No pet policy - Page 2

One problem I have is purly personal. People walk up to the dog, look it in the eye, talk to it, pet it, interact with it(telling it to sit and down, ect), and ignore me altogether. Never saying squat to me. To hell with if I mind or not. Makes me want to get a bat and blugeon them. Stephen

Stephen, Be proactive. Stop them in their tracks by telling them to stop before they get to you if it is clear they are going to do this. Even though I believe dog should be approachable in this context, I do NOT allow anyone to simply walk up to my dogs to pet them. They must first ask me. Period. If a child is running up, I stop them too and tell them to go find their parent. And then the parent must be there, must give permission for the child to pet the dog, and I supervise the entire interaction carefully, though I have no real concerns about my dogs ever being a problem. I bet you are bigger than I am. Just step in front of them before this happens! :-)

My experience Working the streets for years with my k-9 partner and training dogs, your dog must be socialized by all means. I would never let anyone walk up to him without asking permission. I have to laugh at these people who believe a working dog should not be socialized. If you never worked the street with a Police K-9, then you cannot comment on it. Lawsuits are very common within Police agencies that have a K-9 program and sometimes will shut a program down within the department because of wrongful bites. I also DO NOT believe in having a dog and training him to watch a junk yard(as stated in an earlier post).

Thank you all for your very informative posts. I personally think that socialization is right and that I should go with my gut instinct on this one. It seems like a very good thing to let the kids pet the dog and to let the dog know that not all people around targets. You find yourself studying different training philosophies when you are new to the sport and I guess it's like anything, you take a little here and there and combine them into what works for you. Things have gone a long way since the old William Koehler day of yank and crank though, and I see alot of positive changes in the evolution of dog training including such things as marker training during puppyhood. Not that I think Koehler was all that far off in his ideas, it was a good foundation I think. I am curious though, about the transition between schutzhund (grab the sleeve) and real life (grab the man). Do dogs make the transition between the sleeve and bite suit pretty easily? Thanks again

Edited to remove link: meanderer990 No pet policy (0 replies) 27 Apríl 2006 - 02:04 Reply As far as protection work is concerned, initally I will be working him through schutzhund to get a feel for him "all around". My ultimate goal is to work the dog to the point where he will take on a man, sleeve or not, on command. But, that being said, I still desire for him to be able to control himself unless he is told to be aggressive. For him to bite without permission would be unnacceptable.

Good post Biv1996. I have noticed that police dog training has changed quite a bit during the last twenty (20) years or so, and there now seems to be much more emphasis on obedience and stability than in the past. The type of dog required has not changed, but the methods of training sure have. I think you are absolutely correct as to the reason for this change. There have been too many serious bites when a bite was not warranted. While a large metropolitan police department might survive a lawsuit or two (2), it can break the budget of a force in a smaller city. Bob-O