New to Working K9's/ Apprenticing - Page 1

Hi Everyone! 

    I stumbled into this fantastic world of K9 training & the sport of Schutzhund through gaining my GSD from a domestic violence situation I responded to as Military Police in the Army. Through having MWD Handler friends and having been trained in the very basics of obience, I have grown more and more intersted in training MWD/Police k9 and learning about Schutzhund as well. I did have the chance to work briefly with a master trainer on schutzhund with my dog, however, due to high unprofessionalism on his part ( I am a very easy going person, it takes a lot to bother me) , I will not work with him.

    Needless to say, the more and more I talk to my MWD Handler friends, the more I regret getting out of Active Duty and not reclassing to MWD handler. I am wondering if there is any apprenticeships on there for training MWD/K9. Any informatation would be greatly appreciated :)

 Thank you,

  Lindsey  

I am glad to hear that one bad experience does not phase you in looking at the IPO/ Schutzhund world. My advice is to go see as many trainers, trials, and clubs as possible. Leave the dog at home until you do your research and observation. 

GSD student gave you some great advice.  You want to make sure you learn from someone that KNOWS what they are doing.  

There are a ton of "trainers" out here, some that compete nationally with their dogs, that don't know how to train a dog.  They get their wallets out and buy high dollar dogs that have already been trained and make themselves look really good.  This is fine until they take it upon themselves to train your dog to do what they trained "their dog" to do.  This is when you find out how they can't even teach a dog to heel, much less teach retrieves or anything else...and then its too late...mr macho has ruined your dog.

 When you go to clubs to check out trainers, make sure you find out how many club member dogs they helped title from the ground up, and how far they got them with their training.  Ask them who they learned from and how many dogs they have trained from scratch, and what they accomplished with them.  Contact the trainer that mentored them also.  It is your responsibility to do everything you can to make sure your dog gets good, clear, fair training.  You are definitely on the right track by asking before you jump into something...good luck to you and your dog!!

MWD's can only be found in the military while working. The civilian world has different sports that you can get involved in, some of which require bite work, but, if you are looking for actual training of police/MWD's, you wont find it unless you join a police agency and try to get into a K-9 program.

Hey Everyone, thanks for the replies.

To clarify a few things:

1) We stopped working with him due to high unprofessionalism, as in, him showing up at my work place, drunk texting me, so on & so fourth, and continued to do so after I confronted him to stop or I would not work with him.

2)  HiredDog: re-read my post :) I already know all of this. I am hopefully in works in progess to doing so, I am, however, also interested in learning to train K9's, from which I gathered, civilians can do. 

3) I am in Northern NJ, would any one know of any places around here? 

 thank you all again for your time!! I apperciate it 

sounds like a nice guy :) and someone you can do without.  There are plenty of others to train with that you don't have deal with that much BS.

anyway, i'm not from anywhere around that area, but I was never in the military, and never a police officer.  I have trained police dogs.  At first just because they brought their dogs to our club to work with dog trainers and work thru some issues they were seeing.  Most departments around here have brokers that get dogs, then train them and an officer and after a few months they get certified.  Usually the dept provides officers to work on, but their dog training skills consist of getting in a suit and getting bit.  Most didn't really know, or care how a dog got from green kennel dog to trained working animal so there was plenty of opporutnity to help them.  

Later on, I met and trained with some of these people that got dogs and trained officers and we'd test and train green dogs till the handlers were chosen or their training was to start, then we did more training.  The other officers didn't come in really till the end to learn enough to do the maintanence.  So there are oppotunities to train police dogs as a civilian.  You won't be doing MWD's unless you're military however and then you have a long line ahead of you.

My advice, find people doing training at a high level and meet people. Eventually you'll meet the right people.

Beth Bradley or John Soares in your area. They work with new people thru top competitors.They title dogs and have students who title their own dogs.  Visit them, and also ask if they can net work you to others in that area.

Thank you zdog, that was informative :)  actually, thak you everyone on here, so much!! I am hope full yet :)  GSDStudent, I just searched them both, they seem awesome and I will be contacting them. 

Welcome Lindsey,

Just stay away from anyone that claims to a be MASTER trainer whether it be Sport, Police or Military, unfortunately it typical of the dollar driven BS on your side of the pond, it doesn't exist.

best of luck

Ronin

I was in schutzhund for many years, and read all sorts of articles, manuals, magazines, books, etc. (this was before "youtube").    I read an article about a local police department dog handler (DogSports Magazine, 1980's), and went to talk to this dog handler about training with his department as a volunteer (they didn't pay quarries).   I wanted to get a more rounded dog training experience as a helper/decoy/quarry, so training with the police was a natural progression.     After a meeting with the dog handler, and a background check, and signing a waiver, I started training with the dog unit.     I was fun, and a great learning experience even though I had many years of doing helper work in sport.     I met and worked with some great people, gained a lot of experience in that discipline, and helped train several dogs from start to certification.   

I would suggest talking to the head dog handler in your local PD's about your aspirations and experiences, see what they say.    Good luck, it's very fun, challenging, and rewarding.