September 22, 2024 • 35 mins
Welcome to the latest episode of the Police K9 Training Podcast with your host, Jeff Meyer. In this episode, Jeff delves into some of the most common mistakes that can impede the success of canine units, based on his extensive experience traveling the country and conducting seminars.
To contact Jeff Meyer email him at: JeffMeyer1@outlook.com
To see more about Jeff and the classes that are offered go to: www.Policek9Training.net
Thanks to this shows sponsors:
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KATS K9 Record Keeping www.katsplatinum.com
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Ray Allen K9 https://www.rayallen.com/
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For information about the Colorado K9 Conference https://coloradok9conference.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey, everybody. Before we get to the show, as always, I want to thank a couple
of sponsors here real quick.
So you've been hearing me talk quite a bit about canine services down in New
Mexico with Kevin Sheldahl.
So Kevin can do different seminars. He can come to you.
You can go down there and he does all kinds of training and supplies canines
for single and dual purpose and detection.
(00:20):
Protection so you can go to classes down there in
new mexico in albuquerque or you
can have kevin come to you and he'll do canine audits or do professional
standards reviews any expert witness services so pretty much anything you need
need to do with our profession kevin sheldahl can do it so canineservices.com
check out k-9 services.com or give kevin a call at 505-250-4576 again 505.
(00:49):
250-4576. Give Kevin a call.
Even if it's just maybe a question on training or something,
Kevin's a resource that he's the kind of person that'd be happy to take your call and help you out.
So Canine Services is an outstanding company down in New Mexico.
Speaking of outstanding companies, Ray Allen Manufacturing. They've been around
for a long, long time. They make outstanding canine gear.
(01:11):
So just this month, I was teaching a few classes and And some of the handlers
needed to equip their dogs.
They were newer departments, and they needed to put together a list of all the stuff they needed.
The nice thing was is that we put together a pretty exhaustive list for a brand-new
unit of all the stuff they needed.
And then with one purchase order and one order, they were able to go to Ray
(01:33):
Allen and get everything they needed.
So Ray Allen even has some suggestions about kits to put together.
Or you can just flip through and figure out the leashes, the bowls,
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RayAllen.com, Ray Allen Manufacturing. They're out of Colorado Springs.
They are probably the number one equipment canine manufacturer that I recommend to everybody.
(01:57):
They stand behind all their products. They test all their products with handlers
before they ever hit their website.
So check out RayAllen.com.
Music.
This is the Police Canine Training Podcast with Jeff Meyer.
Join us for each episode to get real-world advice from canine professionals
(02:20):
who have experience on the street.
Each episode will focus on up-to-date information that you can use on the street.
Spend about 30 minutes with us each week as part of your training day.
Our goal at Police Canine Training is to make every canine team be the best they can be.
Music.
(02:43):
Welcome to the Police K9 Training Podcast. I'm your host, Jeff Meyer.
Today, I've got some reader mail, if you will.
It usually comes in through emails, but I had asked a while back for some common
questions or questions and answers, and then that also turned into a lot of
emails just about, you know, when I read the questions, it made me think about
as I travel around the country doing different seminars,
(03:06):
I do both patrol and detection,
I get to see maybe some some common weaknesses across our industry,
some very common themes that you see sometimes when you're trying to help people
with issues they're having. So I thought I'd go over today.
I'm going to do a question and answer show real soon.
But I thought today I'd just kind of talk about just some common things that
(03:30):
you see that are impeding people from being as successful as they can be in their canine unit. it.
And it's stuff that most of the
time can be fixed and just some food for thought for you to think about.
So when I'm traveling and I see a dog that isn't performing the way he should,
I start looking at it and I'd have to decide, is the dog just not the right dog for the job?
(03:56):
Is he not the right dog for the handler?
Is he a dog that just doesn't have the right temperament
to do the job that they're asking him to do is he not the right dog for the
environment he's working in you know maybe if you work in an environment that
is real challenging maybe that dog would would function well without you know
all the issues around it you know for example I know that several years back
(04:18):
I worked with some of the dogs that work in the subway in New York City and,
And the stress those dogs are under being in that many people and having to
be in the subway all day long.
The handler was telling me that they washed out a lot of dogs and then those
dogs that turned out to be good somewhere else.
Just because it took a real special dog to take that. So when I first look at
(04:40):
a dog and I'm problem solving for agency, the first thing I'm going to kind
of look at is the genetics of the dog and try to get a good read on him.
So one of the common things I see is a lack of education about canine psychology.
So most of the associations and different programs, everybody talks about canine
(05:02):
psychology a little bit different and some degree, you know,
some terminology is different.
But what I do see a lot of times is handlers who don't have any even basic fundamental
understanding about drives and what makes a dog do what they do.
So, if you're looking at a dog and first thing I want to do is try to do some type of selection test.
(05:27):
And the selection test should be to be determined if, you know,
is this dog, does he have the proper drives to do the task you're asking?
And if the dog has those drives after, you know, and it can be as easy as if it's a detector dog.
Obviously, we're going to test the hunt for the dog. We're also going to test
the environmentals. and a few other tests that sometimes are more anecdotal
(05:50):
than they are scientific.
So for example, one of the things I always tell everybody when I'm testing a detector dog,
there's no science behind this, but I can tell you anecdotally that when I go
to throw a toy for a detector dog candidate, I really like to watch and just
see how that dog picks the toy up.
So some dogs, when you throw the toy, they'll run over, slow down,
(06:12):
and then methodically pick it up.
Those dogs clearly will work fine but what
i really like sometimes is the dog that when he's running
he almost runs his head into the ground and pounces on
the toy because it just shows me a level of commitment to that toy that the
dog you know that that he's forgotten about everything including his own personal
safety until you can get that toy back in his mouth so again not a scientific
(06:37):
thing but i can tell you from testing a lot of dogs over the years that anecdotally
when I see that, it helps.
So there's quite a few things that you can, when you learn the canine psychology
of it, then when you test a lot of dogs,
you start learning things that you prefer or don't prefer because your experience
in training those types of dogs tells you, you know, I like it when I see this.
(07:00):
I remember I bought that dog and then he worked out that way.
So sometimes we can get a little biased. If you've tested too many dogs and
trained too many dogs, you start getting biased and you want a specific dog.
And I've been guilty of that in the past and recently I've been trying to get
much better about not not getting a dog that is like all the other dogs I've
tested and just try to look at them more independently.
(07:21):
All of this ties into if when I, when I first look at dogs for an agency and
I'm, and I'm doing all that, when I go back and I find out where the dog come
from, how'd you get the dog? How'd you acquire them?
Many times it's handler who basically had to acquire the dog,
but did not have the expertise to get a dog at that point in their canine handling career.
(07:44):
So a common problem that I see a lot of times is that the dog is,
is selected or acquired required without having somebody who knows a lot about selecting dogs.
