I have bought almost all the tapes dealing with police k-9 training including training narcotics. My question is how do you start the passive alert. I have started some obediance sit,stay,down, ect... and understand how to imprint the scents but not sure how to impliment the passive alert?

The way do do this training is to first train the dog with a primary reward (a scratch alert). When the dog is finished on primary work then ADD THE SIT. A good detector dog is a driven animal - they will use thei heads and do whatever it takes to have drive satisfaction.

First, my answer will be based on the ideal where the dog is driven to hunt, flush, and capture what it views as prey. In this case we'll say itr is dope.
Once the dog can do the foundational work the dog is simple guided into or allowed to sit to flush the prey. Avoid using obedience as the bridge to this behavior. This is a common mistake and if possible should be avoided.

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I have bought almost all the tapes dealing with police k-9 training including training narcotics. My question is how do you start the passive alert. I have started some obediance sit,stay,down, ect... and understand how to imprint the scents but not sure how to impliment the passive alert?

Kevin,

How do you go about avoiding the use of obedience as the bridge?

Patience and be quiet. approximate the position that works best for the dog and reward focus.

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Kevin,

How do you go about avoiding the use of obedience as the bridge?

CB, I'll be a bit different. If you want a passive response dog, why not use the sit. If the dog will sit on command, then use that to your advantage. I'll give a couple of steps of how I do it.

1. First, if you already understand how to imprint the odor, then keep doing that exercise until the dog has demonstrated it will go to the odor, on it's own. Once you're certain the dog is going to the odor, then introduce the sit. While, with a drug dog, there isn't anything significantly wrong with introducing an aggresssive response prior to the sit, in my opinion, it's a step that isn't needed. If you were training explosives detectors, it could well cause a problem you don't want.

2. When you've reached the point where you are going to introduce the sit, ensure the dog is sniffing the target, command sit, then reward immediately. At this stage of training, I have a second person present the reward. The second the butt hits the floor the reward should be there. The handler usually has thier hands full, just ensuring the dog is in the sit position.

Just a different perspective.

DFrost

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CB, I'll be a bit different. If you want a passive response dog, why not use the sit. If the dog will sit on command, then use that to your advantage. I'll give a couple of steps of how I do it.

1. First, if you already understand how to imprint the odor, then keep doing that exercise until the dog has demonstrated it will go to the odor, on it's own. Once you're certain the dog is going to the odor, then introduce the sit. While, with a drug dog, there isn't anything significantly wrong with introducing an aggresssive response prior to the sit, in my opinion, it's a step that isn't needed. If you were training explosives detectors, it could well cause a problem you don't want.

2. When you've reached the point where you are going to introduce the sit, ensure the dog is sniffing the target, command sit, then reward immediately. At this stage of training, I have a second person present the reward. The second the butt hits the floor the reward should be there. The handler usually has thier hands full, just ensuring the dog is in the sit position.

Just a different perspective.

DFrost

Thats the same way we switched over our newest dog.