negligence. Further, if the supervisor allows this situation to occur, there is the possibility of a negligent supervision claim. Therefore, my answer was for the handler either to retire the dog, find another handler for him and get himself another dog for narcotics only, or continue all of the training with the dog and certify in all areas with him.
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.
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.
This article is meant to get you to think about your training, and is not a how-to or fix-it article, but one meant to get you to think about what you would do to make more out of your training time. I will expand the article in the near future to cover the remedies for these problems outlined below.
Recently at a police K9 decoy seminar I spoke to the decoys about how to organize their inservice training time more efficiently. I asked them how they set up their building search training, and as usual, during an an service day a building search scenario is set up and the dog is sent into the building and it is "one and done."
I asked them to think about how a building search is broken down: (1) Taking the Start (2) Searching and Locating the Subject and (3) Indicating that Location. Then I asked them how many times they ever, in training after their academy, separated out the 3 components and trained each one of them with sufficient repetitions to allow the dog to actually improve in either one of the areas.
When approached in this way, you can actually set up training to make progress, but only if you work repeatedly on the same concept, instead of always training the whole. One exercise which incorporates one repetition of all three components does little to help improve any one of the individual skills.
Supose your dog takes the start poorly, perhaps goes in the building after you release him with little enthusiasm, or in fact gets confused and shows a behavior like searching for narcotics, or he looks to the handler to help him out. The typical remedy is to show him the decoy, and then send him in, but this creates a dependency on what we call "hot" starts, where the dog associates the behavior with the visual or auditory stimulation of the decoy. This is necessary initially in developing the behavior, but must be faded out of the cue for the start before we can say we have a finished exercise. Once the decoy appears the dog may search with enthusiasm and locate and indicate well. But this is moot if the start doesn't go well. The answer is that you must train his start, to be sure that each time you deploy, he is in the right frame of mind. You need exercises to improve how he takes the start, because if he can't take a cold start (by cold I mean without any stimulation, as he would for a hidden subject) it doesn't matter how well he searches or locates or indicates. This training requires repetitions, and needs to be separated out of the rest of the building search and trained with sufficient repetition to develop a solid and reliable behavior.
The same can be said about tracking. I have seen a number of dogs that, once on the track, track well, and locate their subject easily, however, they have a hard time actually casting and locating the track. This, taking a cold start on a track, or taking a cold start on a building search for that matter, is a skill unto itself that needs to be developed.
Now, expand how you think about your building search training to include the other two areas: Searching and Indication. Many dogs I see usually have one part of the whole that is weaker than the others. This is normal for any K9 team. If this is the case you need to get multiple repetitions on the weak link in order to develop the entire skill.
One of the biggest issues in police dog training is how the dog handles surprise attacks. If you are a police officer, you can know intellectually if you go into a particular place under a particular set of circumstances, that a surprise attack may be likely on your person, so you mentally and physically can gear up for the possibility prior to entering the situation. Unfortunately, too often, we assume our dogs should just “be ready” for such an eventuality if they have sufficient “courage.” They don’t have the benefit of our intellectual ability, so they rely on previous experience just like we make logical assessments. The problem is, a dog can get caught in the wrong frame of mind, and his defense mechanism might shift him into avoidance if he is not prepared in training. Too many dogs can get caught off-guard in a surprise attack scenario because they have not been properly prepared for it. Foundation training should include proper defense training basics, so the dog is capable of dealing with threat by becoming aggressive, but sometimes we forget to actually train a young the dog to deal with the shock of a surprise attack, even though he is courageous. As a police dog matures, he becomes familiar with contexts through his experience, such as dark buildings and area searches at night, where he may be taken by surprise, and the conditioning he has had to these situations in the past gear him up mentally prior to being deployed. However, a young dog straight out of the training academy needs continued training in these situations. Too often inexperienced trainers do a “let’s see what happens” and they do a surprise attack on a dog doing a search exercise in a dark room with slick floors, and on top of it they also throw some strange object at the dog or threaten him with it. The dog shows hesitation and maybe doesn’t engage and goes into a displacement mode (see Controlled Aggression by the author for an explanation of defense training and channeling methods: http://www.lulu.com/content/2317473), and the conclusion is drawn that the dog is perhaps not courageous. You can’t draw reasonable conclusions from bad training.
