We have a new patrol dog candidate. It has some serious issues with slick floors. What can we do?

Mr. Frawley,

We have a problem with one of our new import dogs that we can't seem to figure out. I am a handler/instructor with the city of Melbourne, Florida K9 unit and am in the process of trying to get a new German Shepherd ready to work the road.

The dog is about 20 months old and has been in-country for about 4-6 months. He has lots of promise with nice prey drive and defense, some prior tracking experience and is very civil. The only snag we have come across in the K9 school is that the dog has a strong aversion to slick floors. I have come across this problem many times in the past and usually find that it is not a big deal once we get allot of associative work in getting the dog used to different environments, but this dog has become a real challenge. We are at a point in the school where, if we don't fix this its' going to stop us from continuing with an important part of training for police work. What we have done so far is walk the dog inside buildings in a non stress situation so that he can get used to the feel and what it takes to move around on the slick surface. We have also played tug-of-war and fetch with him inside the building when he appeared comfortable. This seemed to work and we thought we had the problem licked.

When we tried to conduct building search exercises and the stress level went up, the dog either wouldn't walk on the floor or he would concentrate on where he was walking and not on the task at hand. I attempted to overcome this by utilizing his prey drive and agitating him at the door where he could fire-up comfortably on rougher ground and have him bite at the entrance to the building. The dog either wouldn't engage or he would have a very weak bite. If the dog saw that he was going to hit the slick floor he would disengage.

After a number of these type of exercises didn't work, I put a piece of carpet over the door threshold and allowed the dog to bite where he could get some footing. While the dog was on the bite and the handler put back pressure on him he held tight even onto the slick floor, but when the back pressure was eased up he would loosen his bite or disengage. I tried this same routine and got onto the floor with the dog while he was on the bite as well with the same result.

We continue to try associating the dog with as many slick areas as we can and do not force him in when he doesn't want to go. After two weeks of building work mixed with other training we still have made very little headway.

I understand that these imports are kenneled pretty much their whole life and it is understandable that this is usually something we have to overcome when purchasing an import but I am at a loss for what to do next. Any help/insight that you could offer would be extremely usefully. It should be noted that this dogs' handler, even though he has been working a dog for approximately 10-11 years, is not the strongest and his timing and understanding of how these animals work is only fair. Anyway, thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Howard