So if you're in that position, and even if you've been a handler for a little
bit, if you haven't trained a lot
of dogs and you don't have a strong understanding of canine psychology,
(08:05):
and that can be, you know, like
you guys that listen to me know that my background is through Utah Post.
There's a very comprehensive part of the Utah Post manual that deals with canine
psychology and drives and character traits.
Some people say it's overly complicated.
Some different people have simplified the same concepts just and combined several
(08:28):
different drives into one.
I don't care what you do, as long as you have an understanding that works for you.
And when you're reading a dog, you're using some psychology of the dog to understand
what is driving that dog to do what they're doing.
And that just takes some level of education, and then it really takes experience.
So, again, the problem I see a lot of times is the dog that the agency has acquired
(08:54):
is not the right dog for the program, and usually that's because when they acquired
the dog, they didn't use...
Somebody who has a little more experience or enough experience to acquire that dog.
And after you look at the drives and the character traits of the dog and,
you know, for the task, then also there's a matter of, you know,
(09:14):
is it the right dog for the program?
Maybe, you know, certain agencies need a certain style of dog based on their training.
So there is a whole lot to picking a dog.
And it's one of those things that you really can't beat experience.
It just takes selecting a lot of dogs, making mistakes, selecting dogs with,
(09:35):
you know, other handlers and seeing how that goes.
That experience is really, really not anything that you can, you can bypass.
So if you don't have a lot of experience doing it, reach out to somebody in
the area that, that does and start working with them.
Even when they say another agency is buying dogs
go on the day they're buying dogs and watch them
(09:56):
and spend some time selection testing with
another agency even if it's not for you because it's just that experience of
looking at green dog candidates and then following up and seeing how those dogs
are progressing through the training so that's one of my first common mistakes
is having acquired a dog that's not right for the program,
(10:17):
either because it's not sufficient in the drives or it's just the wrong dog
for the program. So very, very common mistake.
The next common mistake I see is that when I talk to departments about their
training and kind of go through it, and this can be patrol or detection.
And when I really talk to them about, you know, explain your training day, what are you doing?
(10:38):
What a lot of times what they're doing is they're testing their dog and they're not training.
So what I mean is if it's on a detection day and you're working dope or bombs
or whatever your detection is, and I'll just watch, I won't give a lot of my
philosophy. I just want to see how they're doing it.
And when I see that on the training day that the first round of hides is put
(11:00):
out, the handler that's going to run them comes in.
If all of those hides are unknown and.
And all the hides are put out in areas that it's mostly just to be able to say,
you know, using a narc dog as an example, we have four rooms we're going to
put out, three or four odors, one odor in each room.
And then we can do a training sheet and say that on this training day,
(11:22):
my dog hit coke, meth, heroin, and, you know, any other odors you have, fentanyl.
And be able to think, okay, I've got a training sheet that shows my dog hit
all those. And maybe there's a few distractions or diversions out in the room. We didn't hit those.
And that's the end of it. and they're all unknown to the handler,
then what we've really done is mostly test the handler and the dog. We've tested them.
(11:42):
We haven't set those hides up with a purpose of making the dog better,
making the handler better.
So when using detection as an example, when next time you're setting out a hide
for a detection, stop and ask yourself, why am I putting it here?
Is it, have the dogs done high hides recently?
Let me put up something high for the purpose of working high hides.
(12:05):
Have they done this or that?
And really, while you have that training aid in your hand, stop and pause and
think, you know, what is the purpose? Why am I putting it here?
And is it going to make the dog a little bit better today?
Or are we just running the same routine we did last week and for the last four
(12:26):
months to get a training sheet showing that we've done these odors?
I suspect that for the people that are listening to this, if you're really honest
with yourself, many, many of us have been guilty over times of just trying to
get, you know, get the odors in and then probably move on to the,
you know, patrol stuff if you're dual purpose.
So if you're training, then train. When you're testing, test,
(12:47):
but really understand the difference.
So if you're training, I believe that a lot of the hides should be known to the handler.
They should be set up with a purpose. us. And as a handler, you have to be a
good enough handler to let your dog go past a hide that you know is there and
then work back towards it.
And not just, you know, you see some, the problem with known hides for some
(13:08):
handlers is they're very casual in the whole room.
Then when they get to the area where the hide is, then they slow down and over-present
and basically just tell the dog it's right here.
So learn how to be a good enough handler that if you move at the same speed
and if If your dog goes by it, okay, let's figure out why didn't it trip his trigger.
Let's go back the other direction. Let's let it sit longer. Let's look at it.
(13:31):
And doing that, you're going to get your dog to be better because you're going
to analyze really why didn't he do it.
And as a known hide, you'll be able to watch the different patterns in your dog.
When it's unknown, you're guessing, I don't know, did he hit it?
Did he not? I don't know where it is. I didn't see the subtle changes of his behavior.
(13:53):
So understand the difference between testing and training. And I think a lot
of people mix those things up.
So train with a purpose. And when you're training, don't test.
And when you're putting out hides, you know, give it with a purpose.
I'm going to talk real quick about detector dog hides too. When I set out detector
detect a dog hides besides training with a purpose and really thinking,
(14:16):
what are we working on today and set up, you know, different packaging, different areas,
different, whatever it is, diversions and distractions.
Then I like to look at, there's three parts to any type of detection for the hide.
And it's basically the search, the odor, and the indication.
And the search to me is the most important part.
(14:38):
Then the dog needs to know the odor and the indication is not as important But
I look at those three parts and all three of those are either easy or hard.
So what I mean is if I take an easy odor to a dog and I take a decent amount
of heroin and throw it in a desk drawer and he's used to checking desk drawers
at nose height and it's in a real sterile classroom that hasn't been used all summer.
(15:02):
That's an easy odor because the dog knows the odor.
An easy search because he doesn't have to work very hard to find it.
And then it's nose height then there's nothing around them so it's an easy indication,
so in my mind when i'm setting out that odor i would think that this is an easy easy easy.
And if I change one of those up and say it's a new odor and I'm going to try
(15:23):
to start imprinting that dog on a new odor and he doesn't know it very well,
then I could do the same hide.
It's in a desk drawer, but it's an odor he's not been exposed to very much at
all. And it's in the same school.
Now the search is easy, the odor is hard, and the indication is easy.
So that would be, I would think in my mind, that's an easy, hard, easy.
(15:46):
Easy so when i start quantifying my my hides that way of doing easy easy easy hard easy easy,
then i really start varying up my training hides so the only one that you would
never want to do is think to yourself
okay this one is a hard hard hard because that would be a hard odor.
Hard search and a hard indication so if it's a hard odor and the dog doesn't
(16:08):
know the odor yet then that's when we're going to try and imprint the dog and
kind of make it an easier search So we're not going to take an odor the dog
doesn't know and put it in the ceiling tile and make the dog kind of work,
you know, an odor that he can't really get to.
