Props

PROPS

To begin this article I will tell you a true story. A corner store clerk is assaulted and robbed. The assailant runs out the door and down the street. The units closes to the seen arrive first. Officers enter the store in order of arrival and then the K-9 unit arrives. The K-9 Unit officer comes into the store and says there is no use even getting the dog out of the vehicle, the area is fouled and it's impossible to track the individual. He then makes a comment to a couple of officers on the scene one of which is, "you guys never learn, you know you're not supposed to foul the area." I am sure that the vast majority of calls go this way.

There was a very easy formula to follow that would have permitted the dog to pick up the scent of the fleeing suspect. It is a simple formula to follow. It cannot be found on a sporting field.

The first thing a dog needs to function properly is a good handler. A handler that wants to communicate with the dog, to know the dog, to spend the time on and off duty with the dog so they can get used to each other's mannerisms and moods. To apply working service training you must apply working service philosophy. That philosophy is easy. I want a dog to track man, I train him on man scent. if I want a dog to find narcotics I train him on narcotics. If I want a dog to find a ball I do not train him on heroin.

To put this into logical terms, just think that you would like your dog to pick up the newspaper and carry it to you. Now remember, you want him to bring you the newspaper. So what do you do? Do you go out and buy two boxes of dog cookies, four boxes of bacon bits, 3 Indian Rubber balls and two towel tugs? I think you should show him the newspaper and demonstrate and communicate what you want him to do. The props are unnecessary.

About 5 weeks ago I had a female officer ask me if I could help her with her dog. Her dog did not, she told me, want to work any more. She opened up the side door of her air-conditioned van and there sitting on a plush doggie bed with literally more toys and treats than you will find at Petsmart, lay this dog looking up at me in a manner that would have said, if he could have spoken, "Close the door, you are letting the sunlight in my eyes." The officer then told me, he is not interested in any of these toys so I can't get him to work. I said, "This dog has never worked. Throw away all the toys, get rid of that soft doggie bed, change your attitude from calling the dog Baby and start calling him his name. Put some discipline in yourself, hook the lead up and when you call him and he doesn't come, correct him and make him move where you want him to move." "Oh" she said, " I can't do that. He just paces if he doesn't have a bed and his toys."

We have a society of that is doing things that don't work. Those who developed the breeds that these modern specialists have ruined, knew how to communicate and work with a dog.

E-mail Mike with questions or comments.