Questions & Answers

The dog has to know the boundaries of his relationship with the children and understand that there will be consequences for his unwanted behavior. I see correction as an appropriate means to this problem. Doing so empowers your dog with the ability to make an informed decision the next time he gets around the children. You are the pack leader and you set the rules for the dog in every human or animal encounter that he will ever have during his life. It will be up to you to determine on a scale of 1 to 10 how high you need to go with the corrections to solve the problem. For example, much like the use of force continuum, mere presence can be a deterrent.

Keep in mind that your corrections should be immediate so that the dog relates it to the exact unwanted behavior. It should also be high enough on the scale so that you see results within a couple of applications. Intervene at the moment you see the dog reaching that excited level that prompts the nipping/mouthing. The dog will quickly learn where the boundaries of his behavior lie and the consequences for crossing them. The dog will still want to interact with children but it will always be your responsibility to govern and monitor the sessions. Once you’ve reach the appropriate correction level, reinforcement of the rules will be necessary but it may be as simple as a verbal correction to remind the dog to calm himself.

Question #2
How do I stop the excessive barking in the car?

Answer-
Having worked 8 police dogs in my career and every one of them a barker in the car at some point in time, I know just what you’re dealing with. I personally have stopped working in-car agitation for a number of reasons, one being the excessive barking. I have had tremendous success in stifling the mouth in the backseat using this technique. I combine a command for the dog to be quiet with a quick pop on the e-collar. I prefer an e-collar over a bark collar so that I can control the training session. I want to teach the dog a quiet command and reinforce it with the e-collar so that the command becomes significant and the dog has some control over his own destiny.

You could take a more sophisticated training approach to solving this problem by analyzing the root causes of the barking and finding an alternative activity for the dog to engage in, but I know that the above mentioned technique can and does work effectively and efficiently. It produces such quick and positive results when done right that it will eliminate or at least greatly reduce your anxiety and your disdain for the dog’s behavior. Teaching this particular quiet command technique is exclusive to what’s going on in the backseat and is not my first choice for teaching the dog to remain quiet during deployments. That’s a different question all together.

Question #3
What is the proper speed for a track and how do I get my dog to go that speed? I have a shepherd who tracks best when I am at a slow jog, if I slow him down to my walking speed he becomes distracted and does not track very well. I would like to have the ability to vary the speed so I can have better tactics when we are close to the suspect.

Answer
Tracking, by its very nature is inherently the most dangerous activity a patrol canine handler will engage in. Good tactics always include taking a backup officer along on your tracks. I don’t know how your dog was trained to track but my favorite technique for slowing a dog down is extremely simple but very effective. Go back to the basics. I use something that the dog is willing to track for, a motivating item. High driven dogs will nearly always track for a toy but all dogs will track for food.

Dogs that are trained to track for sport are generally very slow because they are “footstep” trackers. This means that their basic training included finding a piece of food in every footstep that the track layer made. The theory behind this is the same no matter what the dog is looking for. That is, if the dog is conditioned to believe that his reward may not be very far away at any given time, then there is no need to burst into a sprint while tracking.

Let’s assume that you always have a ball as a reward at the end of the track. Try laying straight tracks of only about fifty yards and place a ball every five yards. Lay the track in grass deep enough to hide the ball so the dog doesn’t see it and just run to it. Don’t let him run past the rewards. Play with the dog for a few seconds and put him back on the track. Repetition is the key here. He has to think that the reward could always be nearby. There’s no rule that says your dog has to complete a track of one mile before he finds his reward. Why can’t he receive a bunch of rewards during that mile long training track?

Question #4
I have been working my dog for about 18 months. He is a Dutch shepherd that we certified through the NPCA. He is dual purpose patrol and bomb. I think we have crated a problem in our training. When he first started doing building searches he was frantic and hardly used his nose. In order to get him to the source, we started to have the agitator make some noise, either tapping on the door or hissing etc. Now whenever he gets in odor, he quits searching with his nose and almost becomes a statute. He stands very still and just listens for the noise. When doing our initial training the trainer told me we would transition from the noise to getting him to use his nose, but we are not having any luck.

Answer
First and foremost, have patience. Over the years I’ve found that the two most common factors that cause handlers to become discouraged and frustrated are their own lack of consistency in training techniques and a lack of patience. If you look back to past editions of the K-9 magazine and read my responses to training questions, you’ll see me reiterating repetition and patience. Providing that the training techniques are soundly based in K-9 learning theory, then consistency and patience through repetition will produce positive results. Now, with all that said, here’s what I would try to get the dog on the right track.

