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Archive for the ‘Training’ Category
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
 Hundreds of years ago dogs were only kept on farms, and were not permitted within the confines of city life. Today, it is a very different story; dogs are seen accompanying humans in all places and filling a variety of roles in human society. While different dogs perform a variety of different jobs, they all have one form of training in common: obedience training. Obedience is the key factor that has allowed us to integrate canines into our society so effectively. Without obedience, there is no control, and without control, your dog cannot reliably perform its job. Schutzhund emphasises the importance of obedience training in all of its exercises. Sch3 titled dogs are required to show exemplary obedience. Unfortunately, other sports such as KNPV allow for obedience that is just good enough to pass. While protection work and agility are certainly very important, obedience should always come first.
Unlike protection work and tracking, which take advantage of the natural tendencies in canine behavior, obedience training is very unnatural for a dog to learn. Because of this, training obedience can be very stressful on a dog if not done correctly. When we deliver our personal protection dogs, we tell all of our clients to perform quick ten-minute obedience exercises with their dog each day. This not only improves the dog’s obedience, but also helps build a strong bond and sense of leadership between the handler and the canine. In a ten-minute training session, the dog should be able to complete a sit, down, come heel and stay, about 20 times each. Keeping the sessions short and quick helps reduce the stress on your dog. Remember to use a strong and commanding voice during these exercises. Done five times a week, this becomes 100 repetitions of each command; over a month, it becomes 400. Keep doing the math, and you will find that this leads to a happier, more balanced dog with very strong obedience.
I am very fortunate to have the luxury of walking my dogs each and every day on the street. I walk my dogs at least five miles a day, and not a day goes by that I won’t someone won’t pass us with their own dog. Although my dogs don’t pose as a threat to those who walk past us, people always react the same: they immediately stop, and tighten the lead. This reaction is the exact opposite of what one should do. By doing this, one only builds suspicion in their dog. One must use common sense when walking their dog. This means having a loose lead and to have movement, not to stop. Remember: a loose lead shows control, a tight lead shows no control. To some, this is common sense, but common sense is often not so common.
Tags: Canine Protection, dog training, K.N.P.V., Obedience, Protection Dog, Schutzhund
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Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
 The burger bite, meaning “live bite” in Dutch, is a very serious bite to train and test in the canine world. We at Command Control K9 test all of our protection dogs before we deliver them. One would be very surprised by how many personal protection dogs there are in the world that will not take a burger bite. The majority of the dogs that we test are equipment orientated. This is fake security; even if one uses a new hidden sleeve, the dog can smell the jute. We all know that a criminal does not come into your home with a bite suite on. We at Command Control K9 have no interest in a dog that is fixated on the sleeve or bite suit. It may look good in the sporting world, but it has no purpose in the real world.
 To test for a burger bite, one must be a very experienced decoy, also known as a helper. This is not something one would fool around with. I’ve seen too many people get seriously hurt with these exercises. To do the exercise properly, the decoy/helper will take an old, thin phone book and wrap it around the forearm with duct tape, then take an old sweater, or jacket, and slip it over. It is very important that you not only use a lead, but also have communication between the decoy and the handler.
Tags: burger bijten, burger bite, Canine Training, dog training, live bite, Protection Dog
Posted in Bite Technique, Training | Comments Off
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
 The Koninklijke Nederlandse Politiehond Vereniging, or KNPV, is one of the most popular dog sports in the world. Handlers put an incredible amount of time and effort into training their dogs to participate in KNPV, and often do so strictly out of enjoyment, and passion for the sport. Once a dog has received its first title, known as KNPV PH1, the handler has a choice of either continuing training with the dog in order to attempt to gain more specialised titles, or to sell the dog as police protection dog.
While KNPV was originally created in Holland as a way of training and testing potential police dogs, the reality is that the training a dog receives for KNPV isn’t sufficient for real work alongside a police officer, or as a personal protection dog. The dog essentially has to be re-trained in order for it to make the transition properly.
