I am looking for some sound experienced advise on how often one needs to train a police service dog to search for suspects. Let me explain. My k9 is trained to search for live scent on leash. He is not a tracking dog. (ie cold scent) I would like to know from those that do this type of work how often you reienforce your training with your k9's. Is anyone of the opinion that a k9 will remeber what he is to do once he has been trained to do it. ( ie search for a suspect). I'm not saying we never train, but we have gone for about 2 months with no search training what so ever, and no one seems to be concerned (except the handlers).

Hi Mace...
Man you have more than just that question going on..why no tracking? Why on leash? How often do you train? There is NO reason why your dog should search on leash for one. Second, how can you have a patrol dog who deosn't track? I know some Depts have only "area search" dogs as they work almost totally in the inner-city and have little need for the patrol dogs to track. Where in the US are you?

That is a question that really depends on the dog, and for the peiod of time the dog has been training for. It would be safe to say that training every two months is not a really wise idea, as many issues can crop up when that time period has lapsed. I would also make the purchase of the vidoe, Training the Police Bark and Hold, and the newer Training Police Service Dogs to do Building Searches. I have not viewed the later, but I am sure the info is sound. IT would be well worth your money. Kevin (The instructer on the tape is very knowledgable) I myself when I was working with a dog on the streets would train at least 3 times a week working on diffrent problem areas. This is a safe practice when training any type of working dog.

Mace you sent me a private message but your private messages are turned off. Send me your email address.

Dogs get rusty just like humans do if they dont do something for awhile. Remember dogs need reniforcement with trng too. I feel your pain about not having a tracking dog the mil only has area search dogs. I feel the same about it depends on the dog for ex. some dogs mostly mals if you dont train with something consistant they tend to have a brain dump. But you have to train in my opinion at least once a week in a area search to keep the dog on point. If you dont its gonna catch up with you. I know its hard cause there is tons of stuff to do when your a police officer and training is usally limted, but training makes the dog. So if you dont train dont expect your dog to get any better. I feel in dog training you should never get comfortable where you are at in training. Always strive to be better, and training is the way to do it. Dont forget to mix it up either ex. search in the muzzle,search with no wrap or suit and stuff like that. To give you a guideline on the amount of hours maybe like 4 hours of patrol trng a week. This would be a mix of bite work, muzzle, building search, and so on. A dog is a animal of conditioning so it needs multiple exercises.

Michael Taylor said;

 Quote:

I myself when I was working with a dog on the streets would train at least 3 times a week working on diffrent problem areas. This is a safe practice when training any type of working dog.

Butch:Good sound advice, a K-9 is no better prepared then the handler if not worked and trained regularly.

Butch: When regulated training sessions are few and far apart, try introducing your K-9 to new and different stimuli during regular patrol duty.
"BE INVENTIVE"

Butch: Any and all new stimuli and exposures to different surrondings will help the K-9 when a real working situation occurs. This will build confidence in your partner and yourself. (empty wharehouse searchs,open fields, parks, indusrtial areas are a must)

Butch: My dog does nothing for two weeks at time(I work away from home fro 14 days) There is always something to go back and work with when I get home. (this is not the dogs fault but mine, these working dogs need to mentally challanged to be 100% prepared for there duties.

Just my expereinces, others may disagree. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Mace, I have to concur with Michael, We try to do serious training once a week, and through out the week (about twice more if we are lucky) grab someone and just have them walk behind a building or vehicle or if no one is available just toss a wallet or other item into the woods.
Right now we have a dog whose handler went on vacation for around 3 weeks, after vacation we all noticed that the dog is tossing his nose up which he has never done before. So I guess the more you train the better off the dog is.