Wind River Free Press
Online Magazine. Richard E. “Rick” Dennis CPP - Freelance Journalist & Author.
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K-9 Training 101, Part 4
By Richard E. “Rick” Dennis CPP Freelance Journalist & Author Copyright 2024 All-rights Reserved May 4, 2024 DO’s and Don’ts of K-9 Training In K-9 training observations, the three most-often reoccurring mistakes, I witness are: 1)Starting a young dog to soon and expecting too much out of the young pup, 2) using abusive tactics to “force-train” a dog, at any age, but especially during its early developmental stage, instead of using patience and repetitive common sense training practices throughout the training regime, 3) not spending enough quality time with the K-9 prior to initiating training, to gain the love, respect, confidence, and trust of the K-9 companion. Starting a K-9 To Soon The novice trainer should learn, a K-9’s top intelligence level, at maturity, is comparable to that of a five or six year old human child. Therefore, before the novice trainer should begin attempting to train his or her new K-9 companion the key elements to successful training is “Patience, Repetition, and Praise.” As the “old adage,” in animal training goes, “If you punish an animal every time it does something wrong, it will quit trying to do it right!” The correct philosophy to use when training an animal, whether a dog a horse, or any animal or bird is to turn a negative into a positive. More specifically, if the novice trainer is trying teach the K-9 to walk beside, him or her, and the K-9 keeps bolting ahead the trainer should stop the training exercise, bring the K-9 back to the trainer, and repeat the process over and over, as many times as it takes, for the K-9 to understand, the running off isn’t the correct behavior, but the walking beside the trainer is. Training an animal is a game of patience. If you don’t have the patience don’t undertake the training process. Be completely honest with yourself. Using Abusive Training Tactics Never ever use abusive training tactics with your K-9. This illogical behavior only serves to instill fear and distrust, in the K-9, towards the K-9’s owner instead of respect, confidence, trust, and love. The former will completely ruin a good K-9, while the latter will produce a willing working partner for the rest of its life. Therefore, NEVER: Strike, Hit, Kick, Slap, or Punch your K-9 or act aggressive, in any manner, towards the K-9 when it’s doing something wrong. Instead show the K-9 what is right! These illogical training tactics only serve to instill fear in a K-9 and teaches the abused K-9 to be rebellious and cower as well as in some instances, depending on the breed, these abusive tactics, “only serve,” to make the K-9 aggressive. Example: “As another old training adage goes, “you can take the most docile K-9 in the world and put it in a corner. If every time the owner passes the K-9, he or she kicks it, one day the abused K-9 will come out of the corner and eat the owner up.” The K-9 will get the blame, but the owner’s at fault, and the K-9 will usually be euthanized.” Using Shock Collars Over the course of my fifty four (54) years as a professional K-9 trainer, I’ve trained a myriad K-9’s, for diverse assignments, e.g., Police K-9’s for general duty police work to include, but not limited to, tracking, bite work, search and rescue, criminal apprehension, crowd control, narcotics. and explosive detection. It’s also been my pleasure to train sporting dogs. More specifically, retrievers for waterfowl hunting and birds dogs for upland hunting. During my tenure, I’v e never employed the use of a shock collar in my training regiment. Oh I’m sure there’s some logic to this training methodology, but I’ve never realized the need for it. Not Spending Enough Quality Time With The K-9 Through time and memory, dogs were bred to be mans best friend. Whether that K-9 friend’s purpose is law enforcement or war time applications, guarding a flock of sheep or a persons property and assets, or whether the K-9 was bred for sporting purposes, i.e., a hunting companion, pulling a cart, or a general everyday companion. Over the course of time, the faithful K-9, has done it all. It’s also been said, “that no matter how your day is going or what mood your in, the K-9 is always happy to see it’s owner.” Now that’s true love. Therefore, doesn’t the faithful K-9 deserve the same type of love and devotion in return? Of course they do! The sole purpose of this quality time, spent together, is to form a lifelong bond between the owner and the K-9. As with any relationship, without love, trust, and devotion the relationship doesn’t really exist! One of the questions I’m most often asked, is: “Do I allow my K-9 companions to sleep in the bed with me?” My answers are simple. “If I’m In bed by myself, the answer is yes.” “If I’m in bed with a female companion, the answer is no.” However, when I’m with a female companion, in mixed companyI do teach the K-9 to sleep on the floor, by the bed on a dog bed or pallet. One way or the other, the K-9 is always in the bedroom with me where it belongs.” “Until Next Time, Keep Em Between The Bridle!
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K-9 Training 101, Part 3
By Richard E. “Rick” Dennis CPP May 1, 2024, Copyright 2024, All Rights Reserved Physical Fitness In the last chapter, I delineated the necessary equipment to train your K-9. In this chapter, I’ll discuss preparing your K-9 and yourself for the rigors required in the training of your K-9. Training your K-9 requires physical exertion and it also requires the K-9 and yourself to be in as good as physical condition as possible. Therefore, pre-training requires pre-preparation. To prepare, for training your K-9, its imperative for your K-9 and yourself to have a medical physical to detect any abnormalities, either of you have, which could be detrimental to, not only, your health but the health and well being of the K-9, as well. As previously mentioned, training your K-9 requires physical exertion and mile after mile of walking. If either, you or your K-9, are suffering from a physical disability such as: Heart, Lung, or physical abnormality, i.e., handicap, it will impede your training progress. During training, the required physical exertion will amplify a debilitating physical abnormality. However, depending on the exact type of debilitating illness or physicals issues, some can be worked around and some can’t. Example: If your K-9 has never had an X-ray performed on it’s hips and the result is, your K-9 is suffering from hip dysplasia, meaning there’s a separation between the ball socket and the joint in the hip, this could disqualify your K-9 from any training whatsoever. Hip dysplasia is normal rated, from 1 through 5, by a licensed veterinarian. Some cases of hip dysplasia can be treated and depending on the degree of dysplasia, some can’t. In K-9 anatomy, a more accurate explanation of K-9 hip dysplasia is: Hip dysplasia is a deformity of the hip that occurs during growth. The hip joint is a ball and socket joint. During growth, both the ball (the head of the femur, or thighbone) and the socket in the pelvis (acetabulum) must grow at equal rates. In hip dysplasia, this uniform growth during puppyhood does not occur. Therefore, before starting, it’s imperative for both, the trainer and the K-9 to have a physical exam to determine, whether or not, their healthy enough to withstand the rigors of physical fitness training. Preparation for Training If, after the physical examinations it’s determined, both the trainer and K-9 can begin training, I suggest the following daily training regimen: Each day, the trainer and K-9 should begin walking to tone their muscles and build-up their stamina, by walking, daily during the coolest part of the day. At first, walk short distances and increase the distance, when and only when, both the trainer and K-9 are capable completing the preceding distance with ease. Slowly build up your distance and stamina until the trainer and K-9 can walk one mile at a moderate pace. This preparation time period should be performed at least six (6) weeks prior to engaging in the rigors of actual training exercises. In the end, both the trainer and K-9, should be in sufficient physical condition to begin the rigors without fear of injury to the trainer or the K-9. “Until Next Time, Keep Em Between The Bridle” |
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