will only fight when in a kind of training corral isnât any good to us or to anyone who wants a dog trained to do apprehension work. Neither is a dog that can be distracted by other things that may be happening around him. So another important component of apprehension training is to place a dog into a variety of environments at the appropriate time, just like we do with detection training. We travel far and wide with a dog and his handler and create a variety of scenarios so that each dog has the experience of tracking and apprehending bad guys in everything from mountainous terrain at night to urban settings both indoors and outdoors.
One new environment for the dogs is a helicopter. We work with them on a similar kind of exposure work to the aircraft. It starts with just having the dogs be around a helicopter and progresses to them getting into one and then to actually taking off and landing in one. After that we get the dogs to fly in a helicopter for greater and greater distances. We refer to the taking-off and landing exercises as elevators. We place one dog in each helicopter along with a complement of a flight crew and a team. The dog and handler are the last to board. We do the full load-up of the aircraft, and then the dog and handler get on. We take off and then land two to three minutes later, repeating this process six to eight times with each dog.
Everyone knows that a dog just starting out with this training can be a bit uneasy, and Iâve watched people on board press themselves as far back against the sides of the chopper as they can when the handler and the dog board, hoping to stay out of an unsettled dogâs way and not attract his attention. Once, we had a relatively inexperienced flyer doing elevators. Everyone else in the cabin was a handler, so they knew what to look for, and they all watched the dog and immediately wallpapered themselves. They could see the dog defaulting to aggression mode, and he eyed each and every one of them, assessing who would be the choicest bite. The men kept pressing themselves against the wall, trying to make themselves as small a target as possible. I had to laugh a bit when I saw that. Five combat-trained and hardened military menâall heavily armed, mind youâtrying to keep as far away as they could from this pacing menace. Obviously, part of our job is to get the dogs to calm down and not pose such a threat, but those exercises serve as a good reminder to all of us about just what kind of power these dogs really have over us and how we have to do everything we can to harness it and unleash it properly.
I think it bears repeating that you canât make a dog get over reverting to his aggression mode by doing anything punitive to him. You run the risk of inciting him even more and increasing his aggressive response. Then you have to be even more punitive, and eventually you absolutely break the dogâs spirit. What we try to do is make those frightening and unfamiliar experiences, like being around and in a helicopter for the first time, more pleasant through the use of rewards. In training, whether itâs bite work or getting a dog used to a muzzle or anything else, I always carry some treats with me. By treats I mostly mean toys or food rewards. When Iâm working, I carry both. I even take soft treats and mash them against the inside of a muzzle cage to get dogs who are unwilling to put their snouts in there to get them to associate the muzzle with something they like, something positive. At first, just letting them eat treats out of it is an effective way to get them used to the sight of the muzzle. When it comes time to place the muzzle over the dogâs head and snout, itâs a much easier thing to accomplish if he isnât already on high alert and anxiety at the sight of the thing.
No matter what youâre trying to do with a dog to train him for the role he will play in combat or in your life, itâs important that he
One new environment for the dogs is a helicopter. We work with them on a similar kind of exposure work to the aircraft. It starts with just having the dogs be around a helicopter and progresses to them getting into one and then to actually taking off and landing in one. After that we get the dogs to fly in a helicopter for greater and greater distances. We refer to the taking-off and landing exercises as elevators. We place one dog in each helicopter along with a complement of a flight crew and a team. The dog and handler are the last to board. We do the full load-up of the aircraft, and then the dog and handler get on. We take off and then land two to three minutes later, repeating this process six to eight times with each dog.
Everyone knows that a dog just starting out with this training can be a bit uneasy, and Iâve watched people on board press themselves as far back against the sides of the chopper as they can when the handler and the dog board, hoping to stay out of an unsettled dogâs way and not attract his attention. Once, we had a relatively inexperienced flyer doing elevators. Everyone else in the cabin was a handler, so they knew what to look for, and they all watched the dog and immediately wallpapered themselves. They could see the dog defaulting to aggression mode, and he eyed each and every one of them, assessing who would be the choicest bite. The men kept pressing themselves against the wall, trying to make themselves as small a target as possible. I had to laugh a bit when I saw that. Five combat-trained and hardened military menâall heavily armed, mind youâtrying to keep as far away as they could from this pacing menace. Obviously, part of our job is to get the dogs to calm down and not pose such a threat, but those exercises serve as a good reminder to all of us about just what kind of power these dogs really have over us and how we have to do everything we can to harness it and unleash it properly.
I think it bears repeating that you canât make a dog get over reverting to his aggression mode by doing anything punitive to him. You run the risk of inciting him even more and increasing his aggressive response. Then you have to be even more punitive, and eventually you absolutely break the dogâs spirit. What we try to do is make those frightening and unfamiliar experiences, like being around and in a helicopter for the first time, more pleasant through the use of rewards. In training, whether itâs bite work or getting a dog used to a muzzle or anything else, I always carry some treats with me. By treats I mostly mean toys or food rewards. When Iâm working, I carry both. I even take soft treats and mash them against the inside of a muzzle cage to get dogs who are unwilling to put their snouts in there to get them to associate the muzzle with something they like, something positive. At first, just letting them eat treats out of it is an effective way to get them used to the sight of the muzzle. When it comes time to place the muzzle over the dogâs head and snout, itâs a much easier thing to accomplish if he isnât already on high alert and anxiety at the sight of the thing.
No matter what youâre trying to do with a dog to train him for the role he will play in combat or in your life, itâs important that he
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