nicelytraineddog.com

I have been so busy the past few months with police dog issues that I have not had time to post anything. Please contact me if you need help with your dog.

Over the past few months I have been very busy testifying in court as an expert in police dog issues. I want to thank all those who have been so flexible in their schedules to work around my court schedule.

Today as I worked with a lady and her dog in a local park that required dogs to be on a leash here came a lady and her three very large dogs without a leash and straight toward us. She allowed one of her dogs to come to us. We are all lucky neither of the dogs who were strangers were aggressive. The lady I was working with was able to recall her dog that was on a long leash and put it in the sit-stay beside us. The other lady called and called until the dog decided it wanted to leave.

Sadly we don’t know how dogs are going to react to strange dogs. It would be nice if we all practiced a little more safety. Don’t know how many of you have ever had to break up a dog fight, or have been bitten by a large dog. Neither is fun. Let’s allow our dogs to enjoy the outdoors in a safe manner.  Remember dogs won’t have manners if the owners don’t.  

As I was surfing the channels the other evening I paused on a dog training show. The trainer was working with a dog and expressed to the people about the energy the dog senses from you. This is not a uncommom belief for the uninformed. What he was trying to describe is know in behavior as “Clever Hans.”  There are no mysticial fields of energy you project to your dog.

Although this idea sounds good it is not a realiable soure for working dogs. You may get one from time to time that works. After 30 years experience in the police dog field and having trained at least 1000 dogs myself, and worked with many many more in the long run it is not cost effective.

When selecting dogs here in the states and selecting dogs in or directly from Europe my experience has dogs from pounds, or out of people’s yards about 1/30 making the selection process. Dog from or in Europe usually about 1/4 making the selection process.

The military has been importing dogs for about 20 years. They could not reliably find a supply of working dogs using pounds and donations. This is not to say you will not find some there, it means you will in the long run you spent more looking for the dogs than you should making the concept not cost effective.