When you start understanding those things, training with a purpose and understanding,
you know, is it easy or hard on different parts of the search,
(16:29):
all of a sudden your training aid placement becomes a lot better and more methodical
and with a purpose, which then all of a sudden your training days become better
and more methodical and with a purpose.
Instead of just throwing out an odor, having everybody run it unknown and testing
the handler and the dog to a certain point and calling it training.
(16:51):
So second big mistake that I see around there, around the country is not understanding
the difference between training and testing.
The same exact examples can be said for if you're doing a building search for
a person with your patrol dog.
Most of those should probably be known to the handler, so that way the handler
(17:11):
can watch the dog, see how they're working it.
Don't just do a scenario where you're trying to train building searches and
it's all unknown to the handler.
Now, the caveat to both of those is that we need scenario training.
So if we're done the basic skills training for the night and we decide to run
some scenarios, scenarios oftentimes are the same as testing because it should
(17:34):
be unknown to the handler.
It should put the handler and the dog under some amount of stress and some decisions to be made.
So understand the difference between training, testing, and scenarios.
And all three are important.
Testing would be the least important.
Training is probably the most common one. And what we need to do more as an
(17:55):
industry is probably more scenario stuff.
So when your training gets better, then you can start really moving those right into scenarios.
So, that might be after you've done a few known hides, then set up a difficult
scenario on the patrol side or something where the handler is going to have
to make some decisions during the scenario.
Maybe the dog is going to have to go through some physical barriers,
(18:18):
whatever you want, but set up that scenario so it's both stressful to the handler
and the dog and challenging, and then work through and debrief it.
You know, and it should be scenarios where if all your scenarios,
everybody is banging out the scenarios and everybody's high fiving and saying
how great you are, your scenarios aren't challenging enough.
So it shouldn't be scenarios where you're losing and someone's jumping out of
(18:40):
the ceiling and shooting the handler in the back where it's just a lose scenario.
But they should be scenarios where they're difficult enough that the handlers
are going to be challenged.
And when it's all said and done, everybody can admit, you know what,
I could have done this better.
I could have done, you know, this or that during that part of the scenario.
And it's going to be food for thought. So everybody's going to be able to think
(19:02):
up new ideas as they're doing them.
So understand the difference between training testing and scenarios
another common problem that i see is
we don't socialize the dogs enough i like
a social dog to begin with and i like a dog
that has been socialized to where people are
just part of the environment so what i mean is that you know if i talk about
(19:24):
detector dogs when i was working my bomb dog he was a good looking chocolate
lab and had that you know real bright personality that would attract people
to him and i can't tell say how many times as I was searching with him,
people would stop and they'd say, oh gosh,
I wish I could pet him. And I'd say, sure, you can pet him.
And I'd walk over, we'd be doing a search at, you know, maybe the convention
center or something. I'd stop what I was doing for a minute and let him pet my dog.
(19:48):
That is pretty foreign to most people because, you know, we're taught,
don't let anybody touch your dog. If somebody pets your dog,
they're going to be off task.
They're going to always want it or whatever. What I found is it's the opposite.
People petting my my dog was so common to him that mostly it was almost an annoyance to my dog.
It was like, you know, I got to stand here and let them pet,
(20:09):
pet me for a second. Then I get to go back to work.
Dogs that are under socialized a lot of times, they almost crave that attention.
And then they're looking at people like, oh man, I really wish I could get petted.
And they'll be more distracted as they're looking at people.
So socializing your dog, especially the social dogs, the ones,
you know, there's some dogs that are not social that obviously you're not going
(20:32):
to let get petted all the time and stuff.
Most of our dogs are social by nature, and when I see the super unsocial dogs,
it's a lot of times it's a product of the training and the way the dog's being handled.
So if I take a dog that maybe isn't super social to begin with,
but through time maybe would enjoy being around people better and would tolerate
(20:57):
it, But if I take that same dog and every time they're near somebody,
I pull them back and I get tense on my leash, then that dog's going to start
thinking, well, people are bad.
And then we're going to get those dogs that want to be bad when they see people
and snap at them or lunge at them.
So really understand how to socialize a dog properly.
(21:18):
And again, obviously there's a few patrol dogs out there that are just not social
dogs that we don't want to take a chance with. But they are the exception.
And I don't see them very often. And over the years of doing this,
a lot of the strongest dogs,
the dogs that have, you know, very solid credentials to the work they've done
on the street and finding bad guys and having no problems with physical apprehensions.
(21:43):
Most of those dogs are super social dogs that you can pet and play with.
And those dogs have been trained. They understand the difference.
They understand that there's people that are not in play.
And then there's people that I get to go search for and then apprehend when
I find them, if appropriate.
So understand the difference and understand that the benefits of socializing
(22:06):
your dog are going to help you tremendously.
It makes everything easier on your dog. When you're around your tactical teams,
they're used to being around them.
And socialization, again, is not just putting the muzzle on the dog and then
having everybody who doesn't want to be around the dog barely pet That needs
to be an ongoing program from the very beginning.
So one of the things I really do like, you know, if I'm testing dogs and I've
(22:31):
got three that I like and I'm only going to buy one, it's pretty easy to tell
which one is more social.
And I will always go for the social dogs because those are the ones that you
have fewer bad bites with, in my opinion.
You have fewer accidents, you know, biting cops.
And a lot of people think, well, if he's so friendly, he won't go bite a bad
guy. I can show you examples of lots and lots of very, very strong dogs that
(22:54):
were extremely social also there.
So work on your socialization. If you haven't, the detector dogs,
the floppy ear dogs, I think the more that you withhold.
Them from being around people, the more people become a distraction,
either out, they start to, the fear isn't, is a little bit too strong of a word,
but depending on how you're reacting, If you're pulling them away from people
(23:18):
all the time, they definitely are going to be adverse to being around people
and they're going to become a distraction.
If you let people simply pet your dog, which is good for our relationships with
the public, and then it's good for the dog too.
So I know there's some agencies that have a do not pet rule and they put do
not pet all over their dogs.
(23:39):
Hopefully this maybe makes you think just a little bit about,
is that the best way to do things?
But not socializing a dog is another pretty common problem that I see that sometimes
issues that I see could be fixed or at least helped a lot by doing a little
bit better socialization of the dog.
(23:59):
And then another one that I see, another problem that I see is just not having
the education for the handlers.
So education can be either go into the formal seminars, some of the big seminars,
could be going to training classes when they come into town,
could be traveling to a training class to do hands-on stuff.
(24:20):
Or if some department's just don't have the budget and just are not as willing
to send handlers out for travel, which is a shame.
All handlers should be able to do some traveling to get that extra education
to bring back to their unit.
It doesn't mean the whole unit has to travel to it, but one,
(24:40):
two handlers go to an event with or without their dogs, depending on what the
event is, then bring it all back to their agency.
It's a shame when some agencies have almost a no-travel rule because it's very insular then.
But if you're in that situation or it's rare that your agency lets you go out
of state or even far away from your own city to do travel for education,
(25:05):
then start meeting handlers from other agencies and start training together
in a group on a fairly regular basis.