We want the odor of the decoy to be our stimulus for the bark, not the noise that the decoy makes. Many dogs can transition quickly from the noise to the odor and bark. Then we have the late bloomers that get dependent on their ears to get the job done. My work dog did the same thing in his initial training inside buildings as yours is doing. So I know how frustrating it can be. Let’s make it very easy to start out with. Keep the dog on a long line, 30 foot is good. Start out with the dog seeing the decoy run into a room and close the door. Let the dog run to the door while you hold the lead to keep him from straying away from the area too far. I would try having the door cracked open about a half an inch and have the decoy blow through the cracked door about nose level to the dog. If the dog responds in any fashion to the decoy blowing through the door, give the dog a little praise for doing so. Of course if he barks, the decoy will respond by opening the door and giving the dog a bite.

If we don’t get a bark within a couple of minutes, we’ll hold the dog back and have the decoy jump out and run away to another door so that the dog clearly sees him close behind him again. Hold tension on the lead and force the dog to pull all the way to the door. You want the dog to just make it to the door and no further. Keep the tension on the lead. Encourage the dog to get the man out of the room but only when he’s focused on the door. Have the decoy blow through the door as he did before. With the slightest bark or any verbalization from the dog have the decoy open the door and reward the dog with a bite. Timing is absolutely critical for fastest learning and especially for a dog that is having this type of problem. Repeat this one more time and if you don’t get anything on the third attempt, hold the dog back and let the decoy come out and run away one last time. The dog goes back to the car "hot" and frustrated at seeing the prey get away. Try the same thing again in about 20 to 30 minutes.

I’ve also seen spray bottles and small sticks used to stimulate the dogs as well. The decoy squirts water through the crack of the door at the dog to prompt a bark. The decoy can use a stick under the door to touch the dog’s feet and that sometimes produces a bark. But ultimately we want the stimulus to be the odor of the decoy that produces the bark. I would exhaust all efforts on the above method before using anything else, because you still have to get the dog off the crutches when you use any other techniques. Be patient. Even if it takes three sessions a day for two weeks, keep the faith and stay consistent.

Question #5
Is there any way to slow a detector dog down? I have a single purpose lab we use for bomb detection. He is a very high drive dog, the problem I have with him is that our ‘game’ is almost too easy for him. When we train with other teams I watch the dogs on the same hides. Those dogs will get into the odor, show a change of behavior, then work to the source and go into their final response (sitting). My dog searches with his mouth half open, is methodical but fast, he has very little change of behavior (if any) hits the odor and goes to a sit. It is hard to call the exact hide as he will sometimes take a step as he slows down to sit. If I slow him down by blocking or with the leash he gets very hectic and will miss hides.

Answer
I have a difficult time imagining a dog with high energy and that works fast, not displaying a ton of behavior changes when he encounters an odor he has been trained to respond to. Speed magnifies the alert (behavioral changes). He can hit airborne odors on a dead run, even with his mouth open. A big head snap and bracketing odor to source from a dead run should be the biggest behavioral changes that you’ll see in the dog. As long as your dog is working, speed can be helpful. It gets the job done faster and it magnifies the alert. Slowing the dog down can be accomplished by allowing the dog to learn it for himself rather than trying to force him into it by blocking or total leash control. Letting the dog learn it for himself requires that we do two things to accomplish this goal. Teach the dog hand directed searching and place training aids in close, consecutive locations.

A dog that is willing to search things and places that the Handler has presented to him will have no choice but to slow down in order to accomplish what has been asked of him. It is not by any means a forceful or demanding procedure but one that the dog is willing to do on his own accord because there has been a high degree of success for him when he has done so. This meaning that the Handler has repetitiously placed his hand in front of a known training hide, asked the dog to sniff that area and the dog responds to the odor and is rewarded. If the Handler presents the hide with his hand enough times the dog will believe that any area presented by the Handler is a good target with a high likelihood that he will find a training aid and receive his reward for doing so. Secondly, we can place many hides in a successive pattern, such a row of lockers at a local school. This allows the dog to learn for himself that slowing down will produce results. Once he believes that the hides could be very close together, he will slow himself down to investigate more thoroughly. You can then do the same thing in other search areas but I’ve found that school lockers are easier to begin this process because they are uniformly aligned and the team can work them easier than moving in and out of a room full of stuff.

