I have a problem with my patrol dog returning to me during a building search. What can I do to make him continue to search?

Question

Good Morning,

    My name is Jim Apgar and I am a patrol sergeant and K9 handler for the Pennridge Regional Police Dept. in southeastern PA (north of Philadelphia) and have been extremely impressed with all the articles authored by you that I have read. I am writing for some advice, if possible, with a problem I am encountering with my current K9 partner. Niko is a four year old Czech import GSD who is cross-trained and so far has been about the best dog you could ask for. He bites like a vise, is social as hell, and his apprehension rate from tracking is in excess of 80% (TTD, of course). His weak area is in building search, mostly in training, and is quite perplexing. I send him into a building to search and he takes off like mad but if he does not immediately locate the decoy he seems to become confused and returns to stand by me. I can tell by his body language he knows there is a person in the building but he seems reluctant to use his nose to look for them. If they make a slight noise or if I move with him he quickly locates them and otherwise is fine, and this problem is not an "everyday" occurrence but when it happens it is somewhat frustrating. I think he might just need more basic work, I.E. seeing the decoy run into the building, slight noise, etc. as in all honesty the majority of our training focuses on tracking and contained area searches as this accounts for the majority of our deployments. On the street he has done numerous successful building searches and has located two hidden offenders, but I would like to see him be a more confident and aggressive search dog in the training scenarios. As stated this is not a constant problem, but I strive for a proficient and reliable animal. Any suggestions you might be able to give would be greatly appreciated.

    Take care and Thanks in Advance,
 Jim Apgar / K9 Niko

Accepted Answer

I discussed this with my friend Kevin Sheldahl. I consider him one of the best K9 trainers in this country.

    No doubt the dog is trying to obtain help in his search and construes something in the training as help (decoy noise, handler moving through the search area with the dog instead of behind the dog, etc.). Some really nice dogs will do this even though the handler is reasonably diligent about his/her training. Particularly among dogs who are very easy to train.

    The only answer is very simple searches for the decoy with a lot of stimulation so the dog’s drive carries him over the behavior which you want to eliminate.

    One other technique which really helps here: Teach a directed blind search, (on a training field - not in a building to start with) and use compulsion to make the dog go to the blind as a conclusion to training. American cops hate doing this! They think it is sport but it is the easiest way to tell a dog you must go there to search and direct the dog away from you. Since the compulsion is done away from any practical searching there is no effect decreasing drive in the practical work.

    Of course the emphasis changes from an obedience routine to a protection routine in the search. Lots of hot (decoy present) blinds. This work can be done on either a dog that detains or a dog that does not it really doesn't matter.