Serendipitous - definition - to come upon by accident.

I have found over the years, that a lot of my best insights into training have come about by accident, and are therefore classified as "serendipitous." Here is an example.....

I am sitting in a chair out front of my building, one of the police K9 handlers comes around a car, and his dog sees me and the dog is in that moment of conflict between lighting up on me and not......the handler immediately verbally corrects the dog, making him less likely to aggress on me or any other passive person. I think it is important, obviously, to let our new handlers know how to recognize those moments of serendipitous training that occur all the time, so that their dogs are more likely to give them the responses they want, even when they come outside of structured training, or at least to take a lesson from these situations and set them up as training.

Another example: We teach our detection handlers to make a clear context for a narcotics sniff. The dog usually comes to the search area, is made to sit, and then started with an initial presentation.....but how many times does a handler walk to the area, close enough for the dog to already be in odor at the start, and the handler corrects the dog into the sit, away from following his nose dorectly to the odor he already got a whiff of??

If handlers are aware of these serendipitous moments, we can prepare them for these accidental gems, to be on the lookout for them, when the dog comes upon it on his own, and his head is already engaged without the handler telling him what is to come.....

Many more police departments are seeing the utility of sending senior handlers or departmental trainers to get formal instruction. At TK9, we offer a variety of K9 Instructor courses - for Detection only, or full Instructor courses covering detection, trailing/tracking (hard surface), obedience and Patrol.  This instruction allows increased performance on the street, as instructors are better educated and equipped to handle traiing issues, deployment issues, and problems that come up in the course of a dog's service. It also allows the instructor to challenge the teams during i serviuce training with fresh ideas about training and deployment procedures. Instructors will be equipped to answer questions and explain the "why" behind an approach to a traiing exercise.

Instructors get the opportunity at TK9 to both work with dogs in training for our customers as well as to assist with handler courses, where trained dogs are matched up with handlers. At TK9 we want instructors to understand the "why" behind training, so that they can properly problem solve issues that come up during training. We stress open communication with our instructors, and full hands on participation in both training and instructing.

A full complement of lectures are also provided covering the various training technologies that we employ for detection, tracking, obedience and patrol training. We encourage you to contact us today to ask about our courses, and upon request we will send you references, and pricing, and a syllabus of the courses. Courses are tailored to an agency's needs ad the experience level of the student instructor.  Courses begin the first monday of any month of the year, except for December. Courses run 4, 6, 8, 12 weeks. We also have a special 2 week accelerated course.

Call today to talk to Jerry or Janet about our instructor courses!

Tarheel Canine: Janet: 800-766-9032 or email Jerry at jbradshaw@tarheelcanine.com

When training dogs, it is the little things that matter. If you can't do a full session of training, break down a small aspect of a behavior chain, and reinforce it. Set out one drug hide, and one blank area insteas of ah hour's worth of training.

Do 5 minutes of heeling, 5 sits and 5 downs while waiting for a call, practice recalls and finishes with rewards when you let your dog out to pee. If you think of all the times you put off working your dog because you had no time for a full session of training, and think of what you might have achieved if you just did 5 reps of a simple behavior, you might realize thet the little things add up to a lot over the course of a year!

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs027/1102018903310/archive/1102648615808.html

Click on the above link to go to our newsletter archive.........

You leave your dog alone for a little while, and you come home to discover something distroyed, or a steaming present waiting for you in the middle of the kitchen floor, and you shoot a glance at the dog......GUILTY! He has that look of defeat, because as a dog he just can't hide it, right? Wrong!

Alexandra Horowitz, an assistant professor at Barnard College in NY set up an experiment where she lied to pet owners about their dog doing something wrong. Here is what she did:

"During the study, owners were asked to leave the room after ordering their dogs not to eat a tasty treat. While the owner was away, Horowitz gave some of the dogs this forbidden treat before asking the owners back into the room. In some trials the owners were told that their dog had eaten the forbidden treat; in others, they were told their dog had behaved properly and left the treat alone. What the owners were told, however, often did not correlate with reality."

What the research uncovered  was this: The dogs who appeared most "guilty" looking were the ones who were admonished by their owners for eating the treat. Interestingly, the ones who were described as most "guilty" looking were the dogs who were in fact obedient and did not eat the treat, but whose owners were misinformed by the researcher and told (falsely) that their dog ate the treat!  The research concluded that the dog's guilty look is in fact a response to the owner's behavior (body language, facial expressions, verbal admonishments) and not necessarily related to any canine self-awareness of bad behavior.