The surprise attack defense should be trained in a systematic progression. It doesn’t take very long at all for the dog to generalize to any situation and any distraction if a systematic approach is taken in the beginning. Behaviorally, we are simply trying to de-condition the dog to the surprise attack (suppress the startle reflex) first. Then, during the catch and drive, distractions can be introduced, that have already been trained in a more controlled situation, like on a back tie. Thus when the dog sees these on the surprise attack, he should be well used to them. These environmental distractions include: jugs of water, jugs with pennies or stones in them, sticks, large objects, water hoses, etc. The basic training progression I like to use can be employed as follows:
(1)Place the dog in a sit stay away (20’) from a hiding place, handler at the dog’s side, holding the dog on leash on an agitation collar. The decoy jumps out and agitates defensively, fades away from the dog and the dog is released into the grip. Decoy works the dog in channeling multiples before the dog is disengaged.
(2)Place the dog in a sit stay closer to the hiding place, decoy jumps out and agitates defensively, send dog earlier and earlier until the dog is being sent on the decoy standing still (not fading) but still agitating defensively. Be sure to change contexts often in the beginning so he knows that surprise attacks can come anywhere, and he is being set up for success.
(3)Place the dog in a sit stay away (20’) from the hiding place, decoy jumps out agitating defensively, slowly charging the dog, release the dog on the approach of the decoy. Decoy catches the dog and works in prey first. Decoy works the dog in channeling multiples before the dog is disengaged.
(4)Place the dog in a sit stay closer to the hiding place, decoy jumps out and quickly charges the dog defensively, dog is released ever closer to the decoy as he approaches. Decoy catches the dog and works the dog into a defensive drive after the catch. Slowly integrate the distractions in the drive, and variably increase the intensity and duration of the defensive drives. Decoy works the dog in channeling multiples before the dog is disengaged.
(5)Place the dog close to a hiding place, decoy charges the dog from the front, from behind, or the side, dog is allowed to release on his own into the charging decoy. The decoy works the dog in ever-stronger defensive drives (variable in intensity and duration over time), then proceeds into prey and channeling multiples before the dog is disengaged.
(6)If the dog can heel, heel around, and once in a while, have the attack come during heeling. Practice heeling past familiar hiding places with no handler attack. If you do too many handler attacks from heeling, the dog will anticipate the attacks and want to go to the hiding place and break heel position.
(7)Put the dog into search scenarios only when he is dealing with surprise attacks powerfully without searching. Then do simple search problems and lower the surprise intensity somewhat as we are introducing a new variable. Variably increase the attack intensity, and increase the difficulty of the search problems.
This kind of handler defense exercise will make the dog very alert to his surroundings. It is critical that the dog begin to be exposed to environments that are more stressful than his regular training area. For police dogs, these exercises should be done in and around buildings, parking lots, in dark rooms and in tight places, and these places should be introduced early in the process and varied a lot while you are still fading from the initial attacks. Attacks from behind doors will also get the dog used to looking around doorways for threats, and is a good initial step before teaching formal building searches if you haven’t already done that yet.
It is critical to remember, that if you change the dog’s environment that will add its own defensive pressure, and you will be working with somewhat less of a defensive margin. The decoy should be aware to read the dog’s body and grip, and work to increase the dog’s confidence in these exercises, and the general defensive pressure builds up in scenario-based exercises. As a rule of thumb, always expect that the dog will likely have a problem, so you as the handler and/or decoy are prepared if the dog shows difficulty handling the defensive pressure of these scenarios, and you can slide into prey, or drop to the ground during the fight to increase the dogs confidence. A poor decoy will just keep on coming and cause terrible damage to a young dog in training. Use an experienced decoy who can read a dog and make adjustments. Be sure to discuss the training scenario before actually doing it, and discuss what might go wrong, and what the decoy is to do if something does go wrong. This is pre-planning.
