American Police Dog Tactics Association

Just to bring things into perspective and make you think a little!! 

My Eyes Are Your Eyes

To Watch and Protect You and Yours

My Ears are Your Ears

To Hear and Detect Evil Minds in the Dark

My Nose is Your Nose

To Scent the Invader of Your Domain

And So You May Live

My Life Is Also Yours

Many times I have been asked “who’s a good vendor to buy a dog from?”  Anyone that has any dealings with the K-9 world knows that there are many canine training companies in the U.S. and actually through out the world.  Some are reputable and some are not.  Then there are those companies who train great protection or sport dogs but are not so great when it comes to the police world.  One fact that I try to help those who are looking for a police K9 understand is that a sport dog and a police dog are two completely different disciplines.  One trainer might be great at one discipline but no so much in another.  When shopping for a dog, Police departments especially, need to do research and figure out exactly what type of canine they are in need of.  Once they do that they need to do their homework on vendors and be sure that the vendor they choose can supply the type of training that they need.

Probably one of the biggest mistakes I have personally seen is buying a “Police K-9″ from a vendor who specializes in competition “sport” dogs.  As I stated before, a Police K9 and a sport dog are like apples and oranges.  Not to say that all sport dog trainers don’t understand the Police side of dogs, but even though an auto body shop might have someone who understands a little bit of a motor engine you wouldn’t take your car there to have a new transmission put in it.  You would go to a transmission specialist!!

There needs to be an understanding when we speak of sport dog trainers.  When you begin to talk about PSA, KNPV, Schutzhund, and other ring sports, you are dealing with dogs that are mainly trained and tested on obedience and bite work.  The only exception would be Schutzhund where there is a tracking portion of the competition.  Even then, Schutzhund trainers train their dogs in the art of foot step tracking.  Personally, I feel that foot to foot step tracking has no place in Police K-9.  It is to slow, takes a long time to train, and is based mainly on grass surface.  When you work in an area that is largely urban, you want a trailing K9.  A dog that follows human odor and not ground disturbance.  This is a question that must be asked of whatever vendor you are looking to purchase a dog from.  Trainers who mainly deal with sport dogs, in most cases but not all, do not have the experience or knowledge when it comes to training the discipline of detection.  Can they train you a jam up biting dog?  You bet!!  But in the police world what is your dog going to be mainly used for?  Detection and Tracking!  I have met police K-9 handlers who have gone years without ever having to release their partner for an apprehension.

Let me give you an example.  I am currently assisting a local jurisdiction with their dogs.  The problem they are having is with their tracking and detection work.  As long as you stay on grass these dogs will find you.  As soon as you walk on any other type of surface, the dogs are completely lost.  Now they didn’t get these dogs from a large Police K-9 training company, and if you haven’t figured it out yet these dogs are trained in the art of foot step tracking.  Where did they purchase these dogs you ask?  From a local Shutzhund trainer.  This trainer has no facility and has no formal company name.  He trains dogs on his own for competition and does most of his training at local parks.  Please don’t misunderstand, these dogs obedience is definately something to watch, and God forbid if any of your body parts end up in the mouth of one of these K-9s.  One of their dogs, which was not purchased from this specific trainer but from another, is so aggressive that the handler has wrote numerous letters to his supervisors stating that the dog is a liabilty.  Whenever the dog is not working he has to be kept in a muzzle.  The dog is so aggressive that even when the handler is trying to get the dog to sniff a vehicle the dog gets preoccupied because he is to busy targeting bystanders.  Needless to say, the department, especially the handlers, are not happy with the dogs.  This is the trouble that departments are facing due to the lack of research.  Even worse is when a department buys a dog from someone because they were a couple hundred dollars cheaper than another.  Remember!!! Sometimes you get what you pay for.

In conclusion, I don’t want to sound as though we don’t like sport dog trainers.  There are many great sport dog trainers out there.  If I was personally looking for a sport dog I wouldn’t go to someone who specializes in police dogs.  There are even great police canine trainers who do sport work on the side.  But when speaking about police K-9s, we want departments to be sure of what type of dog they need and that they get what they are looking for.  We must always remember that it takes one bad incident to make case law and change the way we do things.  DON’T BE THAT GUY!!!