Trainers are always careful to be aware of anthropomorphism, the tendency to attribute human attributes of reasoning or emotion to dogs. The dog owning population is full of people who make these attributions, and we as trainers should be clear to not accept them when they are brought up in conversation. Even K9 handlers, who handle highly trained dogs in very important situations will still throw out the occasional anthropomorphisms.

Hand this article to all your fellow K9 handlers, so they can understand and appreciate the effect of the handler's behavior and frame of mind on the dog's behavior. Ths relationship, commonly referred to as the handler's feelings "going down the leash" has a lot to do with the handler's expectations and assumptions. If the handler thinks the dog is screwing up, say the handler assumes there is a drug hide in an area that was set up as a blank area, all it may take to make the dog false respond (throw out a sit or scratch) is body language and facial expressions, and voice patterns that indicate the handler is upset with the dog's behavior. Even though in such a situation, the dog would be right and the handler wrong.

Here is the article reference: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090611065839.htm

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

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

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.

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.

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:

1. Establish Goals
2. Break Down Training into Steps
3. Train from the result to the start (Back Chaining)
4. Anticipate Outcomes and set up for success
5. 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.

Using Compulsion in Training: A Primer

Excerpeted from: Controlled Aggression in Theory & Practice

by Jerry Bradshaw

Every behavior must have a consequence, either a reinforcing consequence or a punishing consequence. “Punishment” here refers to punishment in the behavioral sense. Punishment is any consequence of a behavior that reduces the likelihood of that behavior. Reinforcement is any consequence of a behavior that increases the likelihood of that behavior. Both reinforcement and punishment come in two varieties, positive and negative: Positive in the sense of providing a consequence, and negative in the sense of withholding a consequence. This gives us the following four consequences:

·         Positive punishment means delivering an undesirable consequence that reduces the likelihood of a given behavior.

·         Negative punishment means withholding a desirable consequence to reduce the likelihood of a given behavior.

·         Positive reinforcement means providing a desirable consequence to increase the likelihood of a behavior.

·         Negative reinforcement means removing an undesirable consequence to increase the likelihood of a behavior. 

Training proceeds through three phases: acquisition, fluency, and generalization. Training is a process through which we introduce and vary the consequences of behavior to teach the dog associations (acquisition), and then teach limits to behavior when employing these associations (fluency). Finally, training involves requiring these associations to be performed in all different situations and contexts (generalization). This is commonly referred to as proceeding through the learning stage, to the correction stage, and then the proofing stage.

Note that I do not usually find any use for force or compulsion in the acquisition phase of training. Providing a foundation of proper behavior, and never allowing behaviors you don’t want to see, can be accomplished in this phase of training, because the trainer can exercise complete control over the training environment. In other words, we can set the dog up for success. However,  in order to proof responses, we must present the dog with situations that may induce non-compliance, anticipate the dog’s non-compliance, and positively punish him (corrections) for disobedience.  In my opinion, it is virtually impossible to de-condition a dog to every possible distraction using only negative punishment. Limits must be set in a general way with compulsion, and this is done in the fluency and generalization phases of training. In the fluency stage we introduce the concept of corrections or positive punishment, and continue to apply those corrections (as well as apply positive reinforcement) in the generalization or proofing stage of training.

Force or compulsion is applied to the dog through the use of devices intended to cause discomfort to the dog. This discomfort should be minimal, and just enough to get the point across. This minimum force rule should always be applied when using compulsion. At the end of this book there is a guide to introducing the e-collar in obedience, with some applications to protection training. Most people who criticize e-collars know little about their proper use.  Those trainers, who employ their use properly, know how the relationship with their partners grows tremendously through these described effects.  The trainer is the center of all good things, and offers relief from any punishment that is applied, through the use of positive positive reinforcement. Thus we concentrate on rewarding good behavior that is shown, once limits are set. Correction becomes unemotional when the physical component of it is removed.

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:

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.

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!

By

Jerry Bradshaw

Training Director, Tarheel Canine Training, Inc.

www.TarheelCanine.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.

I had the pleasure of instructing, along with Shawn Edwards of Baltimore City PD, a Police K9 Decoy school which was graciously hosted by the Anne Arundel County police K9 unit. Brian Fleig and Mike Edmundson and Sgt. Grover of the K9 unit set everything up perfectly, from the classroom area to the training areas.

