I recently had the opportunity to work with a handler that came to our facility for recertification. I had trained the handler and dog about two and a half years before and the handler had not been recertified in about two years. During his initial handler school, we had discussed how to properly document training and the importance of keeping proper records of training and incidents that the dog team is involved in.

One requisite for recertification through our facility is that you must show that you have kept up your training records since the previous certification. When I asked the handler for his training records, he stated “I don’t have them”. I asked if he had left them at home or was it that he simply did not have any records. He replied, “I don’t keep training records.” I explained to him that he would not be able to receive a certification unless he had up-to-date training records. He then asked if I wanted him to simply make some up After I replied with a “No” he went on to explain that there was a local police department near them that had recently acquired dogs and that they attended a handler school through another police dog trainer. He then stated that they were taught to simply place the letter “T” on a day calendar on the dates that they had trained with their dog. He explained that they had been taught that there was no need for written documentation, only their “T’s” on the calendar. The handler then stated that he had adopted this method of documenting his K-9 training because it was much easier. We’ll, the handler later left upset and unfortunately, did not receive a certification.

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