Basis so at least you're working with
other agencies you're seeing other ways of doing things good or
bad you might see some things it's like man i'm glad we don't do that anymore
or we never did but i know i don't like that technique or maybe some of those
(25:27):
agencies have been to a new class they're bringing it back to their agency and
you can jump in and kind of learn whatever they learned in those classes because
police dog handling is an ever -evolving profession.
And the way I train a detector dog today is very different than what I did,
the way I did it even four or five years ago.
(25:47):
And it's very, very, very different
than I did 10 years ago because I've embraced a lot of the science.
I've changed a lot of my methodology and it's changed a lot.
If I was still the same trainer that I was for detection stuff.
10 years ago, I could still get it done, but I think I'm turning out an even
(26:07):
better product now because I'm always trying to learn.
I'm always trying to see new techniques and learn from what other people are
learning, trying, and coming up with as far as training.
So the agencies that are limiting the educational opportunities to a canine
unit are really not letting their canines unit thrive the way they should.
(26:28):
And it's a shame because canine units are expensive and there's a big investment
in putting personnel into a canine unit and then outfitting a car and buying
a dog and paying for the dog care,
paying for the vet bills and paying for the food and all the other stuff that
goes along with having a canine unit.
And then they fall short on something that in the grand scheme of things in
(26:48):
their canine budget travel to some type of educational class maybe once a year
for a couple of handlers and rotate that around.
That's really a small part of their line item budget and a lot of agencies still
balk at it and that comes from you know some some people just think well if
you go out of state to a training thing it's just going to be a.
(27:09):
Junket and you're really not going to train so if you're lucky enough to go
to you know any of the big seminars or out of state with your dog to train or
whatever make sure you take that you know for what it is and it's it's your
agency is sending you there to work get get some new education, bring some stuff back.
So don't take that for, you know, that I got sent to this city or that city
(27:32):
and I'm just going to mess around and then come back and not know anything better.
So I see that mistake sometimes where people treat that as a junket or a party
instead of the training that it's supposed to be.
So hopefully this may get some agencies to think about out, increasing their
training budget and letting them go out and do some types of training outside
(27:56):
their normal area, or at least train with other agencies.
Finally, you know, one of the things I want to talk about is basically it's
just the public perception of the canine unit.
So I have a lot of people tell me, you know, oh, the public supports our canine unit. And they do.
Almost everywhere people donate money to canines. They'll help buy the dog.
(28:16):
But what they're picturing is that dog that's sitting next to the handler or
watching a little obedience routine.
They're not picturing, especially on the patrol side, what that dog does.
We accept it. We go out and we hunt bad people. and our dogs at times will make
contact with those bad people and bite them.
To us, it's just part of what we do. It's an important part of what we do.
(28:39):
And when, as canine handlers, a lot of times we'll look at what we're doing.
And it's like we'll look at the dog, and it's like the dog's doing a really good job.
When another person sees what we're doing, they're going to have a different
reaction and think, my God, that dog's biting a person. So, understand that
our public perception goes as far as it can, but we need to be professional.
(29:04):
So, think through how much do we emphasize the bite part of our work?
Because really, what we do is we don't bite that many people. We're a locating tool.
So here's an example. If you do a demo and you have your dog out there for five
minutes, and the first thing you do is have someone in a bite suit and you're
doing bite work the whole time in front of them, you do really no show and tell
(29:27):
with the dog as far as the obedience.
Hopefully the dog's social enough that in a lot of our demos,
we would let people pet our dogs, which I know is different than a lot of people.
If you don't do some stuff like that and all you do is just focus on the bite
work, then when the video comes out from your body camera that's a justified use of force,
(29:48):
it's still going to be something that some people in the public that did donate
money for the dogs at first, all of a sudden are like, whoa, I don't like that.
That's not something I'm into. to. So understand that a lot of the stuff that
we put out emphasizes the dogs and their teeth,
but when we discuss it, it's like the dogs are a search tool and a locating tool, not a biting tool.
(30:14):
So when we're doing all that, the t-shirts that show the dog with a snarly look.
The challenge coins that have the big snarly look on the dog,
all of those things have some meaning canine that are as different to other people.
So again, I just want to throw it out there to have you think and take a look
at any of the stuff you give out, any of the demos you do, pictures you put out.
(30:38):
If it's a picture on Instagram of the dog at the end of the leash barking and
baring his teeth and snarling,
is that the image that you want to have when you're sitting in court trying
to show what a professional canine unit you have and that your canine is
generally a locating tool and really rarely ever bites, but then you have a
whole bunch of pictures and TikTok videos of doing different bite work and different things.
(31:03):
So think about public perception as it relates to your public demonstrations
and then all of the different stuff that has pictures of your dog.
So that's one final thought of some of the common mistakes.
So hopefully this quick show is just going to give you some food for thought. lot.
Maybe there's some things now you're going to think about for your training
(31:24):
or for different things for how you're going to acquire dogs and train with other agencies.
So just some ideas I wanted to pop on here and throw out there for you guys to think about.
Hopefully, I get good feedback from this. If you guys want me to come up with a few more, I have more.
Or email me some suggestions of some other mistakes that you think,
and I'll do a follow-up show for this.
(31:47):
So thanks, everybody. Thanks for listening, and thanks for the support of the
show. And I'll be back next week with another one.
Okay, so before we wrap up the whole show, I want to thank a couple more sponsors.
Bob Eden does KatsPlatinum.com, K-A-T-S, Platinum.com, record-keeping software.
I talked to some people recently who switched from another company that is switching
(32:09):
over to CATS. And when I asked them, you know, why are you switching?
The number one reason they decided to switch was how flexible CATS is.
You can really make it your own program with all the different ways you can
change settings and change all the fields you want. So super flexible program.
It's an excellent records management program.
And it was the first one out of the gate of her doing online record keeping.
(32:32):
So there's a lot of choices out there, but it's the original one.
It's always being updated and super flexible and excellent customer service.
So if you call Katz for customer service, you'll be talking to Bob Eden,
who's the owner of it, and the inventor of it.
So check out KatzPlatinum.com for all your record-keeping needs.
(32:55):
And finally, AceK9.com. They do heat alarms. They do door poppers.
Outstanding product also. They have been around for quite a while.
I really like the heat alarm function that they have that will talk to your cell phone.
So no matter where you're at if you have cell technology available
to your car and do yourself which you know your cell phone
(33:15):
you're going to be able to communicate with your car check the temperature just
pull up the screen and see what's going on in your car and if your cell phone
has not heard from the car in a while it'll start letting you know go check
on your dog so there's a lot of redundancies built into the ace canine system
just for the added safety of the dog so really good product when people come
to me and they're putting canines together together, I put a list together.
(33:38):
And of course the heat alarm is way up on the top of the list and the product
that I always recommend is acecanine.com.