We had quite a few people new to decoying, and we worked for most of the first day on sleeve mechanics, targeting, prey drive development, and drive channeling exercises. All of the dogs we had to work with were strong biters, and this gave the new decoys a good sense of what to expect, and they were able to fully implement the techniques that were taught. In the afternoon we moved to the bite suit, and worked on frontal catches, and drive mechanics in the suit.

The second day was spent discussing civil agitation, passive decoy work, and further drive channeling work. We then shifted to skills training - Inour decoy seminars we work on mechanics, but more importantly we set the students up so that they can learn to decoy the skills: Out, redirects, builoding searches, area searches, transports, and very importantly the call-off exercise.

The third day was spent doing building searches, and teaching the decoys how to break down the search exercises for dogs of different training levels, and how to incorporate skills like maintaining the out and tactical liftoff during scenario training. The afternoon was spend discussing and doing muzzle work, and we ended the day woth some area searches and more suit time.

We had representatives from Montgomery County Police, AA County Police, AA County Sheriff, and Annapolis PD. Dave Pappalardo from K9 Unlimited and Katrina Kardiasmenos from Metropolitan K9 were also there to provide training assistance, dogs for the decoys to train on, and Katrina also shot over 2000 photos of the 3 day event. I hope to post a few of these shots in the coming days. Thanks to both of them for their participation and assistance with the seminar. A special thank you to Shawn Edwards of BPD VCID for co-teaching this seminar with me. Shawn's enthusiasm is inspiring to everyone around him, and he clearly had an impact on our class of decoys.

Tarheel Canine is proud to announce that we have agreed to donate a green German Shepherd to the winner of the NJ Police K9 Association Raffle. The drawing will be held on October 18, 2008.

In the past two years, Tarheel Canine has been fortunate to do an increasing amount of business in the north east, and especially forge relationships with many of the trainers in the NJ area to provide quality K9s for their K9 classes.

Jimmy Kaelin, of Gloucester TWP Training Center in Gloucester, NJ, was kind to place an ad in the September 2008 Issue of the USPCA K9 Courier announcing the raffle and making the following statement on behalf of the NJ Police K9 Association:

"The executive board of the NJ Police K9 Association would like to personally thank Mr. Jerry Bradshaw, owner and operator of Tarheel K9 considered by many as the #1 broker in the country of police dogs, for his generous donation of the canine. In the event the winner is someone other then law enforcement, he or she will be asked to donate the canine to a law enforcement agency."

If anyone reading this post wishes to purchase tickets or get more information, e-mail me malinois_jb@mindspring.com and i will pass along your request to the NJ Police K9 Association.

I wish to thank Jimmy for the kind words, and to say that i am greatful to the brave men and women who proudly risk their lives on behalf of us all, and especially to those officers on the street with Tarheel K9 dogs!

I look forward to making the presentation of the k9 to the department winning this raffle!

Something I have been thinking about lately is washing dogs out of a training program. Often times, as a vendor of green dogs, we get dogs returned to us for various reasons. Many times the dog is actually too much for the handler, and while the dog is very strong for the street, the dog is too dominant for the handler. I can't tell you how many times I am asked for a super tough dog, and invariably that is the one that is coming back. I worked a dog from Holland named Ricardo v. Natuurzicht PH1 PSA 3. Before he came to me at 4 years old after competing in the 1999 Dutch Nationals, he put 3 handlers in the hospital, and one on permanent disability. He was a tough dog. So if you ask me for a tough dog, you are going to get one. He was tough and dominant. One thing that good dogs that are mature (very important to note I say mature) all have some of is dominance. It is like arrogance in a star athlete. Most star athletes own their sport, and when your dog owns his work, he is a little self centered (dominant if you will allow the analogy). 

The typical response of most police training is to fight dominance fire with fire. You will hear a lot of things like, "that dog needs to be shown who is boss." The problem with this is that once you go there, if the dog doesn't back off immediately, you are likely to spawn a physical altercation that you best be in a position to win. Too many times, when this all blows up, the handler is not prepared to carry through with showing who is boss, and it is the person who punks first, not the dog. Personally, I prefer not to go toe to toe with a dog if I don't have to. I prefer to deal with dominance issues dfferently.  I prefer to out think the dominance rather than out muscle it. I think this topic deserves its own article, so I will deal with this isssue in another post. In the 9 or so  years I owned Ricardo (100lbs working weight) we never had a physical fight (thank god) - so I know a little something about working a hard, dominant and tough dog.