The first step in re-training a KNPV dog for personal protection is to fill in any gaps in obedience training. While KNPV dogs are taught to heel properly, many are never taught to sit. Training for obedience takes time and patience. It is best to start slowly, leaving the dog in a “sit-stay”, and only taking a few short steps away. Gradually work up to greater distances and more distractions.
Correcting bite-work in KNPV dogs is extremely important. In KNPV, a dog is allowed to continue biting as long as the decoy moves, so having the dog correctly release on command is essential. Start by having the decoy stop moving when the release command is given, and gradually begin adding more movement in order to associate release with the given command rather than the level of movement. Upon release, a KNPV dog will have been trained to guard the decoy. In a real life situation, this is unnecessary and may interfere with the police officers’ attempts to subdue and handcuff the apprehended criminal after the release command has been given. It is important not to immediately correct the dog for behavior it has been specifically trained to do. This will only create stress and anxiety in the dog. It may be necessary to put the dog on a long lead, and calmly pull the dog out of guard after a release. Being able to call off the dog is also very important.
Finally, a KNPV dog must be re-trained to correctly track and search. A KNPV dog will have already been trained to track human scent from the ground, but must be re-trained to do article searches, and to indicate at the article rather than mouthing it.
Whether you’re training your German Shepherd or Belgian Malinois to be a guard dog, police dog or personal protection dog, it is important to remember that KNPV is just a sport. Working in the real world requires training for real world scenarios.
Tags: Belgian Malinois, dog training, K.N.P.V., Protection Dog
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Thursday, June 10th, 2010
 In today’s world, the risk of cancer is incredibly high. Thankfully, society has been working harder than ever in the effort towards cancer prevention and treatment. Considering the importance behind early detection of cancer, the thought that a canine might be able to detect early signs of cancer by scent alone is extremely promising.
The idea that a dog’s sense of smell might be powerful enough to detect cancer took off after a victim of skin cancer noticed their canine repeatedly sniffing and showing an interest in a skin lesion, which turned out to be melanoma. It is well known that certain breeds of dog are able to detect certain chemicals in the air in quantities as low as parts per trillion, and considering that certain cancers release specific toxins not released by healthy cells, it may be entirely possible for a dog to detect cancer. Over the past 4 years, there have only been a couple studies testing the theory that a dog can detect cancer in a patient. While both studies have had promising results, showing a rate of accuracy as high as 88%, they were both only preliminary tests, and used only a small sample of the population.
Regardless of whether or not a dog is actually able to detect cancer by scent, it remains that any type of sniffer dog must be specifically trained for that purpose. However, the incident that originally sparked interest in cancer detection brings up an interesting point about dogs, such as personal protection dogs, that work closely with their owners; canines are incredibly in-tune with the health of their handlers. Whether or not your German Shepherd or Belgian Malinois has been specifically trained to sniff out cancer, there is a good chance that it will recognize and respond to any kind of illness.
Tags: Belgian Malinois, cancer detection, cancer dogs, cancer smelling dogs, Detection Dogs, German Shepherd, Personal Protection Dog, Sniffer Dogs
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Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
 Dogs bred and trained to be guard dogs or protection dogs are often among the strongest, most agile and most intelligent dogs in the world. While these are all necessary traits for a working dog, it means that your German Shepherd or Belgian Malinois guard dog is far more capable of escaping its dog crate than a standard house pet.
The act of escaping confinement is usually not out of a dislike for the crate itself. Canines, by nature, feel safe and secure in confined places, and often enjoy relaxing in their crates. However, escaping the dog crate can become somewhat of a game to your dog. It is a self-rewarding experience that your dog will repeat. In the event that your canine escapes his crate, it is extremely important that you take immediate action to prevent further escapes. If you move your dog directly to a more secure crate after repeated successful escapes, it may injure itself in an attempt to escape the new crate.