When catching the dog in the handler attack, decoys should be careful not to position their hands too close to the target area. There should be an opening for the dog to come to the shoulder (if you train inside bites), especially when first training the dog with fades. The dog’s momentum will initiate the decoy to absorb the dog, and the decoy should not spin the shoulder away from the dog as he enters.
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.
Over the next few posts I want to discuss 5 New Year’s Resolutions for Police Dog Training. Today I will discuss the first two:
Establish Goals
Break Down Training into Steps
Train from the result to the start (Back Chaining)
Anticipate Outcomes and set up for success
Use more Reward, and Compel Efficiently
Establish Goals
Too many police dog handlers fail to establish goals, whether for a training session they are about to begin, or for a more medium term goal such as the dog indicating on a high find deep in a building on a building search. As a handler you need to take control of your training program and understand why you are doing a particular exercise in a particular way. You should set up training to achieve specific, defined goals. Don’t just set out drug hides to run the dog on without regard for difficulty or objectives you may have in training. In every session you should be working on particular skills, such as the alert, or the searching behavior, or ignoring distractions you set up such as food or novel odors to proof the dog’s odor recognition. Training record forms set us up for lazy training: We fill in drug odors and amounts, and rate performance. Don’t confuse your records with training goals. Know what your dog needs to improve upon, and note it in the narratives, and then set up training to directly address those weaknesses. Set up training to reinforce strengths as well. You should be able to state your training goals with your dog for every skill set he possesses at any time. If you can’t do that, start thinking about it so that you can. Write down everything you want your dog to be capable of doing (within reason) and set those as long term goals. Then decide how to break each goal into a set of manageable training steps you can consistently train.
Break Down Training into Small Steps
Let’s say a dog has an issue you are addressing in training. Say the dog is having trouble with the bark alert in the building search. If the alert is the problem, we need repetition of the alert to train and condition the response we want. So set up your session to address that specific issue. Having the dog search a giant building for one alert opportunity is inefficient and lacks focus, and is poor training planning because it fails to break down the training to focus on the issue your dog needs to have addressed. A simple search problem which will not tire the dog out and an easy find is what we want to create so we can concentrate on training the alert behavior. As the alert behavior becomes a habit, we can slowly make the search problem more complex, and if the alert maintains, we add further complexity. I hear so many times how handlers have been “working hard” on an issue and the dog isn’t responding, but working hard and working smart are two different things. You can dig a ditch with an icepick, and yes, you will work hard at it and it will take a lot of time. Training must be goal oriented, and the session must be focused to achieve those goals, and this is accomplished by breaking the problems down into small manageable concepts and training in a progression, step by step.
Question: I just certified my new dog, he is the third dog I have worked in my 16 years as a handler. The dog is a 3 year old imported German Sheperd that was sold to us a titled dog. I really do not know what he was titled in but he obviously had prior training. Overall he is doing well but he has an annoying trait I cannot seem to correct. When he heals he wraps himself around my leg and looks up at me, to the point it is hard to walk without tripping over him. I know in some sport dog circles this is desired, but I think a police dog should heel next to the handler paying attention to what’s in front of him. I have had him 7 months and have not been able to break this. Any ideas?
Answer: This is one of those behaviors that is heavily ingrained in an IPO or Schutzhund dog, and is called an attention or focused heel and is part of the rules of that sport. Police officers don’t tend to like it because of the crowding, or because they are not used to it. I submit to you, however, that in many circumstances you can probably work around distractions much better than many of your counterparts who don’t have an attention heel. Example: You arrive on a scene that has a number of people making loud gestures and screaming and crying. Having an attention heel, when your dog gets out of the car you can keep him from loading on these people. They may be loud and seemingly aggressive, although non threatening, but you can focus him on you and keep him from alerting unnecessarily. In my estimation it is a very handy behavior. Since you have your dog’s attention, if you want him to focus outwardly, all you really have to do is hold his line or collar, and give his alert command, right?