Other times we have dogs returned because the dog is too handler soft for the training method. A young GSD that is drivey and has good environmentals might be a little soft. After all, we are accepting dogs into training earlier and earlier because of the demand. Dogs can be precocious in drive and nerve, but socially (pack order wise) they will be a little underdeveloped to deal with a strong personality like that of a cop. This dog needs to be built up in social dominance, just not so far as to challenge the handler too much. Instead, what normally happens is the training method is one that is compulsive in nature, centered around a lot of correction, and the pressure is too much for the more handler soft dog who just wants to avoid all the pressure - so he shuts down a lot. This is often interpreted as the dog being weak, but that isn't always the case. The untrained eye of a trainer who just repeats what he was taught 20 years ago will never see that this dog needs more motivation to get him through his adolescence and less compulsion, and he will probably be as tough as the 18 month old dog next to him in class. Where do you think that 18 month old came from? He was once a less confident adolescent.

Trainers in general need to expand their understanding of younger dogs - the furure is in younger dogs, and the successful trainers will be the ones not who can test and reject 40 dogs at the vendor's kennel because they are looking for perfection - but those that have the talent to recognize how to make something out of the more raw material of younger adolescent dogs. Let me assure you this is the future, The days of every dog going into class being titled or a minimum of 18 months old are past. Demand draws out more and more 10 month old dogs who are high drive and environmentally comfortable, but never forget that these dogs are not adults, and how they react to their handlers is more or less the way a puppy will react. You can pressure them in bitework like crazy, but their handler can hurt their feelings easily.

During the early weeks of a K9 school, the dog will react in the extreme of his social state (dominant or relatively submissive)  as you work obedience and try to gain control of his behaviors. Most schools I know of (except Tarheel Canine) start with obedience - and compulsive obedience at that - and so the relationship with the handler is defined by the handler trying to impose his will (dominance) on the dog. I suggest that if you do drive work first in the weeks when you are bonding, the dog and you will have an even better relationship. Leave obedience for later when you have a relationship with the dog. This will help build the softer dogs, as their activities leaqd to more and more wins and thus confidence, and it will help you relate better and establish a bond with the stronger more dominant dog without getting into a battle of wills. Obedience by its nature sets up that conflict when done compulsively.

Jerry Bradshaw

"Its what you learn after you know it all that Matters" - Earl Weaver 

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!

I just returned from judging the the PSA Midwest regiuonals this past weekend, hosted by Southern Ohio Protection Sports in Cincinnati OH. I had a great time visiting with old friends and meeting some new ones.  Cory Dewberry with help from many quarters put on a great show. Darryl Richey the regional director of the midwest and PSA President  came in from Texas, and the Asst Director Matt Faccento came in from Tennessee. Christie Meyer did a wonderful job administering the trial secretarial duties, and keeping the show organized amd moving. 

There were Rottweillers, Dobermans, Pit Bulls, Malinois and some dogs I venture not to make a guess at breed competing. PSA opens its arms to all comers if they have the juice to compete. The midwest is growing and coming together, and it is nice to see. Vinnie Faccento won High in Trial, with an excellent performance with his Malinois Female, CJ.

I hope to see all of the competitors come to support their region in Cookeville TN for the 2008 PSA National Championships. Go to www.psak9.org to get information on the National Event which is looking to be quite a show. I am proud to say that Tarheel Canine will be a major event sponsor for the Nationals this year, and I invite you to come by and see our booth at the event.

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:

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!

Sgt. Shawn Edwards

Baltimore City Police Department - VCID

Baltimore MD

On February 9 & 10, Jerry Bradshaw returned to Glynn County Police Department in GA for an NTPDA decoy seminar. Special thanks to Lt. Bobby Putnam and his K9 Unit for their active participation. The seminar consisted of classroom instruction regarding the importance of the decoy as a reward mechanism for the K9's aggression, and how proper decoy work rewards desireable behavior, and withholds reward from undesireable behaviors. Basic decoy skills, pictured here, were developed on the backtie including encouraging proper alert behavior, aggression on passive subjects (a problem when decoy work is not done to encourage aggression without stimulation), proper targeting on sleeve, suit, and hidden sleeve. Tactical removal as well as out training was also covered.

 We then introduced training steps for encouraging human orientation (combatting equipment orientation), and we then progressed to working in a building on proper decoy techniques for the building search, redirected sends, and call off work. A special thank you to Jeff Trawick of the Cochrane Police Department, GA for taking these photos. If your agency would like to set up a decoy seminar, please contact Tarheel Canine at 800-766-9032 or e-mail us (see contact information on the home page).