Question #6
How often should you train your dog around gunfire? Is it best to have him neutral during the gunfire? Should we do exercises with the patrol rifles too? Will either hurt the dog or his hearing over time? The few times I have taken my dog (a malinois) to the range it has been a battle. I spend more time trying to control him than I do shooting.

Answer
I like to train with gunfire very often. I use a lot of blanks so that I can change training venues regularly. Having a dog that is neutral to gunfire is a high priority for me. The complexities and dynamics of a gunfight demand neutrality from the dog. A dog that is trained to respond to gunfire with aggression seldom discriminates between the good guys and the bad and if other officers are engaged in the gunfight, they’re an open target for a dog trained to attack someone shooting a gun.

It is important that the dog is exposed frequently to every piece of equipment you and your fellow officers use, and I mean everything. The dog needs to see, hear, smell and be close to everything so that he isn’t surprised, overly curious or inquisitive when the equipment is pulled out, opened up, or whatever the case maybe. Patrol rifles are definitely on the list. Let the dog hear and see the mechanical workings of the guns as they are handled by you and other officers. Let him smell anything he’s curious about. Do these things often around your dog. Have other officers draw their weapons and dry fire them around the dog. I go to the range when the SWAT team is training and allow the dog to be around the guys when they’re preparing their gear, cleaning their firearms and putting on their armored apparel. This is the first step to introducing and neutralizing the dogs to gunfire from us and other officers.

Gunfire can damage the dog’s hearing just like it does ours. Try using some of the foam wedges used to remove makeup as hearing protection for the dog. You can find the foam pieces at any local drug store. You can cut them down if you need to for a better fit. Make sure they’re in deep enough to stay for a session of shooting on the range. Do obedience around others that are shooting to keep the dog’s mind off the hearing protection in his ears. Check them often, the dog will try to shake them out of his ears.

If your dog is acting in an aggressive manner toward you while you are shooting then you must first address that issue. A muzzle is a good start. Appropriate levels of correction can be applied when needed to reduce any aggression toward you. I would start off getting him used to gunfire from other officers downrange. I wouldn’t take the dog any closer to the firing line than he is willing to tolerate without reacting. Do obedience around the range while the shooting is going on. This gives him something to do and you can reward him for proper behavior during the obedience, but the reward is also for tolerating the gunfire. Continue these sessions and gradually get closer to the firing line, but only progress at the pace that the dog is willing to accept and tolerate the activities downrange.

Question #7
I have a 20 month old male malinois. He started training at 14 months, and was certified in narcotics at about 17 months old. He seems to have good drives, will hunt forever, loves the ball etc. However is easily distracted. The trainer says he will get over this as he matures, but I have not seen any improvement yet. Anything will take him off task, even a bird flying over, any noise, people or cars driving by. It is very hard to do a search with him on a car stopped next to the highway. Any suggestions to get him more focused?

Answer
Try setting up your training as close to real life as possible. By this I mean put the hides on a car that you can do a traffic stop on. Position the hide so that the dog finds it quickly in his search sequence. In this way he doesn’t have time to get distracted. Remember, we’re taking baby steps with this and we can’t rush it. If you have an aggressive response dog, and he will take a rolled towel as a reward, try placing a scented towel in a location on the exterior of the car that he can either get to himself or you can pull it from the hide with a string. If he is passive position the towel so that he can’t get it but you can pull it from source after he sits. Be creative and use your imagination on the hides around the vehicle to set this up. This will keep the dog’s focus on the car and he might be more interested in catching this rabbit more so than any others that might be in the area to distract him. Repetition is the key. If you see success with this, try adding a few distracters into the scenario like a cat in a cage sitting near the area where you stop the car in training. You have to find out exactly at what distance from the dog to introduce any of these distracters, be it someone bouncing a ball, another dog in the area, someone yelling, etc. and keep the distracter at that distance until the dog habituates to it. You can gradually bring it closer and closer to his search area without taking him off task. I believe that if you can set up as many rewards from source with a scented towel that he should become obsessed with catching that prey when it pops out than anything else going on around him. He sounds like a very prey driven dog from your description and we can manipulate that to our advantage.

Question #8
I have a 4 year old dual purpose (narc and patrol) German Sheperd. He has had several excellent finds and as well as several apprehensions. The problem is he only bites with the front part of his mouth just to his canines. He has very good pressure; hardly ever re-bites, it’s just always very shallow. I am worried that he will either break o tooth or not be able to hold onto a very committed suspect. Are there any techniques to get him to bite deeper?

Answer
I wish there was a rock solid method that would solve this issue completely, but unfortunately genetics play a significant role in the dog’s willingness to take a deeper, full mouth bite on a consistent basis. Here’s one helpful technique that I use.

A decoy and handler must work in conjunction to aid and encourage the dog to take a deeper bite. Use a stake out line and flat collar or harness for the back pressure. With proper timing, the decoy can reward the dog for readjusting toward a fuller bite. By momentarily pausing the fight for a moment and taking a slight amount of pressure off the stake out line by stepping toward the dog, the decoy is allowing the dog to adjust into a deeper bite. If the dog takes the deeper bite at this time; the decoy reapplies the back pressure and rewards the dog for taking the deeper bite by giving him the fight again. The will learn that the fight from the decoy becomes his reward for taking a deeper bite.

Question #9
I am a trainer for our department and several other local agencies. We run one large academy per year, often we have about 20-25 dogs. My question involves training the handlers. I like to use a combination of compulsion and motivational training. The problem is I cannot get many new handlers to get excited with the dog and use the proper voice tones. It seems many are reluctant to do the high pitched praise that many dogs react positively to. We go through this every academy; does anyone have a way to speed up the process? Once the handlers see how well it works, they no longer have a problem doing it.

Answer
I suggest videotaping yourself or someone else that understands what it is that you’re trying to accomplish. Tape two scenarios with the same dog. The first scenario should show the handler working the dog with the monotone praise and the other with the type of verbal praise that sends the dog into orbit. Show this video in the classroom to support what you are telling the new handlers. There have been many times that I’ve had to grab the leash and demonstrate to the handler how to effectively motivate the dog with praise. When I first started training dog teams I thought it was taboo to take the leash of a young handler and demonstrate proper handling skills, but I’ve since discovered that it’s a very helpful technique when done right. Remember, as their trainer you must constantly remind them to use the proper tones. New handlers experience a lot of stress and will dance with two left feet for the first few weeks, so it is your job to reinforce good habits with reminders of what’s expected from them.

Question #10
Can you adjust your dogs’ threshold for indicating? The problem I have is I work a dual purpose drug dug in a college town. Or city is not very concerned about small amounts of marijuana, so I encounter it often. I would like to be able to do a narc search and have my dog pass over small amounts of marijuana and indicate on his other odors or large amounts of marijuana. Is that possible?

Answer
It might be possible, but certainly not advisable and here’s why. The dog is finding drug odor, not drugs, and for this reason, he cannot determine the amount of drugs in which you will find, simply based on the amount of odor that was available to him at the time. It is possible that one marijuana cigarette lying on the center console of a vehicle can emit more odor than 100 pounds of marijuana that has been properly sealed and discretely hidden within the body of the vehicle.

If you’ve now trained your dog to ignore the smaller amounts of drug odor, such as that amount emitted from a single marijuana cigarette, isn’t it reasonable to assume that he would also ignore the small amount of odor being emitted by the tightly packaged 100 pounds of marijuana? Small amounts of odor aren’t indicative of small amounts of drugs, likewise, large amounts of drug odor doesn’t signify a large amount of drugs. Several things dictate odor availability. Some of these include, but aren’t limited to, packaging, placement, time, temperature, and amount, just to name a few.

Question #11
Do you have a good technique for getting a detector dog to wok high? I have a rather small lab; she is a single purpose bomb dog. I have a hard time getting her to check anywhere over about four feet high. This includes cupboards in kitchens, or overhead compartments on airplanes. I can get her up on top of things but she does not search well when she is on it.

Answer
I’ve found drywall stilts work the best. If the dog is environmentally sound it shouldn’t be an issue to acclimate him to them. Some adjustments may have to be made in your presentation techniques so as not to trip the dog as he details the higher levels of the room and negotiates the various objects within the room. If you find that the dog is unwilling or unable to perform using the stilts, a diet high in elastic hydrocarbon polymer(rubber) can often times provide the dog with that extra bounce in his step that should give him an advantage for examining items on a higher level. P.S. All of this is a JOKE !!!

