Police K-9 Magazine - September/October 2010

roll call

VOLUME 6

ISSUE 5

magazine

Publisher

Jeff Meyer

Editor-in-Chief

Joanne Wolfe

Contributing Writers
Steve Dunham, Kevin T. Fitzgerald,
Terry Fleck, Ron Gunton, John Lutenberg
John M. Peters, Linda Porter,
Cristian Tilihoi, Dick van Leenen

Photographers

John and Becki Johnston/ AceK9.com Heather Leider/ LeiderPhotography.com

Art Director
Marisa Dirks/M Design

Proofreader Heidi Parsons

Advertising Sales
Bud Simon and Tara Simon
262/431-4500
bud@PoliceK-9Magazine.com
tara@PoliceK-9Magazine.com

Business Manager Joanna Kwiatek-Meyer

Subscriptions
Police K- 9 Magazine
P.O. Box 280541
Lakewood, CO 80228-0541
Phone: 866/988-1545
Fax: 303/932-0328
Web: PoliceK-9Magazine.com

Police K- 9 Magazine is published bimonthly in January, March, May, July, September, and November by JMX2 Media Inc., Lakewood, Colorado. Subscription rates for six issues are $29 US and $35 Canada (print and digital); all other countries $60 for print. Digital issues only: $25 all countries. Back issues, if available, are $10 (print) $5 (digital) all countries.

Office of publication: JMX2 Media Inc., 14530 W. Bates Place, Lakewood, CO 80228-4870. Application to mail at Periodical Postage Rates is pending at Denver, CO, and additional mailing offices. Copyright © 2010 by JMX2 Media Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.

The opinions expressed in this magazine are those of the writers only. Police K- 9 Magazine does not endorse any training or deployment method and cannot be held liable for acts resulting from the use of any information presented herein.

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I

N TRAVELING AROUND the country, I get
to see a wide variety of K- 9 teams and training
styles. A lot of impressive work is being done,
and I am fortunate to be able to see so much of it.

I see one common problem, however. When I was first getting into our K- 9 unit, I was a decoy.

PHOTOGRAPH: LEIDER PHOTOGRAPHY

Sometimes I was told to make noise during a building search if the dog was having trouble locating me. Even then, that did not make much sense to me. I thought then and still do that a suspect will not help the dog find him, so why should we? Over the years, that has become one of my pet peeves. I can immediately spot a dog that has been trained using noise. Such dogs will search well, get to odor, then stop and listen. They will stand still, turn their head, etc., waiting for the noise that they have been trained to listen for. So with that type of training, we are taking the reason we have the dog (the nose) and teaching him to shut it off and listen. A dog trained in that manner will rarely bark until he hears a noise, and often will leave the suspect if called by the handler.

“I can
I have located several hundred suspects in real
searches. I have yet to have one hiss at the dog
to “bring him in,” shuffle his feet, make a
“knick,” cough, tap on the door, etc. A properly
trained dog will locate the odor, work to source,
and either detain or bite the suspect. If the dog
cannot get to the source, then he should bark
vigorously and continuously until called off by
the handler. Anything less than that is not safe
for the team.

a dog that has
been trained
using noise.”
I urge you to never, ever train your dog using noise to help him. I have
had this discussion with many trainers who use this technique. I am
often told that they do it to teach the dog, and then phase it out. Why
teach something you have to unteach later? Something that is powerful
for the dog is hard to extinguish. If he has achieved success by listening,
why would he stop that behavior? When I see the problems associated
with this technique I am told that they are “working on phasing out the
noise.” Yet it seems that many never get around to that step. I have
trained many dogs and I never make noise for them. If they cannot
“finish” (locate and bark), we simply remove the dog from the building
and set up a different, easier hide for the dog to build on.

My final argument with trainers on this issue is simple. Most of the dogs in the U.S. are dual purpose. So I ask the trainer who defends this type of training a simple question: “Can your dog find dope?” When they answer “Yes,” I ask, “How were they able to teach that behavior when the dope does not make noise?”