The weakest parts of a crate are the hinges on the gate, and the latch. If your guard dog has escaped its crate, it is most likely that it has done so by pulling on the gate to bend the hinges, or by knocking the latch out of place. In both cases, a more expensive aluminum crate will be much harder for the dog to escape from, but more important than the crate is ensuring that the dog’s behavior is corrected. Securing the gate with cable ties, or bungee chords will make it more difficult for your dog to escape, and can be implemented immediately after your dog’s first escape, or sooner as a preventative measure. Positioning the crate with the gate against a wall or solid surface can also help prevent further escapes. It is important that your dog associate the crate with a calm and relaxed state of mind rather than an energetic or playful one, and removing the reward of escape can help accomplish this.
Purchasing a more expensive crate may prevent further escapes, but it may also cause your guard dog to injure itself. With proper training and reinforcement, your German Shepherd or Belgian Malinois will view the crate as a place of sleep and relaxation rather than a challenge or game to be overcome.
Tags: Belgian Malinois, dog crate, German Shepherd, Guard Dog, Protection Dog
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Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
 Police Protection Dogs are a valuable asset to police forces everywhere and essential to many police operations. Among all of their capabilities, tracking is one of the most frequently used. However, when dealing with serious cases, as the police often do, the reliability of a dog’s tracking ability is of incredible importance. At present, United States courts do not consider a dog’s tracking ability to be 100% reliable. The results produced by a police tracking dog can only be used as supporting evidence, and cannot be presented as the only available evidence. Furthermore, the dog’s tracking ability must also be proven to be reliable. In all cases, the first test of reliability is the dog’s ability to track human scent.
A dog’s ability to reliably track human scent has been a topic of debate for many years. As humans, it is difficult for us to understand the process of scent tracking from a canine perspective. The canine nose is more than capable of identifying between a wide variety of scents, but ensuring that a police dog is following the correct scent is far more difficult. The biggest skeptics have always maintained that rather than tracking a humans unique scent signature, dogs track scents left behind by the disturbance of the ground as a human walks or runs, and thus kicks up a variety of dust and dirt particles along the way. Others have suggested that dogs are primarily focused on the scent of the feet or shoes that have left behind traces as they have rubbed against the ground. Others still say that unique human scents are left behind as a multitude of skin cells and hair are shed from our bodies. The reality is that a well trained tracking dog will be looking out for a mix of both human scent as well as ground disturbance. However, human scent must remain the focus with ground disturbance acting only to assist in maintaining the trail on a human scent. A reliable dog must be able to demonstrate the ability to track human scent without getting distracted by converging trails left by other humans.
The key to reliability in a police protection dog is to begin training at an early age. It is not enough to simply begin training track drive in a young Belgian Malinois puppy or German Shepherd puppy. Detecting human scent should be taught almost from the beginning, and should remain the focus of tracking exercises throughout the dog’s career.
Tags: Belgian Malinois, Belgian Malinois Puppies, German Shepherd, German Shepherd Puppies, Police Dog, Protection Dog, tracking dog
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Friday, December 18th, 2009
 Many people make the mistake of assuming that their dog sees the world the same way they do. We all know of a dog’s great sense of smell, and many of us have heard that dogs are colourblind, but few of us really know what this means, or how a dog’s vision may be different from ours.
First of all, dogs are not completely colourblind. Vision in both humans and canines is measured by photoreceptors known as cones and rods at the back of our eyes. Cones are able to pick up fine details in colour, whereas rods are able to better pick up motion and dim light. The ratio of cones to rods in our eyes determines whether we are better at picking up fine details and colours, or better at picking up motion and seeing in the dark. Dogs have significantly more rods than humans, and as a result, they are much better at seeing in low-light situations, but less cones means they are less able to perceive colour. Dogs are still able to see some colour, but cannot distinguish between greens, yellows, oranges and reds. To those of us with guide dogs, this information may be troubling, as one starts to wonder how a guide dog can differentiate between a green light and a red light at an intersection. However, there are a number of other queues that a dog will pick up on, including brightness and position of the light, as well as noise and traffic.