Question #12
On an area search for an armed party, what is the best configuration for the cover officers? What is the responsibility for each officer? How many should you have? Would it be different for a track?

Answer
Your environment will dictate the configuration, but typically I’ve found the wedge formation the most conducive for maneuverability and tactics. The wedge is formed with the K-9 team at the point and typically three cover officers staggered back from the point along each side. You can also use a team leader in the center of the wedge and as well as a communications officer in that position too.

Searching for an armed party is still primarily a SWAT call which involves the assistance of a K-9 team. There aren’t many differences that will impact how the search group works together no matter if it’s a track or an area search. Each cover officer should have clear understanding of their role within the group. This will be very different than anything they’ve learned in their basic recruit classes. Cover Officers should never move forward of the K-9 team for their own safety, until directed to do so by the K-9 Handler. Cover Officers should concentrate on visual cues forward of and to the angles along their perspective positions. In other words, if you’re covering along the right side of the K-9 Handler, be looking along the forward right side of the area for anything suspicious or of tactical concern. Rural searches and tracks can present different and difficult obstacles to traverse and surmount. Directing a couple of the cover officers over a fence before the K-9 team is advisable for added cover. Many times there will be obstacles along the search path that can be identified as possible points of cover for the suspects and it is possible that the K-9 will detect the odor of the suspect prior to reaching the point of concern. If this occurs, the K-9 Handler should stop all forward progression and allow the trained SWAT members to tactically advance and clear the area before the group continues their search.

Question #13
With a passive dog, what is the best way to tell where he is indicating on? My dog will search a car, then backs out and stares into the car; it is very hard to tell where he is indicating.


Answer
The first thing that we have to remember is that odor can’t always be traced to its exact source by the dog and for exterior vehicle searches this is especially true. Properly trained detector dogs will want to get as close to the source of the odor as possible before going into their final response of sit or scratch. Observing your dog’s last position of intense sniffing on the car’s exterior or the other behavioral changes he typically does should give you a pretty good idea of where the strongest odor is coming from. On an interior search you may also get the opportunity to see the same indicators.

If you want him to stay in the car and fixate on the source area, you have to set up many rewards from source. If you use scented towels as a reward, then be creative with your hides and place the towel so that it can be pulled or revealed from the source area once the dog has sat. You’ll have to encourage the dog to go to the source and again to stay at the source in order to get his reward. It will most likely require many repetitions for the dog to grasp the concept of staying close to the source of the odor. Be patient.

Question #14
In our unit we have a dog that works the schools and does a lot of demos. His dog can be around hundreds of people without showing any aggression. During training his bite work is great. He does not have much street experience and we are worried maybe all the demos are going to ruin his street work. Can you over socialize a dog?

Answer
There is never an absolute when trying to find the one answer that fits all dogs and a specific training concern. I think that it could be possible that the dog isn’t getting enough street experience, which might be more of a contributing factor should your concerns be correct, than over socializing him. We know from experience that not socializing a police dog can contribute to unwarranted aggression toward people in a social setting. We know that many street-worthy police dogs with much experience can have an extremely social personality, even to the point that would lead most people to under estimate their abilities as a police dog. This may very well hold true for this particular dog. I would suggest giving the team the opportunity to get some additional street experience, but also maintain the social side of the dog as well.

Question #15
Any good ways to get your dog to bite different areas other than the arm. I have a 5 year old GSD; he has a great track record on the street. However in training when we do bite work he will only bite the arms. We have even back tied him and presented legs only and he will not bite if he cannot get to the arm.

Answer

Question #16
While on a track (a deployment not training) my dog came across a cross track and started to follow it. I did not realize he was on the wrong track for about 100 yards and was encouraging him the whole time. When I realized my mistake I took him back to the correct track but he was the correct track again. Now when training he seems to be more inclined to follow any fresher track he comes across.

Answer
I wouldn’t get too worked up over one mishap, especially if he didn’t get rewarded at the end of the track. Keep reinforcing the preferred track over the cross tracks with encouragement and physically moving him away from the hotter track and back onto the preferred track. A previous tracking article in the Police K-9 Magazine by Frank Campbell, details his method of “article tracks”. This method of tracking transfers any article scented by the track layer and dropped along the track, into a reward for the dog. The handler must interact with the dog and article in a game of tug and show tremendous enthusiasm about the dog’s discovery of the item for it to become valuable to the dog. Repetition will be the key to success.