So John and Becky Johnson are the owners there. And when you call there,
if you have a technical question, you'll probably get routed through and talk to John himself.
He'll be able to help you with anything you deem to do to, to get your product
working correctly. So acecanine.com for your heat alarm and door popper needs.
(34:01):
Thanks everybody. Be safe and I will be back in about a.
Music.
Hey, everybody. Before we get to the show, as always, I want to thank a couple
of sponsors here real quick.
So you've been hearing me talk quite a bit about canine services down in New
Mexico with Kevin Sheldahl.
So Kevin can do different seminars. He can come to you.
You can go down there and he does all kinds of training and supplies canines
for single and dual purpose and detection.
(00:20):
Protection so you can go to classes down there in
new mexico in albuquerque or you
can have kevin come to you and he'll do canine audits or do professional
standards reviews any expert witness services so pretty much anything you need
need to do with our profession kevin sheldahl can do it so canineservices.com
check out k-9 services.com or give kevin a call at 505-250-4576 again 505.
(00:49):
250-4576. Give Kevin a call.
Even if it's just maybe a question on training or something,
Kevin's a resource that he's the kind of person that'd be happy to take your call and help you out.
So Canine Services is an outstanding company down in New Mexico.
Speaking of outstanding companies, Ray Allen Manufacturing. They've been around
for a long, long time. They make outstanding canine gear.
(01:11):
So just this month, I was teaching a few classes and And some of the handlers
needed to equip their dogs.
They were newer departments, and they needed to put together a list of all the stuff they needed.
The nice thing was is that we put together a pretty exhaustive list for a brand-new
unit of all the stuff they needed.
And then with one purchase order and one order, they were able to go to Ray
(01:33):
Allen and get everything they needed.
So Ray Allen even has some suggestions about kits to put together.
Or you can just flip through and figure out the leashes, the bowls,
everything you want from start to finish if you're just starting out.
RayAllen.com, Ray Allen Manufacturing. They're out of Colorado Springs.
They are probably the number one equipment canine manufacturer that I recommend to everybody.
(01:57):
They stand behind all their products. They test all their products with handlers
before they ever hit their website.
So check out RayAllen.com.
Music.
This is the Police Canine Training Podcast with Jeff Meyer.
Join us for each episode to get real-world advice from canine professionals
(02:20):
who have experience on the street.
Each episode will focus on up-to-date information that you can use on the street.
Spend about 30 minutes with us each week as part of your training day.
Our goal at Police Canine Training is to make every canine team be the best they can be.
Music.
(02:43):
Welcome to the Police K9 Training Podcast. I'm your host, Jeff Meyer.
Today, I've got some reader mail, if you will.
It usually comes in through emails, but I had asked a while back for some common
questions or questions and answers, and then that also turned into a lot of
emails just about, you know, when I read the questions, it made me think about
as I travel around the country doing different seminars,
(03:06):
I do both patrol and detection,
I get to see maybe some some common weaknesses across our industry,
some very common themes that you see sometimes when you're trying to help people
with issues they're having. So I thought I'd go over today.
I'm going to do a question and answer show real soon.
But I thought today I'd just kind of talk about just some common things that
(03:30):
you see that are impeding people from being as successful as they can be in their canine unit. it.
And it's stuff that most of the
time can be fixed and just some food for thought for you to think about.
So when I'm traveling and I see a dog that isn't performing the way he should,
I start looking at it and I'd have to decide, is the dog just not the right dog for the job?
(03:56):
Is he not the right dog for the handler?
Is he a dog that just doesn't have the right temperament
to do the job that they're asking him to do is he not the right dog for the
environment he's working in you know maybe if you work in an environment that
is real challenging maybe that dog would would function well without you know
all the issues around it you know for example I know that several years back
(04:18):
I worked with some of the dogs that work in the subway in New York City and,
And the stress those dogs are under being in that many people and having to
be in the subway all day long.
The handler was telling me that they washed out a lot of dogs and then those
dogs that turned out to be good somewhere else.
Just because it took a real special dog to take that. So when I first look at
(04:40):
a dog and I'm problem solving for agency, the first thing I'm going to kind
of look at is the genetics of the dog and try to get a good read on him.
So one of the common things I see is a lack of education about canine psychology.
So most of the associations and different programs, everybody talks about canine
(05:02):
psychology a little bit different and some degree, you know,
some terminology is different.
But what I do see a lot of times is handlers who don't have any even basic fundamental
understanding about drives and what makes a dog do what they do.
So, if you're looking at a dog and first thing I want to do is try to do some type of selection test.
(05:27):
And the selection test should be to be determined if, you know,
is this dog, does he have the proper drives to do the task you're asking?
And if the dog has those drives after, you know, and it can be as easy as if it's a detector dog.
Obviously, we're going to test the hunt for the dog. We're also going to test
the environmentals. and a few other tests that sometimes are more anecdotal
(05:50):
than they are scientific.
So for example, one of the things I always tell everybody when I'm testing a detector dog,
there's no science behind this, but I can tell you anecdotally that when I go
to throw a toy for a detector dog candidate, I really like to watch and just
see how that dog picks the toy up.
So some dogs, when you throw the toy, they'll run over, slow down,
(06:12):
and then methodically pick it up.
Those dogs clearly will work fine but what
i really like sometimes is the dog that when he's running
he almost runs his head into the ground and pounces on
the toy because it just shows me a level of commitment to that toy that the
dog you know that that he's forgotten about everything including his own personal
safety until you can get that toy back in his mouth so again not a scientific
(06:37):
thing but i can tell you from testing a lot of dogs over the years that anecdotally
when I see that, it helps.
So there's quite a few things that you can, when you learn the canine psychology
of it, then when you test a lot of dogs,
you start learning things that you prefer or don't prefer because your experience
in training those types of dogs tells you, you know, I like it when I see this.
(07:00):
I remember I bought that dog and then he worked out that way.
So sometimes we can get a little biased. If you've tested too many dogs and
trained too many dogs, you start getting biased and you want a specific dog.
And I've been guilty of that in the past and recently I've been trying to get
much better about not not getting a dog that is like all the other dogs I've
tested and just try to look at them more independently.
(07:21):
All of this ties into if when I, when I first look at dogs for an agency and
I'm, and I'm doing all that, when I go back and I find out where the dog come
from, how'd you get the dog? How'd you acquire them?
Many times it's handler who basically had to acquire the dog,
but did not have the expertise to get a dog at that point in their canine handling career.
(07:44):
So a common problem that I see a lot of times is that the dog is,
is selected or acquired required without having somebody who knows a lot about selecting dogs.
So if you're in that position, and even if you've been a handler for a little
bit, if you haven't trained a lot
of dogs and you don't have a strong understanding of canine psychology,
(08:05):
and that can be, you know, like
you guys that listen to me know that my background is through Utah Post.
There's a very comprehensive part of the Utah Post manual that deals with canine
psychology and drives and character traits.
Some people say it's overly complicated.
