Tarheel Canine

The decoy seminar with Tarheel K9 is top-notch. Jerry is incredibly knowledgeable and provided excellent, hands-on instruction. The focus on safety and effective decoy techniques was much appreciated. I learned a great deal and would recommend this seminar to anyone in the K9 community looking to improve their skills.

My experience at the Tarheel K9 decoy seminar was outstanding. The instructors are true professionals with a clear passion for developing high-level K9 teams. The curriculum was comprehensive, with a strong emphasis on practical skills, safety, and understanding canine psychology.  I found the scenario-based exercises to be particularly valuable for street readiness.  I highly recommend this training to any law enforcement professional in the K9 field

I recently had the privilege of attending the K9 decoy seminar at Tarheel K9, and I am beyond impressed. The depth of knowledge and the quality of instruction from Jerry Bradshaw was exceptional. The seminar was incredibly well-structured, covering everything from the fundamental mechanics of decoying to advanced scenario-based training that is critical for real-world deployments. What truly sets Tarheel K9 apart is their dedication to creating thinking and theory in dog training and building effective decoys, not just “bite pillows.”  The focus on reading canine behavior, proper equipment use, and safety for both the K9 and the decoy was evident in every session.  I left the seminar with a wealth of practical skills and a much deeper understanding of how to contribute meaningfully to a K9 team’s success. I highly recommend this seminar to any officer or handler looking to elevate their skills and their K9 program.

I am writing this letter in strong support of Jerry Bradshaw and TarHeel K9. I have worked with police K9s for the majority of my law enforcement career. I have acquired K9s through other vendors and have since acquired multiple K9s through Jerry and TarHeel K9, including my current K9. Based on these experiences, I can state without hesitation that TarHeel K9 stands apart in both quality and depth.

From the outset, the process of selecting and acquiring a K9 is handled in a professional and highly deliberate manner. Jerry has a unique ability to source, evaluate, and train dogs based on the specific needs of the handler and the operational requirements of the agency. Rather than attempting to fit a handler to a dog, he ensures the correct dog is matched to the mission. In addition to custom sourcing, TarHeel K9 consistently maintains a kennel of pre-tested dogs representing a wide range of temperaments, drives, and experience levels. This provides agencies with flexibility, confidence, and transparency during the selection process and speaks directly to the depth of the program.

The dogs themselves are trained to an exceptionally high standard and arrive operationally ready. They are not delivered as basic or “in-development” dogs, but as fully prepared working assets. Training includes advanced hard-surface tracking, refined detection capabilities, tactical obedience, and other advanced skill sets. Each dog has already been exposed to a wide variety of environments, stressors, and realistic operational scenarios prior to placement. This foundation is critical and translates immediately into real-world performance.

The handler training course is equally comprehensive. Both new and experienced handlers benefit from instruction that goes well beyond basic K9 operations and incorporates tactics, applicable case law, K9 learning theory, liability mitigation, and practical problem-solving. The instructors are knowledgeable, professional, and genuinely invested in student success, ensuring progressive learning rather than simply meeting a schedule. TarHeel K9’s training facilities are another significant strength. The diversity of available environments allows for realistic simulation of operational deployments in nearly any setting an agency may encounter. This exposure builds confidence, competence, and sound decision-making in both the handler and the dog prior to returning to their agency for street deployment.

I have also had the opportunity to attend TarHeel K9’s instructor training courses. These programs go well beyond handler-level instruction and focus on advanced learning theory, training methodologies, and diagnostic problem-solving. Clear, well-structured lectures paired with intensive hands-on work deepened my knowledge and sharpened my skills. This training provided a strong foundational knowledge base that made me a more effective handler, enables me to troubleshoot issues as they arise, and allows me to continue advancing my K9’s capabilities. One of the most valuable—and often overlooked—aspects of this training is the unique opportunity to work with a multitude of dogs with varying temperaments, personalities, and skill levels, which develops true handler and trainer capability.

