■ Above: It’s important to train like you play, in full gear, so that
reaching for specific gear becomes habitual.
think about those things. And we won’t have to if we train
ourselves to do them until they become second nature.
There’s a saying: “Poor practice makes for poor
performance.” (I left out a couple of Ps, but you get the
idea.) There’s a lot to that.
• Trust your dog’s indication — don’t think you know better
than he does. If you haven’t learned that lesson at least once
in the real world when you came up empty, only to have
the bad guy located somewhere that your dog indicated he
might be, then you’re either not being honest or you just
haven’t had it happen yet. We put a lot of time into these
dogs, and they will not lead us the wrong way on purpose. If
confronted with uncertainty, ask yourself, “When does my
dog exhibit this behavior?” If your answer is “only when he’s
close to human/narcotic/explosive odor,” then go with him.
Chances are, he’s right.
• Emphasize obedience and control. I’ve heard the following
argument more than once: “If I work too much OB, then
my dog will lose his drive.” Wrong. If your dog is a suitable,
street-worthy dog and you make OB a positive experience,
the only thing you will lose by working OB is your own
doubt that your dog will do as you say. Not many
people disagree that OB is the foundation of all
that we do, yet many people fail to maintain it.
When the time to perform has arrived, the time
to prepare has departed.
Ron Gunton has worked for the Mentor (OH) Police Department for
more than 22 years. He has been a K- 9 handler/trainer for more
than 12 years and works a patrol/narcotics K- 9 also trained for SWAT
applications. Ron is an accredited master trainer of Utility/Patrol &
Narcotics Detection with the North American Police Work Dog
Association and a canine evaluator for the State of Ohio. Contact
him at thunderzone@oh.rr.com.