Basically you need to reward the behavior you want, which is positional correctness (by your leg) but looking forward, and reward him when he looks forward (variably) by sending him to bite. Don’t reward him for looking at you ever again with praise or touching, or looking in his eyes. If you really want to get rid of the behavior, here is what you can do:
1)Do obedience with decoys in the suit walking around you all the time. He will want to look away and look at the decoys, when he does, enforce position but not attention, and variably send him to the decoy for a relatively passive bite. This will get him dropping his head in anticipation of the coming send.
2)Train away from the usual place you do obedience, especially if that is a field environment (what he is used to from Europe when he does an attention heel). When you start heeling, have people surprise attack you, or set him up on someone using your alert command. Do this in deployment context, with decoys jumping from behind cars, and out of alleys.
3)Do a lot of rear transports, where the decoy will walk ahead of you and then run from you or turn and attack you with the dog in heel position. As long as you don’t correct his attention, he will start to anticipate the attacks and want to look for them by dropping his head. You might also as a byproduct, create some forging – you can correct that with the leash. Sometimes, when he drops his head on his own to look at the decoy, variably reward that by sending the dog for a passive bite.
4)Work your alert command a lot, so he learns that whatever circumstance you work in, if he hears that, to look around. Have your decoy in hiding, and when the dog lights up, let his aggression draw the decoy from hiding, and when he does so, send him for a bite.
It may take a while to retrain a well ingrained behavior like this, you should remember this behavior was heavily rewarded and usually compelled, so that when the dog looked away he was corrected, so he thinks he will get in trouble if he looks away. Over time you will see him relax and take to the new standard you are setting. However, I hope you will use the attention to your advantage instead of getting rid of the behavior.
Question: I think I have created a monster! I have a Dutch Shepherd single purpose narc dog that I have worked for the last 3 years. One of the things I liked about him in the selection test was how possessive he was with his toy. Now it has gotten to be a major battle, there are days he simply will not give up his toy and the problem is getting worse. I have tried the two toy system but it does not work, once he has one toy, he does not want to give it up for a new one. Do you have a good way to get him to release the toy to me on command?
Answer: You need to treat the situation like training a patrol dog to out. Just remember, though, he is not a patrol dog for a reason. He may not be as hard as you think. First, do this when you have a few days when you are NOT going to have to reward him for his drug finds. Take him someplace he never normally has to work, because you are going to use some force to accomplish the task, and you don’t want him to associate the compulsion with his work. This is critical.
Back tie him to a sturdy fence post (better than a tree as he can’t wind himself up) on a flat collar or harness with about a 10 foot long line, and put a second line attached to your 6’ leash on a prong collar. (Yes, I said prong collar. If you have been conditioned to think this is only used as a last resort, you may not be inclined to use it, but contrary to what you have learned, it is safe, effective, and used by the rest of the world over choke collars almost universally when training working dogs. It will work for this exercise much better than a choke collar).
Use an object different from his normal drug reward, and a little less enticing, like PVC pipe. Have 2 of the same toy, and give the dog one of them, and let him hold it in his mouth for a few seconds. When you are ready to make him let go, say, “Out,” or whatever your new out command will be. Don’t use the command he has been ignoring for the last 3 years, pick a new one. As soon as the “t” in out is out of your mouth, correct him into your body fairly hard until he releases it. As soon as he drops it, give him the other toy, and let him enjoy it for a few seconds, then repeat until the dog is releasing quickly. If you do this right, he will let go after a few repetitions on the command. In behavioral terms, we are punishing his holding of the toy beyond hearing the out command, and then rewarding the act of him releasing with another toy.