Question #17 My dog has a annoying habit of turning around and biting the leash when he gets frustrated. It is most prevalent during training after he is taken off the bite or when he does not get a bite. He starts out with good focus on the agitator but then when he does not get to engage the agitator he becomes frustrated and spins around and bites the leash. He then loses focus on the agitator. When I correct him for this if make the focus problem even worse.


Answer
William Koehler, author of a series of books entitled “The Koehler method of dog training”, once remarked that it was cruel not to provide a dog with the proper level of correction that diminishes any unwanted behavior in the least amount of applications. Sometimes in dog training we will justifiably take a few steps back just to take one step forward in the long run. It is not uncommon to see a regression on some level when you’re trying to provide a correction for behavior that is closely related to another event. In this case the leash and the decoy are both avenues for the release of pent up aggression and both are typically available during the training sessions. The dog has learned how to find self satisfaction through the biting of the leash. It’s normal to see the dog lose focus on the decoy if he’s thinking about the repercussions of biting his leash again. When you see this reaction, you know you’re making an impact on the dog. He must now make a conscious decision about the leash biting. If the desire to bite the lead overtakes him again, be ready to increase the level of corrections. If he rejects the urge to bite the lead, you may have the decoy come in and offer a bite. Repeat the process of compulsion and motivation until the picture is clear in the dog’s mind about what you’re asking from him. Using the combination of quality compulsion and high motivation you’ll find that the number of corrections and the level of the corrections will diminish.

Question #18
What would cause a dog to work great one day and then terrible the next? I have a four year old German Shepherd that is dual purpose (patrol and narcotics). Some days he is eager to work and searches well. Other days he will hardly work and wants to run back to the car. This has happened at the same training area on different days. One day were did narcotics in a school and he was awesome, the next day were went to the same school to do another narcotics search and he just keep trying to run out of the building. Nothing different had happened, i.e. I did not have to correct him etc on either day.

Answer
It would be difficult for me to accurately diagnose your dog’s issues without spending time with both of you and seeing everything that occurs before, during and after the training exercise. I will suggest a preparatory exercise or ritual that may serve to cue your dog into what is expected of him. A preparatory exercise can be something as simple as using a specific collar and lead for your dog each time you conduct a drug sniff. This collar and lead should only be used for drugs training and deployments. The collar goes on prior to the beginning of the search and is promptly removed when the search is over. Other preparatory cues can be showing the dog his reward or giving it to him for a moment prior to the search. Verbally priming the dog to search and displaying an animated, excited attitude can also get the dog into the search mode. Remember, 80% of communication between you and your dog is non verbal. This means that he can read everything you’re feeling through face, your body posture, your walk, hand movements, he sees it all. Even if he’s wrong about how you feel, his perceptions are his reality and he will react. You must be the perfect actor every time you work the dog and not let your emotions show through.

Question #19
Recently I went to a parcel interdiction school with my narc dog. It was the first time I had ever tried to work my dog on a conveyor belt to sniff packages. My dog is a 6 year old dual purpose Malinois. He would walk on the belts both when they were stopped and when they were moving without any trouble. The problem was he would not indicate on the hides. He is an aggressive indicator and the instructor thought that might be the problem. Before I change him over to passive I wanted your experts opinions on whether it would help. We plan on doing a lot of parcel interdiction once we get him on track.

Answer
My professional opinion is that the manner in which the dog indicates to the odor of drugs isn’t the real issue. Your trainer could be partly right about changing the dog’s final response to a passive indication, but don’t be duped into believing that the manner in which the dog indicates to drug odor is the problem. It could be that the dog is concentrating more on just being on the belt. This fact consumes his attention. I like to use a towel as reward when training new dogs to find drug odor. They’re fun to play with, they’re fun to tear up, and they hold drug odor quite well. Try these simple exercises and see if they get his attention back on finding drug odors. Start with the belt off. Both you and the dog mount the belt. Have a helper stimulate the dog by tossing a scented towel in the air and catching it again near the other end of the belt. Allow the dog to pull, on leash, toward the helper. Before the dog reaches the helper, have the helper toss the towel into a box on the belt and close the lid of the box. Encourage the dog to tear into the box to get the towel. Do a couple of repetitions like this and take the helper’s stimulation away. Have the helper walk up to the belt, show the dog the towel and in sight of the dog place a towel in the box and close the lid. If this goes well after a few more repetitions turn the belt on and repeat the process. Eventually you’ll want to have a hide packaged to make the fight to get inside the box a little longer and tougher. In these sessions you don’t want to make the search difficult to find because the search isn’t the real focus here, it’s the fight to get to the box, get into the box and retrieve the reward and forget about being on the belt. By starting the dog and the end of the belt in these training steps, he gets to see the helper put the boxes on the belt. Eventually the helper will add blank boxes to the belt as the dogs abilities improve.

