After years of pumping up the dog prior to the search, and allowing the dog to fire up at the door we are now forced to have our dogs stay quiet during the K9 warning. Our supervisor attended a liability seminar and has now changed our long practice of letting the dogs be vocal on the warning.
I understand the thinking behind this. You may not hear the bad guy give up, or an unsuspecting business owner who doesnt understand what is going on and therefore is not very vocal. The biggest pain in the butt is now having to force the dog to be quiet after years of allowing him to wind up for the search. I see a noticeable difference in the dogs drive and search intensity when they are forced to remain calm.
My response to this new policy was to allow us a warning without the dog, then another warning with the dog to get maximum phsycological affect on the bad guy hiding. our supervisor officially does not allow us to do this because he feels we should have enough control over the dog to keep him from barking. Obviously the dogs are confused.
Many times a warning has been given without the dog with no response from the bad guy. Another warning with the dog had the perp screaming not to let the dog go and they they give up. Some of our new dogs that are forced to be quiet during the initial school,IMO display lower search intensity as opposed to those dogs that are allowed to be pumped up and vocal at the door. Is it just me or does anyone else out there see what I am seeing?

Howard

I know exactly what you are going through. We converted a few years ago to keeping the dog silent during the warning. When we were converting the dog so to speak we started outside with area searches, actually box searches and let the dog have a short succesful search with a bite. Eventually extending the search time and then moving into building. If you give the dog drive satisfaction ina short time in the beginning the dog will remain intense.

Most likey you are having to use compulsion to keep the dog quiet, if the dog was used to barking during the warning. It is unrealistic to think the dog would go into a large building with the same intensity if after he has been brought down so to speak. With building the dog up with drive satisfaction I think you will se ove time that the dog will search with intesity for the possiblility of a fight (apprehension) Just my 2 cents, but it did work for us.

Steven, Building the intensity is not a problem. Its the downloading of the dog prior to the search, then expecting him to be at peak performance in a nano-second. Even the dogs that were taught from the beginning to be quiet eventually wanted to fire up on their own because they knew what was in store for them. I equate this problem to be like approaching the door to an opera only to find an ultimate fighting match going on inside...if that makes any sense <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

During your next training day when you are working group obedience, work on keeping the dogs quite while in the down. We will have a handler leave his dog in the down, walk out 50 ft. or so and kneel down and give his building search warnings. He is focusing on keeping his dog in the down, and we with our dogs are working on keeping the dogs quiet during the warnings. You need to make the warnings “non stimulating” to the dog. Give your warnings when you are going for a walk or when you are playing ball so they become bland to the dog. If the only time the dog hears the warnings is before he gets deployed for a search you can’t blame him for getting stimulated by them.

When time comes for deployment in training start with the warnings being very low volume….. and ONLY release the dog when he is quite. He will learn quite quickly that he has to be quite if he wants to play

Matthew, While this may work with new or inexperienced dogs, a seasoned dog knows what time of day it is. My main concern is the effect of the dogs' intensity in the search when they are not allow to prepare emotionally. Have you seen any difference in search intensity between a dog that is allowed to be fired up as opposed to one that has to remain calm?

I don't see a difference in intensity. My dog is allowed to bark while standing or sitting but is to be quiet during the down. I follow this same rule during bitework and see no intensity loss there either. If the dog can't play untill he's quiet and he knows this, then can't being quiet be the mental preparation the dog needs prior to the search?

Matthew,
Makes sense. I recieved a PM with some advice that I will try. I will add to the training a quiet down and see how it works. I already know his intensity with the fired up version so I will compare it to the new and improved Roscoe after he proofs in a quiet down, Thanks

Howard

We just aren't real high tech around here. "OUT" means, cease all aggression and that includes barking and carrying on. When the warning is given, the dog is commanded to out. When I want the suspect to hear the dog bark, I tell him watch him, it's all that is needed. "Find Him" sends the dog on it's way where he will bite and hold if the suspect if reachable, or give an audible response if the subject is hidden.

DFrost

I too believed that the K-9 would lose intensity searching if he was not hyped up like I had always taught and had been taught. 2 years ago teaching at a seminar in Dothan,Al. one of the instructers from Florida advised they had switched their K-9 teams to being passive while giving the warning. I voiced my disagreement with it. He converted all of Dothans K-9 teams over to this method. They had previously had sucess in locating bad guys hiding in buildings. This method has not lowered their drive as they have had additional finds and not one handler has stated any loss in the dogs drive to hunt for a man in buildings.
I have 3 teams in training next month and will begin utilizing this method also.
Phil Dodson

Phil, On dogs that are fired up they appear to have some extra zing in their step and body language. When I watch a passive dog during the warning released to search I am almost bored. The dogs may be more/as methodical as any other but it looks as if the dog at times is disinterested in its job. Again, I know how my partner currently works..now I have something to compare the new method to once he learns to be quiet.