K-9 Unit In-Training

Don has fun with his reward

Don received a brand new towel as a reward for a hard-days-work and he turned it into a game. The remains are left draping him in the photo. Don’t trust him with your laundry.

Leave a Comment April 9, 2010

Half Way Done

Friday marked the half way point for Don’s and my training. During the past week we traveled to Taylorville and Decatur.  We use as many different resources as possible because when we work we’ll never be in the same situation twice.  In Taylorville we used the club house at an old golf course.  This club house had several different rooms, bathrooms, a kitchen, a main floor and an upstairs; all with miscellaneous items inside of them.  We used this setting to do room searches and make it as real as possible.  The instructors hid drugs/narcotics in random places.  Each handler and k9 would enter the room and begin the search like we have been taught.  The k9 is rewarded after he/she successfully alerts in the correct location of the drugs/narcotics.  Don has a very sensitive nose and was successful in every room.  We also used the grass and other landscaping outside on the golf course for article searches, tracking, and obedience training. 

While in Decatur I had the opportunity to go with handlers from several different police departments and sheriffs offices to the Macon County Jail and use the k9s to search the jail.  It was interesting to see the different k9s and how each handler had a different method of searching rooms, objects in a room, and individual cells.  A huge reason why each handler is different is because each k9 is different.  A handler and the k9 become a team and they learn how to work with each other.  Its important for the handler to be able to read the k9 and trust their ability to seek drugs/narcotics. 

For training, we went to an old warehouse that has been converted into a large diverse training facility. Each room was different and had different training materials.  We ran each k9 through rooms to get as much training as possible before we did bite training.  Cannabis, heroin, cocaine, crack, and meth were in each room in different amounts.  With the proper training any k9 can alert on a large amount of drugs/narcotics, but can every k9 find a very small amount? Finding a very small amount of drugs/narcotics is like finding a needle in a hay stack; therefore we start out training with large amounts and gradually wind down to very very small amounts. The key to success is learning the k9 and consistently training your dog.  During bite work we started out using bite pillows.  We would agitate the dogs with the pillows and have them come at us and hope they bit the pillow and not us.  While engaging in a bite we would use different objects to make noises to see if we could scare the k9.  We also worked the k9s over a variety of areas; hardwood floors, carpt, over tables and bars, chairs, cement, tile flooring.  After a few bites on the pillow, a decoy in a bite suit would come at the handler and k9 as a threat to amp up the k9.  Eventually the k9 was released to bite or apprehend the decoy.  They decoy makes a lot of noises as though they are in pain and eventually works themselves to the floor or removes the jacket so the k9 feels like they won the fight. 

Five weeks down, five weeks to go. I looke forward to being back on the street with Don.  The next few weeks we’ll be traveling to different cities to train and also train at night time. I’ll update my blog as much as possible.  I appreciate all the great support from my family, the community, and friends.

2 Comments April 2, 2010

Consistent, Insistent and Persistent

I’ve come to learn that training Don is repeating the same obedience and agility exercises, drug/narcotics detection, bite work, tracking, and article searches over and over and over, pretty much to the point that we could do them with our eyes closed. It gets boring but it’s necessary and important. Keeping high intensity and making it exciting is equally as important.  If the dog isn’t having fun then he/she won’t want to do it, and if they dont want to do it then how will they learn?  Consistent repetition is a huge key to dog training.  We strive to train the dogs in a consistent manner,  meaning when I teach Don to sit and lay  im persistent in him doing it the correct way every time.  If I dont, Don thinks it’s ok to cut corners and in the long run this ruins his potential to be a great police dog.  Our approach is similar to sports.  When a basketball player practices shooting, they’re taught the correct way to start then
 they consistently shoot the correct way.  What would be the point to shoot a different way every time the player practices?  It doesnt make sense to change or do it incorrectly,  the same goes with dog training.  The first day our instructor wrote on the board- insistent,  consistent,  persistent.  Those are the rules to training our dogs. 

This week we started practicing car searches.  Obviously this exciting for me because this was a huge reason Rochelle PD has a canine unit. A police dog is utilized during traffic stops to conduct open- air sniffs. When the canine alerts on a vehicle this gives the police probable cause to search the vehicle.  While searching a vehicle if drugs, narcotics, and/or drug paraphernalia is found then this is reasonable grounds for an arrest. While doing three different car searches Don did very well for his first day;  Don received many compliments from instructors on his drug/narcotic detection.

Don Juan is continuing to excel in his tracking abilities and article searches. Don is also  maintaining interest well doing bite exercises.

I will continue to update Don’s progress weekly particularly after learning new exercises.

4 Comments March 23, 2010

2 Weeks Down!

We just finished up week 2 of 10.  At the end of week 1 I began teaching Don to heel, he didn’t catch on really at all so I really worked him this week on it.  I wouldn’t say we have perfected it but we have made a lot of progress.  I do give alot of credit to the Decatur K9 handler who helped us.  This handler has had a lot of experience with police dogs and specializes in obedience.  During obedience and agility he watched Don and me work together, thus picking up on our weaknesses and helped us strengthen them. 

After lunch on Tuesday, another handler had his police dog out of the car doing some work.  He had rewarded his dog with a tennis ball, like most of us do.  However, when he went to get the ball back the dog didn’t want to let go.  The handler had to use a special maneuver to force the dog to drop the ball.  For every action there’s a reaction.  The dog dropped the ball and when the handler went to put him down the dog whipped his head around and bit his arm.  This is actually the second time this handler has been bit by his dog.  This is not unusual in dog training.  This dog is a little more aggressive than others and doesnt really like people, he’s unsocial.  This isnt a result of bad training, its just the dog’s personality.  On Wednesday, the Decatur handler was out working with us and saw this paticular handler having problems.  The Decatur handler got on his knees at this paticular dogs level and in a very calm manner took the ball out of his mouth while giving the verbal command.  I believe they had a heart to heart.’  I promise he wasn’t drunk and isn’t crazy.  He’s just a handler with alot of experience and knows how to work with all levels of police dogs.  Sunshine or rain, this handler, like many others, volunteer their time and energy to come help us during our training.  Thank you to all these trainers!!!