Question #20
I have heard a lot of opinions from both trainers and veterinarians about neutering a working dog. In our unit we have two different problems with two different dogs. One is a single purpose narc dog ( a lab). He is a good dog with a strong hunt drive, but he get very distracted by other animals, specifically female dogs. One of our patrol dogs has a problem coming back on the handler at times. I have had a few veterinarians tell me that neutering both of these dogs would help. The problem is that while they are good veterinarians, they really do not know a lot about working dogs. In your experience have you found neutering certain dogs to be beneficial?

Answer
Over the past twenty years I’ve worked with many dogs that have been neutered. Nearly all of them were the result of medical necessity and not as a means to curtail any behavioral issues. I’ve found that the changes in the dog’s personality aren’t significant enough to convince me that it’s a cure for their inherit obsession for animal odors. When I select dogs for my K-9 program, I try to identify this trait in the dogs I test. I’ve found that it’s easier to pass over a dog with these issues than it is to try and cure the problem. Compulsion only creates avoidance to the odors and many times to his duty to search as well. Motivation seldom lasts as the overwhelming desire to investigate the animal odors quickly takes over again and still left with the problem that just won’t go away. Neutering probably won’t cure the problem, although having the procedure done isn’t going to be a negative for the dog and you might find his unwanted behavior slightly more manageable. In this case, testing your theory won’t degrade his workability.

Question #21
We have a new Captain overseeing our K-9 Unit. He does not like us having narcotics in our cars. We only train using real narcotics and have not had any problems. He wants us to switch over and start using pseudo for training most of the time, and certify on real narcotics. Is this a bad idea? Do you have some ideas I can use to convince him that it is better to train on real narcotics?

Answer
I’ve used pseudo drugs from years as a supplement training aid. I’ve found that the pseudo products are much more concentrated and produce a lot of odor. Using real drugs as training aids is beneficial to not only the training but to the reliability issues when it comes to establishing your dog’s credibility in court. I would talk to the state prosecutor and ask him how he feels about going forward with prosecuting drug cases where the probable cause was established with your dog, which is trained predominantly with pseudo training aids. If he has concerns about it, relay that information to the Captain. It shouldn’t cause you to loose a case as a single determining factor, but it’s just one more red flag that can be waived by the defense attorneys in their efforts to discredit you and the your dog. If you can train with neighboring agencies that have real drugs that might also be a viable option to getting the training you’re looking for. Another option for presentation to the Captain which might cause him to reconsider his restrictions is a very well drawn up protocol for obtaining, storing and handling the real drugs. Accountability is obviously a great concern for your Captain, and taking the initiative to draft this sort of protocol might convince him to change his might.

Question #22
I work a 4 year old Malinois. He is not the most social dog so we keep him in his dog run much of the time when we are not working. He is fine with this as he just sleeps most of the time. When I do let him in the house he just hangs out by himself, he really does not care to get petted and does not solicit attention. But we leave he barks nonstop. I don’t think it is separation anxiety but I don’t know how to get him to stop. The neighbors are getting pretty sick of it.

Answer
I’ve had many, many dogs pass through my life over the past twenty five years and I know exactly what you’re talking about. I’ve found that a quality bark collar is worth its weight in gold when it comes to this type of problem. It’s so independent, reliably accurate, problem specific, and time saving that you’ll recommend one to all your friends who mention that they too have a barking problem. The time saved and the stress relief avoids further conflict between you and your partner.