Jerry Bradshaw is clearly committed to continual improvement and advancing the profession. From his Controlled Aggression podcast, where he provides relevant and highly valuable information freely to the K9 community, to his collaboration with industry-leading peers, his dedication to advancing working K9 programs is evident. He consistently evaluates and refines his methods, stays current with evolving best practices, and applies real-world experience to program development. That philosophy carries throughout the organization and is reflected in the quality of the dogs, training, and instruction.

Based on my professional experience, I highly recommend Jerry Bradshaw and TarHeel K9 without reservation to any agency or command staff seeking a proven K9 procurement and training program that delivers reliable, operationally ready teams capable of meeting real-world demands.

I just finished Tarheel Canine’s three day police decoy seminar with Jerry Bradshaw,
and honestly I learned more in those three days than I have in years of in service training. The amount of operant and classical conditioning, actual science, and
explanation of why things work was more than I’ve ever been taught in any LE training block. He covered bite suit work, muzzle work, hidden equipment, and prosthetics. Jerry went deep into how to safely and correctly catch dogs to reduce injury to both the dog and handler, which was huge for us considering the number of injuries we’ve dealt with in the past.

What really set this seminar apart was how individualized it was. Jerry diagnosed each dog and handler, identified training gaps, and fixed problems some teams have been fighting for years, including outing issues, building searches, and weak muzzle fighting. He showed deployment videos and training videos from seminars, broke down exactly what failed and why, and showed how to fix it in our own training. He gave clear, step by step progressions for things like frontal pictures, bicep bites, and leg bites so we actually know what to do moving forward on training days. He also taught how to properly drive dogs and apply pressure in a safe way, pulling from both his police dog and competition background. I’d recommend this course to anyone working a police dog or decoying for agencies who wants a better understanding of the role of the decoy and how to build dogs.

Jerry,

I wanted to take a moment and give you an overdue “Thank you.” Allowing me to keep the first dog (Jagger) that didn’t work out and setting me up with Castro (almost a PH1 from MD Police Dogs). It was an unfortunate 3 years that it took to convince my admin to make this happen, but the change has been extremely rewarding. I’ve got a great tool that is working out very well so far. Loving the podcasts! Keep them coming because I’m using a ton of it to train the rest of our group.

Thanks again

The Police K-9 Decoy Seminar I attended last week was a high quality and well-structured course overall. Jerry was professional, well-spoken, and clear in explaining his methods and the reasoning behind them. This made the material easy to follow and apply. I appreciated that the first half of the day was conducted in a classroom lecture format using videos, which helped establish a strong foundation. The second half of the day transitioned into hands-on practical skills and exercises that reinforced the concepts taught earlier. I felt the dogs that participated benefited significantly from the training and exposure. Jerry took the time to fix several issues the dogs or handlers were working on. I left this seminar with a new confidence in our unit’s decoy work and general training concepts.

I want to start by saying thank you for coming down and putting on the K-9 Decoy Seminar. As a brand-new handler, your small introduction to behavioral science gave me a much deeper understanding of how a K-9’s mind works, as well as what to look for when determining whether a dog is under stress or comfortable in a given situation. I was especially appreciative of the exercises you recommended for me to work on with my dog. I am very hopeful they will help me build his confidence in stressful environments and introduce him to new situations in a way that keeps him comfortable and successful. Additionally, the bite work exercises were extremely beneficial. They helped me better understand how to properly catch bites in a way that is safe for both the K-9 and myself, while keeping the scenarios realistic for the dog. Thank you again for taking the time to share your knowledge and experience. I found the seminar extremely valuable and look forward to applying what I learned moving forward.

Hey Jerry,

In May 2014, Daryl Husbands from Lasalle Parish Sheriff’s Office and I came to your facility and purchased Nikita (now Nik for short) from you. After Nik and I successfully completed Daryl Husbands training program, he is doing great and has been a huge asset to me and our department. I wanted to update you on his progress and commend you on providing us with an outstanding k-9. His drive is exceptional and I just wanted to thank you again for your passion for quality k-9’s.