If you are ever having trouble locating a reputable police K9 trainer, feel free to contact any one of the evaluator/training coordinators and we can put you in contact with a good vendor.

A very important and mainly over-looked part of starting a police K-9 unit is choosing the right handler(s) for the job. I thought I should take some time and talk about this subject and maybe give some insight to police departments who currently have a K9 unit or are in the process of starting one. Now I am going to go ahead and apologize up front. I am not going to sugar coat anything because a police canine usually brings along liability issues that need to be taken seriously. Trainers and handlers will be able to appreciate some of the thoughts that I am going to write about and can probably relate to some of the issues I am going to bring up.

When conducting interviews to fill a K9 handler position keep in mind that the person you choose needs to be capable and willing to handle a long term commitment. Most dogs can have a road life of up to 8 to 10 years. That is 8 to 10 years of constantly training, cleaning the kennel, taking him/her to the vet, keeping up with records, so on and so on.

Depending on what type of dog your department will be buying should also be taken into consideration when choosing a handler. Are they getting a single purpose dog or a full patrol dog? Is it going to be a retriever of some kind, is it going to be a 60 to 70 pound crazy Belgian Malinois or a 100 pound Shepherd? Is the dog going to be trained to track humans?

Reason I bring up these issues is because departments need to consider the physical capabilities of a future handler. You do not want to choose a handler that is out of shape or a handler that is going to retire soon. I always recommend having some type of physical fitness test. Now some might say that this train of thought is not fair and somehow bias!! I know in most departments if you want to be on SWAT you have to pass a physical fitness test. You have to be able to shoot a certain score. You have to be in good standing with the department (I.E. no active investigations or valid complaints). So why would it be different for an officer that wants to handle a K9.

Police dogs are high energy and strong dogs. That is why they are chosen for the job. An officer has to be able to handle a large dog that is lunging to bite a human. If they do get to bite a perp that officer has to be able to pull the dog of the suspect, control the dog, and at the same time possibly having to point a gun at the suspect. If your handler is not physically capable of doing this you are going to possibly have an accidental bite. Liability!! Liability!!

Then lets talk about human tracking. On actual tracks your handler will not only be wearing about 25 pounds of extra weight from all the gear they have on, but now they also have to handle a dog that is pulling on a long line trying to find the person he is tracking. These tracks can go for 1 to 2 miles and even longer. I personally, on actual tracks, have turned around to see where my back up officers were and became upset due to the fact that they were nowhere in sight. The sad fact is that this happens way to often.

Another issue I have seen in the past is departments that choose an unmotivated officer. These are the officers who are known for not being proactive on the streets. They just handle their calls and go home. We all have seen it. They just want to get off the shift and on to a special unit because of the perks (I.E. Extra pay, Take home vehicle, Specific working hours). This is a waste of a well trained canine!!

A good K-9 handler is a special person. Just as I mentioned earlier I recommend having some type of physical fitness test. Ask other officers about those who are applying for the position. Look at their records and stats. Look at their evaluations. One thing that always stands out to me personally is that officer that comes in on his off time to help the K9 unit. He/she comes and lays tracks down. He hides your narcotics/explosives training aids for you, or goes through the headache of wearing a bite suit and taking hits from the dogs on your unit for an hour. This person is usually going to understand what it takes to be a good handler. He has seen for himself all the dedication it takes and has shown the interest in becoming a K-9 handler through his actions.

I can go on and on about all the issues I have personally seen or heard about. The issues I have brought up in this article are probably going to be the most popular. I am not trying to be condescending. I am just trying to give some insight to those who supervise K-9 Units and assist them in making the best decision possible when choosing the right K-9 handler.

The American Police Dog Tactics Association conducts seminars specially for the supervision level of K-9 Units. If you are ever interested in hosting one of these seminars please contact any of the training coordinators via E-mail.