Question #23
I will soon be getting either a German Shepherd or a Malinois for my department K9. This dog will be dual purpose (patrol and Explosive). I currently have a black lab who is 12, and three kids age 9,6, and 2. Are there any concerns about bringing this new dog into the home? I have heard that these dogs are just working dogs and should not be treated as a house pet when home, but I have heard the complete opposite as well. Could someone tell me what to expect when I get this new dog, and how my kids should act around it? Any advice would help. Thanks

Answer
There are few, if any, absolutes in the world of Police K-9 Handling, and the road to success is neither straight, nor narrow, but rather filled with abstract concepts in reasoning and complicated by broad variances of effective training techniques. So, with that being said, let’s look at the million dollar question, “what can you expect when you bring your new police dog home.” The range of reactions by the dog to your family are broad and to err on the side of caution is your most reasonable approach. I’ve rarely allowed my working dogs to socialize with anyone without me being present and monitoring the interactions, especially small children. What may seem fine and comfortable one minute can turn terribly tragic the next. The family, your family, becomes the dog’s pack and status positioning within it will occur naturally, which frequently involves aggressive posturing by the dog. Within the pack, challenges for space, food, possessions, attention and rank are among the most common that provoke aggressive displays that we as K-9 Handlers and pack leaders are responsible for either addressing and/or preventing. Allow the dog to adjust to his environment for a week, don’t rush things. The dog needs this time to become familiar with you and establish his bond with you first. When he is introduced to the family, it should be done on lead so that you can correct or prevent unwanted behavior. Your family, adults and children, should understand that your police dog may be sensitive to fast movements such as running or quickly pulling the hand away as the dog moves in to smell them. Fearful or anxious behavior by humans can be detected by the dog and prompt a defensive response of aggression by the dog. Invading the dog’s personal space by getting face to face, prolonged eye contact, trying to hug the dog, touching the rear quarters or the tail can all be disrespectful advances and cause the dog to react with aggression. As these introductions and continued family interactions proceed, it is your responsibility to observe both the dog’s reactions and those of your family. Immediately intervene at the first sign of inappropriate behavior. In short, you have to keep this new way of life in perspective for the welfare of your family, the liability for your agency and for the benefit of your dog’s career.

Question #24
Is it a god idea to train your dog a lot around gun fire? I take my dog to the range with me a few times a year while shoot just so he gets accustomed to the noise. I have been told this will damage his hearing. I also have a friend in another department that does a lot of bite work around gunfire, so much so that he cannot take his dog to the range as he spends too much time correcting him rather than shooting. He says he wants his dog like that so he will respond to gunfire.

Answer
When I first started my K-9 career, gunfire aggression was the mainstream training technique. I’ve since learned that having a dog that is aggressive to gunfire limits my abilities as a handler and it may also be jeopardizing some of my own safety. I firmly believe that I would place myself at more of a disadvantage by having my dog aggressive to gunfire than if he were neutral to it. Yes, you can damage your dog’s hearing if he’s constantly exposed to the gunfire without hearing protection. To prevent hearing loss in your dog, you can use large cotton balls or the foam wedges that are used to remove makeup. Both work well. The dog will try to dislodge the items, so keep checking on them. Training your dog to be neutral to gunfire can increase your ability to work gun battle scenarios with other officers as your backup with less worry about the dog biting them.

Question #25
I have a 3 year old Dutch Shepherd that is a single purpose narc dogs. She has a passive alert. My problem is when she is just a little bit out of my sight, for example in a back seat, she bites the first thing she can get to. So far, our department has bought a new seat for a Lexus, untold number of coats etc. I have a hard time correcting the behavior as she bites once, then lets go, usually without me even seeing it. Any suggestions?

Answer
My current police dog, a dual trained Belgium Malinois, exhibited similar behaving that you’re describing in your Dutch Shepherd. The first objective is to set up training scenarios that allow you to see the dog from all angles inside the car. Your observations are important to the timing of the corrections. The timing of the correction is critical in relation to the unwanted behavior. The most effective correction is one that is applied before the unwanted behavior occurs. For example, if we can observe the dog’s behavior prior to it biting a car seat and realize that it’s about to happen and give a verbal correction at that moment, it may cause the dog to not bite. I know that many times these bites happen with little or no preparatory behavior to warn us of what’s about to happen and in these cases the correction must be delivered immediately following. I’ve had the fortune of training my police dog with the use of an e-collar and it was quite effective, in fairly short order, in improving my dog’s behavior inside of a car he was searching. I qualify this technique with the prerequisite of properly introducing the dog to the use and acceptance of the e-collar as a reinforcement training tool. Many negative and adverse results on the dog’s performance to search for drug odors are likely and probable without your full and complete understanding of the use of the e-collar. It is, however, a highly effective tool for eliminating unwanted behavior when applied appropriately.