Canine Officer Tactics
by Brian L. Woods
Master Trainer - Tactical Committee
What is the dog doing while the warnings are being given? In an ideal world he is alert, quiet and setting at your side but in Brian's world most of us are pumping the dog up pounding on his side and the dog is reacting by pulling away from us, jumping up and down barking. This is not good for several reasons. It is distracting to the dog, and to us because we are now watching him and not the suspect. It is noisy (no one can hear the warnings that you have been working so hard on) and the dog is pulling you off balance or from behind the cover you were lucky enough to find. I understand in the beginning that we pump the dog up before doing bite work because we want to build him up. THIS IS NOT IN THE BEGINNING and we are not on the training field. This is life or death. The dog should know what to do and be able to do it without you holding his hand. SLOWLY wean him of the pounding and all the hoopla in training. The dog really doesn't need it, but will become dependent on it at some point if you don't stop.
Some of you have dogs that are quiet or will be if told to, but some of you may need some help with this. OK how do I shut the dog up? This should be started as soon as the dogs drives in bite work are high enough to take the correction not before. When the dog is biting and fighting hard then you can add Quiet 101. Start off with the dog in a down, get a baseball stance with the leash hooked to the live ring on the dogs collar (those that use a leather collar you will need some type of chain collar for this). Ball the leash up in your hands so that it is short. Give a warning with a calm slow voice (with no decoy or stem present).
If the dog stays quiet: Then praise
the dog and heel away
If the dog is not: Tell him to be quiet with what ever command you use for that,
once
If he is quiet: Then praise the dog and heel away
If he is not quiet: Then in a circular motion, step back with your right food
(Right-handed) correcting the dog with a leash correction across your body just
above your knees giving the heel command (you should get two to three good
corrections in before you get 360 degrees around). Then put the dog back in a
down. Give the warning again until the dog is quiet (use the correction again if
needed). Are you with me? If not, never try something you don't understand.
Now we have to talk about you and your dog as well as what a decoy should do. As with any patrol work exercise the decoy will make or break you and this is no exception. The decoy has to pay very close attention to the dog at this point. His job is to try to out guess the dog. What I mean by this is he has to add just the right amount of stem but keep the dog quiet. If the handler has to correct the dog the decoy added a little too much too fast and has to back off a little. At the end of this the decoy should be able to jump up and down yelling or whatever and the dog should stay in the position told and be quiet. (Note then and only then can you start true tactical obedience). To start off with the decoy should be at a great distance from the canine team. Usually start about 60 yards or so. All he should do is stand there, nothing more. If this works then he can slowly move his upper body, then slowly walk, then talk and so on. See where we are going with this? You have to get out of 1st grade to get to second to get to third, etc. SLOW as you go. Take the time to do this right so you don't set yourself back.
If at any time the dog barks do the circle correction described above. If you get a couple of warnings out and he is good, send him to reward him for good behavior. He will soon learn to be a little more patient. Now you can change your tone of voice while you give your warnings from a whisper to a yell. You can start moving around while giving your warnings. He should learn that he does not move nor make a peep without being allowed to.
One more quick point. You notice I said allowed to and not commanded to. That is because we don't need to use a gruff command tone or voice to tell him to go. All we need is to use a tone that is calm and allow him to leave. Once the dog starts to pick this up and understand put him in whatever position you want as a finished product (sit, stand, or down). You may have to back up a step or two but no more.
I hope you found this helpful. As always if you have questions or ideas for training tips please let me know. Email jawpaws@thewavz.com
Canine Officer Tactics Continued
by Brian L. Woods
Master Trainer - Tactical Committee
I hope you found the above article informative. We will take up where we left off.
The first thing we need to discuss is our positioning. Again, a little matter but one that could be the difference between life and death or an apprehension or frustration. Mot of the time while training we stand next to, or over our dog as we send him. Think about this. Why not take cover while deploying the dog or at least go to a knee to make yourself a smaller target? Not only does this make good tactical sense but we can see the suspect in the same view as the dog. Meaning if we are on a knee and he is standing or setting our line of sight are the same. In this way you will know without a doubt that your dog has the same target as you in his sights. This happened to me one fine night. I lost a felony assault suspect in a parking lot because the dog did not see the same thing as I did. There were several cars parked in a parking lot in front of us. I could see over them fine but the dog could not. As a result when I sent the dog, he ran toward the parked vehicles and started searching around them as I watched the suspect run out of sight. Not a good day for Brian.
While making yourself as small of a target as we can, the next thing is to give a warning. Why do we give a warning? For two reasons, the safety of the suspect and third parties and liability. I don't think I need to go on about this one, however there may be a time when I would not give a warning at all. This would not happen very often but if I am going to try to blindside an armed suspect for example, I would not let him know the dog was coming. Personally, I would give warnings but only loud enough for the dog to hear. This will excite the dog and cue him in on what is about to happen before you release the dog.
What is in a warning?
Three things. First we identify ourselves as the Law. Police or Sheriff is
plenty. We do not have to tell anyone who we work for (Example...Horton City
Police Department Canine Unit) just that we are the Law.
The second, we advise the suspect what we want him to do. STOP, very short and to the point. We do not need to add any descriptive adjectives, just STOP.
The third thing is to tell the suspect what will happen if he doesn't stop. Example, "or I'll send the dog."
So from behind cover if possible we have given a short precise warning to the suspect as to who we are, what we want him to do, and what will happen if he doesn't.
Other things to consider is the speed in which you give your commands. Slow down so you can be understood. If your warning is short you should have the time. What is the sense to give a warning if it is so fast your own mother would not understand you?