Probably one of the most important aspects of handling a police or search and rescue canine is the maintenance training that goes along with it. This is usually understood by handlers but not by the departments chain of command/supervisors. There is always a misconception that once a dog is trained they will be good to go for the rest of their career. You will even see this train of thought with some handlers. What a mistake! For the sake of this article we will look at this misconception from a police department aspect.

Becoming a K9 handler is one of the most challenging positions especially in a police department. A handler not only has to maintain his or herself but now has the added on task of a K-9 partner. When an officer gets ready for work they have to be sure that their boots are shined, their uniform is presentable, all brass is clean, their gun is cleaned and loaded, and that their in the right state of mind to deal with whatever comes their way during the shift. After all that is done, if you are a k-9 handler, you have to get your dog ready for work. Making sure the vehicle kennel is clean. You have to be sure you have all your necessary equipment (I.E. Collar, Leashes, Tracking Harness and Lines, Water Bowl, Rewards).

If this is not enough work already added on to your daily schedule now you have to worry about maintenance training during the week. This can either be done once a week on a specific training day, or during the course of your shift, but it is the most important job that you have as a handler. The industry standard is 4 hours per week per task that your dog is trained in. Dogs are not robots! The canine team needs to train. How many of you when going through your handler course were told by the trainer to “train, train, train, and train some more”. How true of a statement this is.

I know we can all remember a time when we had a specific problem arise with our dogs. It could of been an out on the bite, a false alerting problem or not alerting at all, missing turns on a track, the list goes on and on. And when do we normally notice these problems? When certification time comes around! But how were most of these issues resolved? Training, training, training! Think back, if we conducted our training as we were supposed to we would probably not have a lot of these issues. The time to notice a problem is not on an actual deployment. It could be a life or death situation.

Just as important is keeping track of your training through records. You do not want to be the handler that gets subpoenaed to court and can not prove that you have been training, either because you are not keeping records, or even worse, because you are not conducting maintenance training. Records of your continues training is what proves your reliability in court. It also helps you trust your dog. If your canine is doing great in training then on an actual deployment you will be confident in his abilities.

So let us always keep in mind how important maintenance training is. His abilities and your confidence will only get better as you train. Also remember that a lot of this work is nothing but a game for your K9 partner, so play away!!

Generalization with a detection dog is a common problem seen with many K9 teams today.  Most handlers are unaware of this issue when training.  Generalization is basically hiding narcotics or explosives in the same spot or area so often that it leads a canine to false alert.  This is typically seen on vehicle hides.  Not to say that is cannot happen with building searches, but for the purpose of this article we will concentrate more on vehicle searches.  The dog becomes conditioned during training that every time he sniffs a specific area the odor of narcotics/explosives is present.  What happens then when you move the hide?  The dog basically second guesses himself/herself because that’s where they have always located the odor and was rewarded.  The canine, even though he does not smell the odor he is trained on, alerts out of frustration.  This can be commonly seen when hides are placed in an area like a gas tank or front fender.  Not to say that it is wrong to place hides in these areas, but you should keep track of where you are placing hides and move them every time you train.

We always recommend keeping track of where hides are placed one training day then placing them in a different area you’re next training day.  This will also condition your dog to have a good search pattern when sniffing vehicle.  Also try not to always have a hide on every vehicle you sniff.  Try possibly placing a hide on one vehicle and then having your canine partner sniff a clean vehicle and continue changing it up.  You do not want your dog always locating hides on every vehicle he/she sniffs.  You will condition your dog to think that every time he/she is deployed the vehicle will have a hide on it.

Also try to keep in mind “productive” areas when placing your hides. (I.E. door seams, trunks, door handles, etc.)  Change the weights, heights, depth of the hides your canine is locating.  If your dog alerts to an area that does not have a hide then we always recommend saying “leave it” in a low tone and have him/her continue searching the vehicle.  Never give a harsh correction for a false alert because you may inadvertently scare your dog from wanting to search vehicles and the like.  A low tone “leave it” should do the trick.

Hopefully, if you are experiencing this problem I just spoke about, this article will give you some tips you can try.  If you are ever experiencing any other problems that I did not speak of in this or other articles please feel free to E-mail and we will try to answer you back in an E-mail or in an article.