Don’s enthusiasm and energy is at 150% every day.  Every morning when I get him out of the kennel I know he’s going to give 200%.  I’ve had several previous handlers and instructors tell me he’ll be a great dope dog.  What does this mean?  Roll through Rochelle with dope in your car, get stopped, and Don will find it.  I know its only the end of week 2, but when you work hour after hour with someone, Don for this instance, you know how efficient and determined they are. 

Stayed tuned for more posts next week…we’re taking our training to another level and incorporating new and more difficult exercises in week 3.

3 Comments March 12, 2010

Day 3 of Week 2

Holy dog!!! Don had a great day!!! This morning we worked really hard on sitting, laying down, and heeling.  These simple commands look easy but when you’re training a young dog with a lot of energy it really takes a lot of patience.  Don loves his tennis ball which is his reward when he does an exercise. However, getting the ball back can be an exercise in itself.  I was very fortunate today to work with a 20+ year experienced K-9 handler from Decatur, IL.  He worked with Don and me for about thirty minutes and it made a huge difference.  Its really easy to get frustrated when your dog is learning new stuff and you don’t understand why he can’t do it…well today the light bulb turned on.  When Don does great its easy for me to feed off of his energy and be excited too.  Its a very good feeling when your dog is completing exercises successfully. 

During the afternoon we did a lot of exercises involving drugs/narcotics locating.  Don has a great nose for drugs/narcotics.  To wrap up the day we put on full body bite suits and worked the dogs to bite us.  Don will be a multi-purpose dog so he had his turn at biting someone….he did good.  I was very happy with Don’s progress today, hopefully the rest of the week goes the same.

2 Comments March 10, 2010

First Week Down

I apologize to everyone that has visited the blog and has not seen any posts from me, I havent had any internet access until I got home tonight.  WOW!! First week down, how many are left!?!?!

The people who told me it wouldn’t be easy didn’t lie. Like anything else in life, we’ve had our good days and our bad days. Sometimes we even have a good morning and a bad afternoon or vis versa. But this hasn’t deterred me from wanting to be a K9 handler.

Every day begins like this: arrive at the dog kennels around 745am. I get Don out of the kennel and complete the 7 daily healthy check on him. I check his eyes, nose, ears, mouth, butt, sex organs, and paws. Its important to make sure the dogs stay healthy.  Because dogs can’t communicate like humans, we have to check them over really good every day to make sure nothing is wrong. If something is wrong, like maybe a bleeding pad on the paw, then we notify the instructor and or a vet to determine if the dog should sit out of training for a day. So far Don is healthy. After a good health check, I brush Don. Unless you’ve lived with him and been in the car with him  you wouldn’t know he’s a handsome hairy beast.  Brushing Don every morning helps clean him and get his undercoat out.  Don really enjoys being brushed. Once he’s brushed I put him the squad car to sit until our first exercise.

As a team, we clean out any feces and or urine, we spray down all the kennels with water, spray them with disinfectant, scrub the kennel, and then rinse it one more time. All of  this is important to help keep the dogs healthy.  We usually finish all of this around 830am and then meet in the classroom.

My class is made up of 16 officers/deputies/state troopers all from around the state. Some handlers have previously handled police dogs and some are new like me.  I have one main instructor and then each week different instructors from around the state will come and help.  The instructors are really great; always willing to help when a handler is struggling in a specific area. Even the handlers who have previously had dogs, they often help new handlers whenever they can.  

During this first week Don has been working on sitting, laying down, stopping, and bite work. Like you and me, Don has his weaknesses and his strengths. Don is really good at jumping over walls; he might be little but he can jump.  Even though sometimes I get frustrated, its very rewarding to watch him succeed at something new; the reward always out weighs the frustration. I’ve also worked Don on some drug exercises; Don did awesome at these exercises!!! Its important Don and I work as a team. If we both just do our own thing then nothing gets accomplished. Every time we wrap up an exercise we always end on a good note. For example, if I’m working with Don on his sit position and he does it really well, then I reward him with his tennis ball, alot of praise, and we run back to the car.  Dogs get frustrated too, sometimes they don’t understand what we want from them. So its important we end on a good note because we are putting them in the kennel and we want them happy and if they sense we are happy with them then they are happy too.  

I’m not going lie, Don is probably the most handsome dog there, but don’t worry I’m keeping him on the straight and narrow   Don’t hesitate to email me if you have any questions.  Hopefully when I go back to Springfield on Monday, I’ll be able to access the internet and put posts up daily.

2 Comments March 5, 2010

The Search for a Good Dog

The week of February 15 we headed out to Vohne Liche Kennels to meet different dogs and find the best match for our departmental needs and our handler. We evaluated ten dogs-nine were male and there was one female in the group that consisted of German Shepherds, Belgian Malinois, and Dutch Shepherds. The dogs were evaluated on “ball drive” (searching for and retrieving tennis balls) which approximates the drive the dog would have for tracking, along with article and drug searches. They were evaluated to see if they were sensitive to their environments. This is important as the dog needs to be able to crawl under objects, jump over objects and be willing to enter vehicles or other confined areas. The dogs were checked to see if they would be distracted by other animal scents, or if they would focus on the task at hand.

6 Comments February 24, 2010