Some different people have simplified the same concepts just and combined several
(08:28):
different drives into one.
I don't care what you do, as long as you have an understanding that works for you.
And when you're reading a dog, you're using some psychology of the dog to understand
what is driving that dog to do what they're doing.
And that just takes some level of education, and then it really takes experience.
So, again, the problem I see a lot of times is the dog that the agency has acquired
(08:54):
is not the right dog for the program, and usually that's because when they acquired
the dog, they didn't use...
Somebody who has a little more experience or enough experience to acquire that dog.
And after you look at the drives and the character traits of the dog and,
you know, for the task, then also there's a matter of, you know,
(09:14):
is it the right dog for the program?
Maybe, you know, certain agencies need a certain style of dog based on their training.
So there is a whole lot to picking a dog.
And it's one of those things that you really can't beat experience.
It just takes selecting a lot of dogs, making mistakes, selecting dogs with,
(09:35):
you know, other handlers and seeing how that goes.
That experience is really, really not anything that you can, you can bypass.
So if you don't have a lot of experience doing it, reach out to somebody in
the area that, that does and start working with them.
Even when they say another agency is buying dogs
go on the day they're buying dogs and watch them
(09:56):
and spend some time selection testing with
another agency even if it's not for you because it's just that experience of
looking at green dog candidates and then following up and seeing how those dogs
are progressing through the training so that's one of my first common mistakes
is having acquired a dog that's not right for the program,
(10:17):
either because it's not sufficient in the drives or it's just the wrong dog
for the program. So very, very common mistake.
The next common mistake I see is that when I talk to departments about their
training and kind of go through it, and this can be patrol or detection.
And when I really talk to them about, you know, explain your training day, what are you doing?
(10:38):
What a lot of times what they're doing is they're testing their dog and they're not training.
So what I mean is if it's on a detection day and you're working dope or bombs
or whatever your detection is, and I'll just watch, I won't give a lot of my
philosophy. I just want to see how they're doing it.
And when I see that on the training day that the first round of hides is put
(11:00):
out, the handler that's going to run them comes in.
If all of those hides are unknown and.
And all the hides are put out in areas that it's mostly just to be able to say,
you know, using a narc dog as an example, we have four rooms we're going to
put out, three or four odors, one odor in each room.
And then we can do a training sheet and say that on this training day,
(11:22):
my dog hit coke, meth, heroin, and, you know, any other odors you have, fentanyl.
And be able to think, okay, I've got a training sheet that shows my dog hit
all those. And maybe there's a few distractions or diversions out in the room. We didn't hit those.
And that's the end of it. and they're all unknown to the handler,
then what we've really done is mostly test the handler and the dog. We've tested them.
(11:42):
We haven't set those hides up with a purpose of making the dog better,
making the handler better.
So when using detection as an example, when next time you're setting out a hide
for a detection, stop and ask yourself, why am I putting it here?
Is it, have the dogs done high hides recently?
Let me put up something high for the purpose of working high hides.
(12:05):
Have they done this or that?
And really, while you have that training aid in your hand, stop and pause and
think, you know, what is the purpose? Why am I putting it here?
And is it going to make the dog a little bit better today?
Or are we just running the same routine we did last week and for the last four
(12:26):
months to get a training sheet showing that we've done these odors?
I suspect that for the people that are listening to this, if you're really honest
with yourself, many, many of us have been guilty over times of just trying to
get, you know, get the odors in and then probably move on to the,
you know, patrol stuff if you're dual purpose.
So if you're training, then train. When you're testing, test,
(12:47):
but really understand the difference.
So if you're training, I believe that a lot of the hides should be known to the handler.
They should be set up with a purpose. us. And as a handler, you have to be a
good enough handler to let your dog go past a hide that you know is there and
then work back towards it.
And not just, you know, you see some, the problem with known hides for some
(13:08):
handlers is they're very casual in the whole room.
Then when they get to the area where the hide is, then they slow down and over-present
and basically just tell the dog it's right here.
So learn how to be a good enough handler that if you move at the same speed
and if If your dog goes by it, okay, let's figure out why didn't it trip his trigger.
Let's go back the other direction. Let's let it sit longer. Let's look at it.
(13:31):
And doing that, you're going to get your dog to be better because you're going
to analyze really why didn't he do it.
And as a known hide, you'll be able to watch the different patterns in your dog.
When it's unknown, you're guessing, I don't know, did he hit it?
Did he not? I don't know where it is. I didn't see the subtle changes of his behavior.
(13:53):
So understand the difference between testing and training. And I think a lot
of people mix those things up.
So train with a purpose. And when you're training, don't test.
And when you're putting out hides, you know, give it with a purpose.
I'm going to talk real quick about detector dog hides too. When I set out detector
detect a dog hides besides training with a purpose and really thinking,
(14:16):
what are we working on today and set up, you know, different packaging, different areas,
different, whatever it is, diversions and distractions.
Then I like to look at, there's three parts to any type of detection for the hide.
And it's basically the search, the odor, and the indication.
And the search to me is the most important part.
(14:38):
Then the dog needs to know the odor and the indication is not as important But
I look at those three parts and all three of those are either easy or hard.
So what I mean is if I take an easy odor to a dog and I take a decent amount
of heroin and throw it in a desk drawer and he's used to checking desk drawers
at nose height and it's in a real sterile classroom that hasn't been used all summer.
(15:02):
That's an easy odor because the dog knows the odor.
An easy search because he doesn't have to work very hard to find it.
And then it's nose height then there's nothing around them so it's an easy indication,
so in my mind when i'm setting out that odor i would think that this is an easy easy easy.
And if I change one of those up and say it's a new odor and I'm going to try
(15:23):
to start imprinting that dog on a new odor and he doesn't know it very well,
then I could do the same hide.
It's in a desk drawer, but it's an odor he's not been exposed to very much at
all. And it's in the same school.
Now the search is easy, the odor is hard, and the indication is easy.
So that would be, I would think in my mind, that's an easy, hard, easy.
(15:46):
Easy so when i start quantifying my my hides that way of doing easy easy easy hard easy easy,
then i really start varying up my training hides so the only one that you would
never want to do is think to yourself
okay this one is a hard hard hard because that would be a hard odor.
Hard search and a hard indication so if it's a hard odor and the dog doesn't
(16:08):
know the odor yet then that's when we're going to try and imprint the dog and
kind of make it an easier search So we're not going to take an odor the dog
doesn't know and put it in the ceiling tile and make the dog kind of work,
you know, an odor that he can't really get to.
When you start understanding those things, training with a purpose and understanding,
you know, is it easy or hard on different parts of the search,
(16:29):
all of a sudden your training aid placement becomes a lot better and more methodical
and with a purpose, which then all of a sudden your training days become better
and more methodical and with a purpose.
Instead of just throwing out an odor, having everybody run it unknown and testing
the handler and the dog to a certain point and calling it training.