American Police Dog Tactics Association also conducts seminars in Advanced Detection that specifically deals with detection problems with certification trials at the end.  If you are interested or need more information in hosting a seminar please contact one of the Coordinators/Evaluators via E-mail.

About 2 months ago I had a handler from a neighboring jurisdiction who was telling me that his K9 was having a very difficult time when tracking on hard surface.  I gave him some ideas to try, hoping he would have more success on the street.  I then began to think about how many K9 units have dogs that are not trained in Scent Discrimination and Variable Surfaces.  Many trainers today just don’t take the time to train SDT and VST because they are to busy putting out so many dogs.  Don’t get me wrong, most police dogs can track very well on grass but what happens when you work in a city where the chances are that you will come to some type of hard surface.  If you work in a jurisdiction like mine the chances are very good.  Many just start training K9s on grass as foundation work but rarely train on SDT and VST.  Then never explain to new handlers the discipline of SDT and VST, so that canine teams can continue progressing in their tracking/trailing.

When speaking of Scent Discrimination, I always use the following analogy: When a person enters a pizza shop they smell pizza.  When a dog enters a pizza shop he/she smells tomato, basil, pepper, flour, sugar, milk.  Dogs have an incredible ability to discriminate odors.  As trainers and handlers we need to use that natural ability and shape it in a way that benefits us as handlers.

Now this leads to the questions “can dogs discriminate between scents” and ”can dogs track on hard surfaces”.  You better believe they can, and it is really not that hard to train, but it does take a lot of time and training.  Most hard surfaces can hold human odor for a duration of time depending on conditions.  (i.e. temperature, humidity, age, contaminants.)  The canine just needs to be conditioned to these types of surfaces and understand that the original odor you present them is the one you want them to follow ignoring all others that they come in contact with.  And think about how important SDT and VST is when you are working a search and rescue dog.  In the police world if you cannot find a bad guy, oh well.  Catch him another day.  In search and rescue it usually means that someone may lose their life!

If your K-9 partner is not trained in these two disciplines it might be something you want to start looking into.  They will become better trackers making for a stronger and more proficient K9 team.  If you are anything like the members of the American Police Dog Tactics Association, you strive to be the best.  This is an art form that would assist you in reaching that goal.

The American Police Dog Tactics Association conducts tracking/trailing seminars specializing in SDT and VST to teach new and experienced handlers how to become a more proficient team with certification at the end.  If you are interested in obtaining more information about possibly hosting a seminar on tracking/trailing please contact us via E-mail.

You ever wonder what you could do with an apprehension dog when tracking lost persons (I.E. elderly or Children)?  How about when you are tracking a suspect for only misdemeanor charges?  Accidental bites can become very costly to a department and you do not want to be “that guy” that sets a bad precedence.  Train your dog on a bark alert!

The bark alert is really not a difficult discipline to train.  It will save you and your department a lot of money and headaches in the long run.  If the need to release your K9 partner for an apprehension arises then just command him/her to do so.

To start training your canine in a bark alert there are several factors that you must consider:

1. Do you always have your track layer stay out at the end of the track?  You find many units who lay tracks and just leave a reward at the end of the track.  To train a bark alert you have to have a quarry stay at the end of the track to stimulate the canine to bark and reward the dog.

2. You need to find a reward that the dog likes as to stimulate the dog at the end of the track.  Never reward your K-9 with the same reward you use for your detection work.  That could become confusing to the dog.

3. Is your dog proficient enough in tracking?  Don’t throw a new task at your partner if he has not become proficient with tracking in the first place.

With all the above issues in mind lets talk about how you train a bark alert.  Being that you are going to throw something new into the mix with your dog make all other factors easier for him/her to handle.  Have your quarry lay a short track with no more than one turn.  We would prefer something like a tree line where the quarry can hide just inside the tree line off of a straight track.  It is very important that you know where your quarry is concealed.  Also have you track layer laying down so that he can be at eye level with the dog. 