When he does this well on the back tie, introduce his drug toy in the back-tie context, and do the above exercise until he is releasing it on command. Then, when you are getting a good response on the back-tie on his normal reward toy, after a few short sessions (3-6 reps and then put the dog away, and do multiple sessions a day), put 2 lines on him as before, but do not back tie him. Use the 2 lines just as before, but the handler holds the correction line and another trainer holds the back line, and acts as a moveable back tie. Throw the dog’s toy for him, and then put him between the 2 lines, and out him as before, correcting if he doesn’t release against the posted back line. Then, reward the release with the second toy. Repeat in different contexts. As this goes well, eliminate the back line, and use only the correction line.
When the dog is doing well, bring the dog to a drug training session, and set up an easy hide, and we will test the training. Put the correction collar on the dog with a short tab line on it. Do not run the dog to search on the prong. When he hits the hide, reward him with the toy and play with him. Move him away from the search area, well away, as you are playing with him. Then grab the correction line and tell him out, and if he does, let him grab the toy again and let him play. If he doesn’t, correct as usual, and then after a successful out (even if you had to force it) let him get the toy again. If he still fights you over the toy on this test, go back to correcting away from the drug searching until you are again confident he will release on command, and put it together again in another test.
As the dog releases for you consistently, and the behavior becomes conditioned to release on command, you can remove the correction collar altogether. If he regresses, put the collar back on. Don’t make him collar wise. Put it on and off randomly at times other than your training sessions for short times when he is supervised, but don’t hook anything to it. The collar is only an aid in conditioning the behavior, so don’t remove it too quickly before the behavior is well conditioned. You want to keep the option to correct so that the dog knows he cannot get away with ignoring this command.
In doing this exercise, you should use the minimum force to get the job done, and be careful of making any unwanted associations since you are using some force. You should do this under the eye of an experienced trainer until you are comfortable. The hardest part is gauging the correction to stimulate the out without overcorrecting. You may be surprised how easy this is if you carry through it. If you need more guidance before giving it a try, you can e-mail me at Malinois_jb@mindspring.com.
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.
Baltimore MD - September 13, 2008. The East Coast Regional Championships will be held at Severn Covenant Church Field on Saturday, September 13, 2008. Judges will be Rick Firrow & Jerry Bradshaw.
We are expecting an excellent turnout, as many PSA competitors are finishing their qualification for the PSA National Event in Cookeville, Tennessee on October 25 & 26th 2008. All three levels are expected to be represented, as well as PDC competitors.
Lunch will be served at the field, and there will be vendors selling T-Shirts, and training equipment.
PSA will also be raffling off a bite suit! Tickets can be purchased at the field for $25 each (multiple tickets may be purchased).
if you have questions about the event, contact Jerry Bradshaw at malinois_jb@mindspring.com. We hope to see you there!
This manual of police K9 patrol training basics serves to introduce the reader to both developmental foundation training including prey drive development, defense drive development, drive interaction, working in the bite suit, and fundamental man orientation training, as well as important skills such as the out on command, hold & bark, redirects, and call-offs (recalls). Also inclided in the appendicies are the following topics: "The Dog Sports of Europe", "Required Equipment," "Attention Training & Heeling," and "Off Leash Training and Progressive Use of the E-Collar." Ordering is easy, just click on over to the Tarheel Canine Pro Shop, and look under the topic of "Educational" supplies.
Here is what some people are saying about the book:
Jerry,
I just finished reading your book for the 2nd time. Damn good book! This should be required reading material for anyone handling or training a police service dog, or anyone doing protection work for that matter. I'm looking forward to your next book.
Take care,
Sgt. Fred Yarbrough
Dawson County Sheriff's Office
K-9 Unit
This book presents a very detailed introduction to many important topics in police K9 Training - for K9 officers, the sections on eliminating equipment orientation, proper work in the bite suit, and the novel way in which the call off exercise is developed will help anyone with a strong dog develop clear and consistent outs and call-offs. Great book!
Questions from Reader
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