(16:51):
So second big mistake that I see around there, around the country is not understanding
the difference between training and testing.
The same exact examples can be said for if you're doing a building search for
a person with your patrol dog.
Most of those should probably be known to the handler, so that way the handler
(17:11):
can watch the dog, see how they're working it.
Don't just do a scenario where you're trying to train building searches and
it's all unknown to the handler.
Now, the caveat to both of those is that we need scenario training.
So if we're done the basic skills training for the night and we decide to run
some scenarios, scenarios oftentimes are the same as testing because it should
(17:34):
be unknown to the handler.
It should put the handler and the dog under some amount of stress and some decisions to be made.
So understand the difference between training, testing, and scenarios.
And all three are important.
Testing would be the least important.
Training is probably the most common one. And what we need to do more as an
(17:55):
industry is probably more scenario stuff.
So when your training gets better, then you can start really moving those right into scenarios.
So, that might be after you've done a few known hides, then set up a difficult
scenario on the patrol side or something where the handler is going to have
to make some decisions during the scenario.
Maybe the dog is going to have to go through some physical barriers,
(18:18):
whatever you want, but set up that scenario so it's both stressful to the handler
and the dog and challenging, and then work through and debrief it.
You know, and it should be scenarios where if all your scenarios,
everybody is banging out the scenarios and everybody's high fiving and saying
how great you are, your scenarios aren't challenging enough.
So it shouldn't be scenarios where you're losing and someone's jumping out of
(18:40):
the ceiling and shooting the handler in the back where it's just a lose scenario.
But they should be scenarios where they're difficult enough that the handlers
are going to be challenged.
And when it's all said and done, everybody can admit, you know what,
I could have done this better.
I could have done, you know, this or that during that part of the scenario.
And it's going to be food for thought. So everybody's going to be able to think
(19:02):
up new ideas as they're doing them.
So understand the difference between training testing and scenarios
another common problem that i see is
we don't socialize the dogs enough i like
a social dog to begin with and i like a dog
that has been socialized to where people are
just part of the environment so what i mean is that you know if i talk about
(19:24):
detector dogs when i was working my bomb dog he was a good looking chocolate
lab and had that you know real bright personality that would attract people
to him and i can't tell say how many times as I was searching with him,
people would stop and they'd say, oh gosh,
I wish I could pet him. And I'd say, sure, you can pet him.
And I'd walk over, we'd be doing a search at, you know, maybe the convention
center or something. I'd stop what I was doing for a minute and let him pet my dog.
(19:48):
That is pretty foreign to most people because, you know, we're taught,
don't let anybody touch your dog. If somebody pets your dog,
they're going to be off task.
They're going to always want it or whatever. What I found is it's the opposite.
People petting my my dog was so common to him that mostly it was almost an annoyance to my dog.
It was like, you know, I got to stand here and let them pet,
(20:09):
pet me for a second. Then I get to go back to work.
Dogs that are under socialized a lot of times, they almost crave that attention.
And then they're looking at people like, oh man, I really wish I could get petted.
And they'll be more distracted as they're looking at people.
So socializing your dog, especially the social dogs, the ones,
you know, there's some dogs that are not social that obviously you're not going
(20:32):
to let get petted all the time and stuff.
Most of our dogs are social by nature, and when I see the super unsocial dogs,
it's a lot of times it's a product of the training and the way the dog's being handled.
So if I take a dog that maybe isn't super social to begin with,
but through time maybe would enjoy being around people better and would tolerate
(20:57):
it, But if I take that same dog and every time they're near somebody,
I pull them back and I get tense on my leash, then that dog's going to start
thinking, well, people are bad.
And then we're going to get those dogs that want to be bad when they see people
and snap at them or lunge at them.
So really understand how to socialize a dog properly.
(21:18):
And again, obviously there's a few patrol dogs out there that are just not social
dogs that we don't want to take a chance with. But they are the exception.
And I don't see them very often. And over the years of doing this,
a lot of the strongest dogs,
the dogs that have, you know, very solid credentials to the work they've done
on the street and finding bad guys and having no problems with physical apprehensions.
(21:43):
Most of those dogs are super social dogs that you can pet and play with.
And those dogs have been trained. They understand the difference.
They understand that there's people that are not in play.
And then there's people that I get to go search for and then apprehend when
I find them, if appropriate.
So understand the difference and understand that the benefits of socializing
(22:06):
your dog are going to help you tremendously.
It makes everything easier on your dog. When you're around your tactical teams,
they're used to being around them.
And socialization, again, is not just putting the muzzle on the dog and then
having everybody who doesn't want to be around the dog barely pet That needs
to be an ongoing program from the very beginning.
So one of the things I really do like, you know, if I'm testing dogs and I've
(22:31):
got three that I like and I'm only going to buy one, it's pretty easy to tell
which one is more social.
And I will always go for the social dogs because those are the ones that you
have fewer bad bites with, in my opinion.
You have fewer accidents, you know, biting cops.
And a lot of people think, well, if he's so friendly, he won't go bite a bad
guy. I can show you examples of lots and lots of very, very strong dogs that
(22:54):
were extremely social also there.
So work on your socialization. If you haven't, the detector dogs,
the floppy ear dogs, I think the more that you withhold.
Them from being around people, the more people become a distraction,
either out, they start to, the fear isn't, is a little bit too strong of a word,
but depending on how you're reacting, If you're pulling them away from people
(23:18):
all the time, they definitely are going to be adverse to being around people
and they're going to become a distraction.
If you let people simply pet your dog, which is good for our relationships with
the public, and then it's good for the dog too.
So I know there's some agencies that have a do not pet rule and they put do
not pet all over their dogs.
(23:39):
Hopefully this maybe makes you think just a little bit about,
is that the best way to do things?
But not socializing a dog is another pretty common problem that I see that sometimes
issues that I see could be fixed or at least helped a lot by doing a little
bit better socialization of the dog.
(23:59):
And then another one that I see, another problem that I see is just not having
the education for the handlers.
So education can be either go into the formal seminars, some of the big seminars,
could be going to training classes when they come into town,
could be traveling to a training class to do hands-on stuff.
(24:20):
Or if some department's just don't have the budget and just are not as willing
to send handlers out for travel, which is a shame.
All handlers should be able to do some traveling to get that extra education
to bring back to their unit.
It doesn't mean the whole unit has to travel to it, but one,
(24:40):
two handlers go to an event with or without their dogs, depending on what the
event is, then bring it all back to their agency.
It's a shame when some agencies have almost a no-travel rule because it's very insular then.
But if you're in that situation or it's rare that your agency lets you go out
of state or even far away from your own city to do travel for education,
(25:05):
then start meeting handlers from other agencies and start training together
in a group on a fairly regular basis.
Basis so at least you're working with
other agencies you're seeing other ways of doing things good or
bad you might see some things it's like man i'm glad we don't do that anymore
or we never did but i know i don't like that technique or maybe some of those
(25:27):
agencies have been to a new class they're bringing it back to their agency and
you can jump in and kind of learn whatever they learned in those classes because
police dog handling is an ever -evolving profession.
