Schutzhund trained family protector - Page 8

Thanks Jim. Hope to see more post from you, people like you are def the reason why I keep coming back to Pedigreedatabase. Always nice to hear someone else view point, and I am always ready to learn from someone else’s experience. This been the best topic in a long time on this forum. Hope other knowledgeable people will join in and share their insight. After all we learn every day. I read an article by a police K9 program director and he said it him self “if you feel that you don't have anything more to learn you should stop working with dogs”. :) 

Hey Don, I'm sorry your PD got shafted on the dog.  It is a partner that K9 guy will have for probably 6 or 7 years.  There is a lot riding on the dog.  We just sent a GSD back to the vendor after 14 weeks of training.  The dog constantly had problems with building searches, slick floors, stairways, etc.  I worked my butt decoying to get the dog over these issues.  THe dog would make great strides, then we'd go to a different building and it would start all over.  The straw that broke the camels back was when he didn't engage a decoy in a bite suit under a stairwell, the dog backed up and stared at the decoy and was ready to run.  That was it, he went back to the vendor and was replaced.  It's probably difficult for a small PD to find good vendors, good dogs and good training. 

Yea, I love my job.  The pay stinks, the hours stink but the work is exciting.  I always tell people if you are thinking of becoming a cop simply because you need a job it's a terrible job.  But, if you enjoy the work its a great job.  I've been in patrol. narcotics, now K9 I couldn't be happier. 

By the way, I think being a groomer may be too dangerous.  All those yappy little nippy dogs....Plus, I wouldn't be able to figure out how to tie the bows in their hair.

Jim

.....By the way, I think being a groomer may be too dangerous.  All those yappy little nippy dogs....Plus, I wouldn't be able to figure out how to tie the bows in their hair.

Being a vet tech has it's dangers too!  Though give me a hard to handle dog over a hard to handle cat anyday!   Also prefer to deal with the bigger dogs too vs. the smaller dogs....  Luckily in almost all the cases it's strictly fear induced, so none of these dogs would truly could/would do real harm. 

There was really only one or two that I could think of that I was truly a little worried about.  One was a Beauceron that tried to  back me into the corner, kept cool and she backed down. 

Another was a very large Mastiff type dog that could not be handled.   It was his first visit and the owner brings him in with a halti and muzzled.  In the hallway the dog slips both and is standing there with nothing on.  Luckily owner got him back under control.  He's the one dog that truly meant us harm.   Even on his death bed, he wanted to hurt us.  

 

Although cat rodeo can be pretty fun too.   LOL  All sorts of fun ways to wrangle a cat.   The fun ones are the ones that get out of their carriers or cages, then we have to catch them.  There are definitely more cats that we have to sedate to do stuff too than dogs.  

My dogs are usually very good at the vet.   Probably mostly because I always handle them and they've been coming to work with me not infrequently since they were pups.   My older bitch is extremely cat keen, so for her all's she needs to do is stare at the hospital cats and we can do just about anything to her!   At least we are using the cat keen ness for something. 

Lexie will try to pull the drama card, but gives up quickly.  My male just gets pathetic and you can do just about anything to him.