Why is police dog training trying to be kept secretive?

[Tim Connell]

Agreed, did not mean you specifically, just "us" , collectively as LE. We need all the support we can get sometimes.

When it comes to LE specific training and tactics, certainly there is a line.

[Debbieg]

Missed this thread until now. Wow; how easily people assume the worst and spread it.

I know very little about how K9’s are trained, but my family has been friends with two K9 Officers in our town for many years. The first, now retired got his first dog, a GSD from the pound and he served for many years and retired to the officers home. This dog and handler came to our home several times when our oldest son as a teen was getting on the fringe of gang related activity, and with patience and toughness talk with him about the reality of that life.


His second dog also a GSD also served for many years, and his last dog before retiring was a Giant Schnauzer who rode in the side car of his motorcycle. The other K9 Officer also had a GSD who served many years and retired to live with his family. He said he trusted the do so much that if he had opposable thumbs he would let hi drive! This officer and his family grieved terribly when his test K9 died suddenly of bloat. He was instrumental a few months ago in getting a GSD out of our high kill shelter after it was surrendered by the owner for barking too much.



Every year in Sacramento Sheriffs dept sponsor area there is a race/walk to help pay for medical needs of K9’s. This was started by an officer to pay for treatment when his dog developed cancer. I have seen this dog after treatment happily playing with the officers young children.

Welcome to the Annual Kaleo’s 5K Run




The bond between these officers and their partners are something all of us dog lovers should strive for. It is clear that this bond could only be was created through fair training. I doubt many high drive dogs could be trained without the humane use of aversives . My own dog does not have the drives or nerve to be a K9 but when amped up he is oblivious to a steak waved under his nose. From my admittedly limited experience I think most K9 have a great life ( a job they love to do and a human partner they love to do it with)


Of course there are some K9 Officers who abuse dogs, but they are in the vast minority, and I am sure no one is more enraged by them then the many K9 Officers who love their dogs and work. PETA has nothing on the what these officers must feel.

I say this because I work for the Catholic Church and regular spend time, socially and at work with many priests who are true servants giving 24/7 to their people. No one is more hurt or angry with those who have abused people than they are. Some of these priests tell me that they are tempted to not wear their collars when travelling to avoid being called names, but they wear them anyway, just in case a person feels in need of a priest.

I wish people would not be so quick to buy into the media which loves play up the bad side of humanity because it sells, rather than seek the truth.

[Buzz.babes]

Originally Posted by flynbyu2

LEO K9 handler here. I haven't read every comment but some are a bit disturbing to me.

As far as watching our training sessions, it wouldn't be beneficial to us if every person knew our dog's commands. We don't want the bad guy being able to "OUT" our dog and make him lay down. My working dog was trained in Israel and understands commands in Hebrew. Some are in Dutch, some in Polish, some German and so on. Some handlers make up their own commands just for the above mentioned reason.

Our dogs are chosen because they are super high prey & hunt drive. These dogs would make terrible pets but are well suited for police work. They need to be mentally stimulated numerous times throughout the day, even on our days off.

Our dogs typically hit the streets when they are 18-24 months old. These dogs LOVE to go to work. They hate it when their handlers have a class or court and are forced to stay at home.

These dogs are treated like NBA superstars; being with your dog 40 hours a week you notice little things about your partner. As soon as we see something irregular, they're taken to the vet and get superstar treatment and leading edge care.

Our GSD police K9s usually retire at the age of 7 and typically live with their handler to a nice ripe old age. We have lost several dogs to gunshots, getting hit by cars and one during a horrific accidents while riding in their K9 vehicles. However civilian dogs can also suffer these types of fatal endings. The big difference is when a regular dog dies, the funeral is not attended by 200+ police officers and another 100 K9s.

Police dogs do many functions that their human counterparts are unable to accomplish, and they love every minute of it.

If you want to see some police dog training in action, watch the show "ALPHA K9" on NatGeoWild. It is a very typical police/military K9 training facility.

This rings true to me. I was stationed at Lackand in SA TX and have great respect for the majority of these handlers and have first hand seen the love between them. God speed all the amazing handlers and K9's keeping us safe.


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[pache11]

Police dogs are not trained in foreign languages so the perp can't give a command to the dog. I haven't met a working K9, police or sport that will listen to a command from a stranger unless trained or conditioned to do so. Police dogs that use foreign language commands are usually bred and raised in the country that speaks that language. It is very difficult to find domestic working shepherds in the U.S. that have the capability to do police and hard defense work, most don't have the protection drive or have other issues that disqualify them.