I watch two TV shows on a regular basis. My favorite is “Combat Missions” on the USA channel .They use x-special forces guys, navy seals, marine recon ,greenberet ,and current swat team officers. They are divided into 4 squads and compete against each other in certain missions. Would you guys like to see a TV series with k9 teams from various departments compete against each other in mock missions? What do you think the popularity of the show would do to dog sports? Are you satisfied with the way things are or would you like to see it more commercialized, TV coverage, video games etc. I personally would like to watch it in the comfort of family room. On the other hand I would hate to see the low life’s come and ruin what so many worked so hard at. Looking forward to your opinions.

I'm not sure I'd really want to see it televised. Not only would many people not understand why the dogs "had to bite" someone in a given situation, but I also think it might hurt actual deployments. You can't give out tactical information, deployment information etc, etc and expect it not to backfire. I like Combat Missions, but you can see they have selected very "politically correct" missions to send them on. In LE work, it's not always so patriotic and clear cut. I also can't see witht he likes of PETA and alike, as well as the do "do gooders" out there, the last thing they want to see on TV is PSDs taking people down. JMO

I am willing to bet that something like this is just around the corner. Schutzhund and other sports are getting pretty popular pretty fast. (more people involved in SchH means more people interested in PSD stuff as well) Maybe not K9 combat missions, but I think we will see more and more of the working dogs doing there thing on TV and in the mainstream. Look at some of the shows already on Animal Planet. Almost every single 'Breed All About It' that featured working dogs had a small segment about Schutzhund or some other type of work. Most had actual video of bites on decoys. It is coming, for better or for worse.

I think that it may be for the better. As the work becomes more popular and more people go "wow, look how cool that is" we will hopefully see more working dogs produced and more people training. The only part about it that sucks is the more good people you get, the more dumb assholes you get with 'em. That could be bad news for us all with the popular "dog attitudes" that the media is splashing all over. That could really hurt. . .

Hey Josh, I really doubt that tactics and deployment stuff is as secret as it should be, or as you guys would like it to be. JMO

Josh...Amen, brother. The bad guys already know too much from all the counter survielence they do.

VanCamp, you are probably the guy selling us out! How much do you get paid?

In addition to the do gooders, the media isn't always the best judges of the way the dogs should work. Case in point, the 20/20 story on the dogs in MD. I think that there is likely a problem in that department, but what disturbed me was that the announcers couldn't accurately describe the one really good bite they did show. I know that the purpose of the show was to run down PSD's as out of control and unsafe, buy why describe a dog as making multiple re-bites when watching the bite, the dog made a single bite and held the bite well. The only thing close to a problem with the bite was it took several commands for the dog to out. When it did out, it went back for a cheap bite, but stayed out when re-commanded.

Sell you guys out? Come on, ME?

In a NY minute. . .

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Speaking from a combat perspective, a dog's primary role is that of detection, such as a scout dog, mine, boobytrap, tunnel etc. There is not all that much attack work in combat. Usually combat involves an armed force of more than one person, the dog handlers role is primarily detection, eliminating the surprise, so fire power can be concentrated where needed. A dog sent to attack in this type of role is usually sacrificed. As far as police type scenarios, the perception, I fear, would be one that is detrimental to all police canine officers. I think that is best left to demo's where we control the situtions completly and not give away any tactics that we may use.

DCFrost

I agree DFrost, the average joe simply would not understand the k-9 deployment. But the show "Combat Missions" is awesome...

I get a kick out of watching the SWAT guys win over the Special Forces / SEAL guys week after week even though they are not in as good of physical conditioning. In tactical situations there is no substitute for actual mission experience.