Working Service Training Versus Sport Training

WORKING SERVICE TRAINING VERSUS SPORT TRAINING

There is a simple formula to life. If it's not broke, don't fix it. I afraid what's been happening in the police service dog forum is that for far too long we have been hiding what is broken. The cost of doing this is just now becoming apparent.

I have read three reports on what have been termed as "unprovoked bites" on children by police service dogs. I have read about an actual attack on a woman who was jogging by a police service dog that was sent to do some scent recovery work in the area. The woman was hospitalized. The attack was unprovoked. I have read of no less than two police service dogs being killed in the line of duty. One was stabbed to death by an armed suspect. The cause of death in the dog would be deemed as knife wounds, but actually if the truth be know it was poor training, the application of a sport bite administered in the bite and hold on fashion on the unweaponed arm of an armed individual. The other police service dog was shot to death by officers from a neighboring department, who were assisting in a drug raid and claim they were attacked by the dog. I have no reason to believe that the dog did not attack them. Although the cause of death will be listed as fatal gunshot would, it should also be listed as poor training, poor handling, poor communication in the field.

I must say that I have also heard of two dogs, one being deployed in a domestic dispute, which while the handler was engaged in a struggle with the male suspect, the dog attacked him. He required hospital assistance. The other dog was deployed on a gang member, was grabbed by that gang member and ended up biting an officer. Both of these dogs were poorly trained and poorly handled.

The effectiveness of police service dogs in the field is so limited because of training, handling and decision making ability under stress that many departments such as the case in Buffalo, N.Y. are either totally eliminating or cutting their K-9 units to but two or three dogs. As ineffective as these dogs are, I would say that the vast majority were U.S. P. C.A. certified as well as their handlers. A certification is meaningless. You can carry it in your back pocket, throw it at the bad guy or tell it to track and you will find out that it is useless everywhere but on the wall.

The German K-9 Units of World War One and World War Two proved the effectiveness of trained dedicated handlers with well bred, well trained dogs. We have advanced in all aspects of technology today, but we have actually stepped back in the breeding and the use of the K-9 as a police service dog. In order to have an effective K-9 you must have an effective handler. I have no malice toward anyone, but I do have a dedication to doing the work correctly.

I was sent a video of a department that was training their K-9 unit. It was in California and I witnessed overweight officers literally waddling after their overweight dogs. I am fully aware that in today's society people have made us believe they have a right to do what they want in jobs and professions even those like military and law enforcement. This is a damned lie. No one has the right to endanger another life because they are physically, emotionally or psychologically unfit to do the job. If a child is lost and a man or women set out to find him. They are responsible for their actions. If they fail and have wasted time or caused a more fit and professional team to search elsewhere, they are responsible. If we constantly give in to weakness and are made ashamed of our strength, we are responsible.

In North America today instead of incorporating and spending American dollars on American bred dogs and dog breeding programs, police departments take great pride in bringing in numerous culls from overseas. Time and time again, they will boast on sending their officers overseas to display and share their expertise and technology. Yet they will buy an unseen dog from a dog jockey before they will ever consider a dog from North America. They would never dream of preparing a breeding program like the Germans did many years ago. I have news for you. The Germans that bred that type of dog are long dead. The best of the best either went to Russia or America after the war. The wall became a visible block between the lines of working dogs. Before the wall, there was a strict breeding program that used all the dogs in Germany. Now I hear people say the only good dogs are in East Germany. When you buy a dog from East Germany you are buying half a dog. When you buy a dog from West Germany you are buying half a dog. No body including the Germans seems to know this. It is time to start a serious police service dog-breeding program in the United States. It is time also to pick K-9 handlers by a means that is deeper than seniority.

As the world grows deeper into a sense of false security, those who man the walls know the evil that lies just ahead. Working Service is the oldest, most natural form of dog training. It incorporates a high rate of handler-dog communication. It also prepares the handler to work and communicate under stress. Anyone who has seen it has to say how effective these teams are, but unlike the ball and towel tug, it takes work and dedication to build a team. The only prop Working Service uses is the truth. We are not really ready to face the truth. The truth is the dogs we see on the street, are for the most part, totally ineffective. The handlers are poorly trained and certainly not trained under stress. Working Service as I see it, is the last watering hole on a vast desert. It uses a natural bond and uses it very well. If to train a working dog in sporting methods is the right way, then we are in big trouble because it has proven to cost lives, which to many politicians today, are secondary to the public relations and dollars we have lost.

E-mail Mike with questions or comments.