And the way I train a detector dog today is very different than what I did,
the way I did it even four or five years ago.
(25:47):
And it's very, very, very different
than I did 10 years ago because I've embraced a lot of the science.
I've changed a lot of my methodology and it's changed a lot.
If I was still the same trainer that I was for detection stuff.
10 years ago, I could still get it done, but I think I'm turning out an even
(26:07):
better product now because I'm always trying to learn.
I'm always trying to see new techniques and learn from what other people are
learning, trying, and coming up with as far as training.
So the agencies that are limiting the educational opportunities to a canine
unit are really not letting their canines unit thrive the way they should.
(26:28):
And it's a shame because canine units are expensive and there's a big investment
in putting personnel into a canine unit and then outfitting a car and buying
a dog and paying for the dog care,
paying for the vet bills and paying for the food and all the other stuff that
goes along with having a canine unit.
And then they fall short on something that in the grand scheme of things in
(26:48):
their canine budget travel to some type of educational class maybe once a year
for a couple of handlers and rotate that around.
That's really a small part of their line item budget and a lot of agencies still
balk at it and that comes from you know some some people just think well if
you go out of state to a training thing it's just going to be a.
(27:09):
Junket and you're really not going to train so if you're lucky enough to go
to you know any of the big seminars or out of state with your dog to train or
whatever make sure you take that you know for what it is and it's it's your
agency is sending you there to work get get some new education, bring some stuff back.
So don't take that for, you know, that I got sent to this city or that city
(27:32):
and I'm just going to mess around and then come back and not know anything better.
So I see that mistake sometimes where people treat that as a junket or a party
instead of the training that it's supposed to be.
So hopefully this may get some agencies to think about out, increasing their
training budget and letting them go out and do some types of training outside
(27:56):
their normal area, or at least train with other agencies.
Finally, you know, one of the things I want to talk about is basically it's
just the public perception of the canine unit.
So I have a lot of people tell me, you know, oh, the public supports our canine unit. And they do.
Almost everywhere people donate money to canines. They'll help buy the dog.
(28:16):
But what they're picturing is that dog that's sitting next to the handler or
watching a little obedience routine.
They're not picturing, especially on the patrol side, what that dog does.
We accept it. We go out and we hunt bad people. and our dogs at times will make
contact with those bad people and bite them.
To us, it's just part of what we do. It's an important part of what we do.
(28:39):
And when, as canine handlers, a lot of times we'll look at what we're doing.
And it's like we'll look at the dog, and it's like the dog's doing a really good job.
When another person sees what we're doing, they're going to have a different
reaction and think, my God, that dog's biting a person. So, understand that
our public perception goes as far as it can, but we need to be professional.
(29:04):
So, think through how much do we emphasize the bite part of our work?
Because really, what we do is we don't bite that many people. We're a locating tool.
So here's an example. If you do a demo and you have your dog out there for five
minutes, and the first thing you do is have someone in a bite suit and you're
doing bite work the whole time in front of them, you do really no show and tell
(29:27):
with the dog as far as the obedience.
Hopefully the dog's social enough that in a lot of our demos,
we would let people pet our dogs, which I know is different than a lot of people.
If you don't do some stuff like that and all you do is just focus on the bite
work, then when the video comes out from your body camera that's a justified use of force,
(29:48):
it's still going to be something that some people in the public that did donate
money for the dogs at first, all of a sudden are like, whoa, I don't like that.
That's not something I'm into. to. So understand that a lot of the stuff that
we put out emphasizes the dogs and their teeth,
but when we discuss it, it's like the dogs are a search tool and a locating tool, not a biting tool.
(30:14):
So when we're doing all that, the t-shirts that show the dog with a snarly look.
The challenge coins that have the big snarly look on the dog,
all of those things have some meaning canine that are as different to other people.
So again, I just want to throw it out there to have you think and take a look
at any of the stuff you give out, any of the demos you do, pictures you put out.
(30:38):
If it's a picture on Instagram of the dog at the end of the leash barking and
baring his teeth and snarling,
is that the image that you want to have when you're sitting in court trying
to show what a professional canine unit you have and that your canine is
generally a locating tool and really rarely ever bites, but then you have a
whole bunch of pictures and TikTok videos of doing different bite work and different things.
(31:03):
So think about public perception as it relates to your public demonstrations
and then all of the different stuff that has pictures of your dog.
So that's one final thought of some of the common mistakes.
So hopefully this quick show is just going to give you some food for thought. lot.
Maybe there's some things now you're going to think about for your training
(31:24):
or for different things for how you're going to acquire dogs and train with other agencies.
So just some ideas I wanted to pop on here and throw out there for you guys to think about.
Hopefully, I get good feedback from this. If you guys want me to come up with a few more, I have more.
Or email me some suggestions of some other mistakes that you think,
and I'll do a follow-up show for this.
(31:47):
So thanks, everybody. Thanks for listening, and thanks for the support of the
show. And I'll be back next week with another one.
Okay, so before we wrap up the whole show, I want to thank a couple more sponsors.
Bob Eden does KatsPlatinum.com, K-A-T-S, Platinum.com, record-keeping software.
I talked to some people recently who switched from another company that is switching
(32:09):
over to CATS. And when I asked them, you know, why are you switching?
The number one reason they decided to switch was how flexible CATS is.
You can really make it your own program with all the different ways you can
change settings and change all the fields you want. So super flexible program.
It's an excellent records management program.
And it was the first one out of the gate of her doing online record keeping.
(32:32):
So there's a lot of choices out there, but it's the original one.
It's always being updated and super flexible and excellent customer service.
So if you call Katz for customer service, you'll be talking to Bob Eden,
who's the owner of it, and the inventor of it.
So check out KatzPlatinum.com for all your record-keeping needs.
(32:55):
And finally, AceK9.com. They do heat alarms. They do door poppers.
Outstanding product also. They have been around for quite a while.
I really like the heat alarm function that they have that will talk to your cell phone.
So no matter where you're at if you have cell technology available
to your car and do yourself which you know your cell phone
(33:15):
you're going to be able to communicate with your car check the temperature just
pull up the screen and see what's going on in your car and if your cell phone
has not heard from the car in a while it'll start letting you know go check
on your dog so there's a lot of redundancies built into the ace canine system
just for the added safety of the dog so really good product when people come
to me and they're putting canines together together, I put a list together.
(33:38):
And of course the heat alarm is way up on the top of the list and the product
that I always recommend is acecanine.com.
So John and Becky Johnson are the owners there. And when you call there,
if you have a technical question, you'll probably get routed through and talk to John himself.
He'll be able to help you with anything you deem to do to, to get your product
working correctly. So acecanine.com for your heat alarm and door popper needs.
(34:01):
Thanks everybody. Be safe and I will be back in about a.
Music.
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