VERY IMPORTANT!!  When your quarry lays the track that person needs to have the wind blowing to his/her back.  This is so you can have your dog working within the human scent cone.  You will eventually condition your dog to bark when he knows that he is in a strong odor scent cone even though he can not see the track layer.  You will have a tactical edge if you are tracking a possible armed subject in dense woods, or around a corner, and you don’t want to be taken by surprise.  This will also help the dog understand that he does not have to make contact with the track layer to be rewarded.

Now run the track.  Once you have come close to the track layer (this is why it is important to know where your quarry is hiding) be sure to hold your canine 10 to 15 feet away from the quarry.

KEY POINTS:  The handler should not give any direction to the dog such as giving a bark command.  The handler remains completely quiet.

The quarry should also remain still, quiet, and stair eye to eye with the dog.  If your partner does not immediately begin to bark out of frustration then there are several things you can try. 

The track layer can attempt to pull out a defense bark by staring directly into the dog’s eyes and making a low sound such as a hissing sound. 

If that doesn’t work then attempt to pull out a prey bark.  This can be done by making little sudden body movements or by shaking the reward/toy. 

Once you get 1 or 2 good barks have the track layer reward the dog by throwing him/her the toy.  There are also times when you might be working with a canine that is just not a big barker.  Try your best.  This method doesn’t work with every dog.  As always with our partners there should also be a lot of praise for a good job.  The handler can give a lot of praise but should never tug or reward their own canine.  You want the dog to understand that the reward comes from the person they found. 

As training progresses, you want to elicit more and more barks from your partner.  Remember to take baby steps with this training.  1 or 2 barks the first time, then 3 to 4, and so on and so on.  Do not jump the gun and go from 1 to 2 barks to 10 to 15 barks.  That will be counter productive!! 

I Hope many of you will try this training method to alleviate any accidental bites.  This method will also help your superiors feel more comfortable about calling you out when a child or elderly person is lost.  Our goal is to always be productive and show how beneficial it is to have a K-9 Unit in police departments.

Any questions or concerns, please feel free to e-mail or type a comment and we will always strive to assist you the best we can.

For anyone that is interested, Jason Purgason of Highland Canine Training is selling a new type of leash for police K9’s.  It is a leash with a quick release snap.  Please visit his website and watch the video under his blog section. Very innovative!!

View the leash here

The American Police Dog Tactics Association offers certification for dog handlers of police patrol, detection, trailing/tracking and search and rescue dogs.  This is a practical scenario based certification that challenges both the dog and handler.  On the streets when a police canine is utilized the situation that may confront you will never be the same.  There are different situations that you may encounter.  Some may be new, or some may be similiar to what you have dealt with in the past during normal day to day operations. 

We at the American Police Dog Tactics Association believe that all certification trials should be real-world.  Pattern based tests do not test a K9 team’s true abilities.  If you know what the scenerio is going to be every time, can you honestly state that you are prepared as a team.  All you need to do is train for those specific situations and you will pass with flying colors.  Now what happens when you are confronted with a situation that you have never seen or trained for?  Would you feel confident enough in yourself and your K9 partner to get the job done?

At an American Police Dog Tactics Association certification you will only be given certain details about the scenario.  This information will be presented to you just as you may receive if from another officer or from dispatch.  It will fall on you, the handler, to make a split second decision just as you would on the street.  For example, you might have to send your partner for an apprehension but then recall him because the suspect dropped the gun and gave up.  Is that not what you would do on the street.  I hope so!!  We are not trying to convey that these trials are unbelievably difficult, but they are realistic, and many are based on actual situations that have occured across the country.

Why this certification instead of others?  Well, put quite frankly, this type of certification is the only type that will truly test the skills and ablities of a working dog team.  Other certifications allow handlers and trainers to simply “pattern train” their dogs for the trials.  I have heard so many handlers say “I am training for the upcoming trials”.  Why should you have to adjust your training to meet a certification?  Shouldn’t the certification mimic what you are called to do with your dog every day?  Again, American Police Dog Tactics Association trials are not extremely difficult for handlers that train and maintain proficiency in their working dog, but they will be difficult for those that do not consistently train.

Police Dog Certification