Secondly, the lack of cones in a dog’s eyes affect the level of detail with which they can see. As a result, they are less able to visually distinguish objects that are far away. While humans with ideal eye-sight are said to have 20/20 vision, a dog may only have 20/75 vision. This means that a dog has to be 20 feet away from an object in order to see it with the same level of detail that a human can see 75 feet away. Many working dogs, such as German Shepherds, Belgian Malinois or Dutch Shepherds, have been bred for better senses, including vision. Your protection dog may have better vision than a house pet, but it would still be less than that of a human. Of course, vision is not the only sense at a dog’s disposal. While your dog may not be able to see you sitting still at the other side of a field, he may be able to hear you, and can almost certainly smell you. On top of this, any amount of movement will be picked up by your dog’s rod-heavy photoreceptors.
Keeping these factors in mind is important in effectively training and working with protection dogs, guard dogs and security dogs. You have to know your dogs strengths and weaknesses, and how to employ your dog at its absolute best.
Tags: Canine Training, Canine Vision, dog training, German Shepherd, Guard Dog, Protection Dog, Security Dog
Posted in Canine Health, Protection Dogs, Training | Comments Off
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
 As the leaves have changed colour and fallen, and we are experiencing our first winter storm of the season, we at Command Control K9 change our training tactics. With winter upon us, it gives us an opportunity to work our protection dogs in a winter environment.
We do less agility, and focus more on man – scent tracking in the deep, snowy, cold winter nights.
A good protection dog has to be well rounded and able to work in all conditions, whether it is in extreme heat or cold, day or night. This is why we at CCK9 only breed train and sell German Shepherds, Dutch Shepherds and Belgian Malinois, for they, unlike any other breeds, can climate themselves from extreme heat and extreme cold.
Winter is also an exciting time, for this is the time when we not only celebrate the holiday season with our family and friends, but also a time of the year when we breed our female, for a new generation of fetcher personal protection dogs.
Tags: Belgian Malinois, dog training, German Shepherds, Guard Dogs, Protection Dogs, Winter
Posted in CCK9, Training | Comments Off
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
 Coming from a fitness background, I understand the importance of cardiovascular exercise for humans. The question: is cardiovascular as important for your protection dog? It is not only important, but vital. After all, what good is a personal protection dog, if you have to deploy your dog to take down an unwelcome intruder at 50 yards or more, and they are not conditioned to get into the fight when they get there.
A good protection dog has to be in top-notch shape, just like a professional boxer, to be effective. There are five components to total fitness: muscle strength, muscle endurance, flexibility, body composition, and cardiovascular. We at Command Control K9 have all of our protection dogs do cardio’ every day to keep them in top shape, whether we run them with the quad, have them follow us on the bike, or simply go for a long power walk.
As my good friend Cesar Millan would say; “Exercise, discipline, affection… in that order!”
Tags: Belgian Malinois, canine exercise, Cardiovascular, German Shepherd, Guard Dog, Protection Dog
Posted in CCK9 Policy, Canine Health, Training | Comments Off
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
 The training with our client and his Czech line sable German Shepherd are doing better than expected. This weekend we did advanced tactical K9 work. I had him deploy his dog 150 yards, and jump up onto the roof of one of our pick-up trucks to take a bite. After successfully doing it on the first try, I had him deploy his dog up a ten-barrel A-frame to take a bite. The third exercise was to walk on a 20 foot long, four inch wide elevated plank and take a bite at the end. The last exercise was to swim across the pond, take a bite, and swim back to the handler.
To the average person this may all sound like extreme work, but a good personal protection dog has to be well rounded and prepared for the worst. There are very few people that do this type of work. The work that we do at CCK9 is very special. We at CCK9 have a saying; prepare to win, by preparing not to lose.
Tags: Czech line, DDR Import, German Shepherd, Protection Dog
Posted in German Shepherd, Protection Dogs, Training | Comments Off
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