How many warnings should I give? This depends a to on your surroundings. I try to get out three but working in the city environment seldom does it happen. There is nothing wrong with deploying the dog on the 1st warning and then giving a second, maybe even a third before the dog engages the suspect. As long as you can stop the engagement if the suspect surrenders it's the best of all worlds. You will look a lot better in court when you tell the jury that you kept telling the suspect to stop but he would not.
Part #3
Canine Officer Tactics Continued
by Brian L. Woods
Master Trainer - Tactical Committee
Again we will take up where we left off in the last two articles.
Now real tactics start. In an ideal world and if our training has been sound this is how things should go:
Easy right, not in Brian's world! Lets break each one of these down and talk a little about them.
1. Give a warning and send the dog.
We discussed warnings in the last article reminder? Short and sweet right? After giving our warning from a point of cover if possible we are going to dispatch our dog. I suggest we use a send release that is none abusive. An example would be, Stop him, Hold him, Foran (German for “go forward”) not kill him, eat him or other more explicit terms. Reminder it the little things that will get you in trouble sometimes.
2. Keep Calm.
I was given some very good advice when I first became an officer. One of the Old timer’s told me “son you have to keep a cool head even if your ass is on fire”, funny but so true. We have to take a breath and make sure we do not get all caught up in the moment.
3.
Notify dispatch and back up officer’s the dog has been sent.
Some officers have told me that they even go as far as giving their warning over the radio. They stated it would help them in court to show that a warning was given, but also to notify the other officers the dog has been deployed. I am not sure about the first part because if you give warning like most people (discussed last article) it may hurt you. The Defendant’s attorney may make a big deal over the fact no one could understand what you said. The second part I feel is important. We need to advise the other officers the dog has been deployed. We do not need another officer getting bit because he tried to tackle the suspect just as the dog launched to engage. This will also let dispatch know your busy and to leave you alone.
4. Put your leash away and get it out of your gun hand.
If I had a dime for every time I’ve seen an officer run after they’re dog with the gun in there leash hand I would be rich. Reminder we will do exactly as we do in training. Get in the habit of putting your leash away and free up your gun hand. I like to use a leash that fits around my waist. It is a very good idea for four (4) reasons. I have it with me all the time, I know where it is, it is out of my way and it can’t be used against me. The fourth one I would like to expound upon. I have seen several people who have 6-foot leashes wrapped around their waist and shoulder. I am not sure how they do it but I know I am not going to learn. In 16 years of this work, I have never given anyone something to grab a hold, throw or pull me around with. If the leash fits around your waist just above your gun belt no suspect will have an easy time getting a hold of it and choking you to death.
5.
Draw your weapon and slowly, cautiously go from point of cover to
point of cover. When you reach the location of cover where you have a good view
of the apprehension scene stop, look and listen.
OK maybe you should not draw your weapon in all cases, but I feel that if we deploy our dog on someone it was because he or she refused to be taken. As a result they may be in the frame of mind to do you harm. No matter about the gun, but move slowly, watch and listen. There may be more than one and your dog can only hold one at a time. Do not go running into an ambush. Use cover and concealment as much as possible. When its time to call your dog off here is something to think about. We call it “conflict yelling”! All this means is in training we yell all sorts of things, so the dog does not become patterned to let go just because I am yelling something. I personally like this, “Suspect please stop fighting my dog, don’t hurt the dog, let go of my dog”, etc. The whole time I am looking at my surroundings and making sure I want the dog off this man at this time. Think about this, If you were awakened from a dead sleep with some one yelling outside your window for a person to stop hurting and fighting the dog. You get out of bed and looked out your window and observed it was the Police and the Police dog was biting the suspect, but it looked like he was fighting the dog, and the officer was asking him to stop over and over but the suspect refused. Or the reverse, you wake up to someone yelling kill him, attack him etc. Which witness do you want in court? If anyone needs help in figuring out what or where we are going with this call me and I will explain.
6. You can then advise the suspect to stand still and command the dog to release the suspect. The dog should release on command and do what he is told. Down, Heel, etc.
Some schools of thought believe that the dog should release when commanded even if the suspect is not submitting and is fighting with the dog. This is a judgment call, but I agree. We must teach the dog that when I say it is over it is just that, over! There are times that the suspect is in so much fear of the dog that he or she is in survival while the dog is on them and they will not or can not stop fighting. If the suspect seems to be in this state we have to get the dog off him, and I sure do not want to stand in the middle of this action to do it. If the suspect does not settle down after the dog gets off we can always allow the dog to re-engage. Now before you blow your gasket understand me. I am not a proponent of multiple bites on a suspect. As a matter of fact the dog should take one bite and stay there, but you have to get the dog off and give the suspect a chance to calm down. If you don’t the physical damage to the suspect may be considered excessive. This brings up another point. If you do like most people in training and call the dog off a still man that provides no movement and is quiet the whole time, you are doing nothing to get the dog ready for the street.
The dog has to accept some movement and a lot of verbiage in my opinion. The street bites I have had are a mixed basket. Some the suspect was very calm and quiet almost like they were in shock, and some the suspect freaked out. All complied to my commands, but some were not very happy about being bit. It would not have been reasonable for my dog to re-engage the suspect because he was crying and asking to be treated for His wounds. I guarantee you that if you train with a calm still, quiet decoy the 1st time you do this the dog will be out of control and keep re-engaging the decoy. Don’t believe me try it! The dog has to get used to seeing it in training.
jawpaws@thewavz.com
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