With this being said, many of our students in the past, whether the course is to learn how to test out and train protection dogs or our dection courses usually bring their on dog with the hopes that they can get their personal dogs trained and certified. The chances of getting a green dog completely certified by the end of say a 6 week course in not realistic. First off, it’s hard to say that your personal dog will have the proper drives that it takes to become a full service working dog. Please don’t take it personal if we tell you this, this course is not designed to just train your personal dog, it isdesigned to give you the tools to teach you how to choose the right working dog for the job, and to work with various canine/breeds in various stages of their training.

It seems in the past that some students only want to work their personal dogs and become irritated or offended if they are working other dogs/breeds. You must have an open mind when training dogs and many dogs have many different levels of drive and behavior just like people. If you only limit yourself to training one dog or one specific breed then your are missing so much education and are simply shorting yourself on building your skills as an instructor. For example if you are here to learn detection dogs, you can still learn so much about odor and behaviors of dogs in odor from search and rescue canines by running a track or observing the dogs work the rubble pile. So don’t limit your exposure it will make you a well rounder dog trainer!

There are many different ways to train both pet dogs and working dogs, even if you are not going to use some of the varios methods, that is fine, but it only benefits you to learn all the methods so you can understand how some dogs you may come across for brush up are trained. And who knows you may be able to take a little bit from each method and come up with a new method of training!

So, yes we have certified some personal dogs that come through with variuos students enrolled in our canine instructor’s course, but it is not a gaurentee. This course is designed to benefit those who may start up a SAR team, supervise police canine unit, or simply want to train working dogs for a living. Please feel free to give us a call or check us out on the web for various courses offered for canine working dogs!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

As I continued to train with the dog, I had several police departments and “master trainers” come to look at it. They were in the market for a dual purpose German Shepherd and wanted to come by and see this one work. So, time after time, I had departments sending people by to watch the dog work. All of them were impressed with what the saw. However, no one was interested in the purchase. The dialogue usually went something like this: “Man that’s a really nice dog, so how old is he?” My reply was always the same “Well, SHE is about 18 months old.” Apparently the name Kira wasn’t feminine enough to clue these guys in. Or apparently they were dazzled by her work ethic and athleticism so much that they didn’t take the time to notice the undercarriage.

Once the cat was out of the bag about her gender, none of these guys were interested in working with her or giving her a second thought. I even had one handler, who stated that he had years of prior experience handling a dual purpose dog, that said “I can’t work with a B!%*h dog”. So I politely walked them back to their patrol cars and haven’t heard from any of them since.

About a month later and officer called and stated that he was in the market for a dual purpose police dog. He stated that he saw some dogs on our website that he wanted to look at. One of the dogs that we spoke about was in fact Kira. Well, I had been through the drill before and explained to him up front that Kira was a female. The last thing that I wanted was for him to drive 600 plus miles to look at her and later find out that he was a she. He stated that he had not preference as to the gender of the dog and that all that he was concerned with was whether or not the dog would work.

Well, it has been a little less than three months since the handler and Kira completed their training here at Highland Canine Training. The handler called me today to tell me that Kira “did it again” last night. He was referring to a successful track of two suspects in several car break-ins. It appears that Kira tracked the individuals for about ¼ mile and ended up at a house where she alerted to a door. After speaking with the occupants of the house, one of the suspects was found hiding in a closet and another was arrested from the home as well. All of the items that they had taken were recovered and at least four car break-ins were cleared. Great Job Kira! This adds to the other 10 successful tracks that Kira and her handler have completed along with the more than fifty…that’s right 50, felony arrests that this team has had in this short period of time.

I have seen plenty of successful police dog teams over the years. Some of the K9 counterparts were male and some were female. If you have a good quality dog, gender doesn’t matter. So the next time you find yourself in the market for a working dog, take a few minutes to look at the girls that may be available.
Report

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

We will keep you updated on our trip, and share our experiences and turn out with this seminar!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites