Highland Canine Training now offering a tactical police leash for police canine handlers. This leash is available in leather and beta biothane in a variety of sizes and colors. The leash offers a quick release snap that will allow handlers to release their police dogs quickly even with pressure on the leash. This leash is great for tactical training, building searches, police patrol, and S.W.A.T. applications. The leashes will be on our online store soon, but are available now! Call or email for pricing and more information.

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I would like to congratulate Bob Campanile of our Sit Means Sit of Ocean County New Jersey. As you may know Bob is also a full time police K9 trainer/handler and just competed this past weekend in United States Police K9 Association Regional Police Dog Competition. 48 K9 teams competed and Bob finished number 1 high in trial with a score of 692 out of 700. Additionally, he finished 1st place in search work, 3rd place in obedience and 3rd place in protection. Bob’s department also won the 1st place 4 man team as well.

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Starting or even managing a police K9 unit can be a very daunting task for even the most skilled administrator. Not to mention that a K9 unit can be one of the highest liability areas of any law enforcement agency. Often I find that a great deal of Chiefs or Sheriffs that either have or want to start a canine program know very little about it. With this said, there are several things that any administrator should consider, concerning their canine program.

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The American Police Dog Tactics Association is a fairly new organization that strives to raise the bar for law enforcement and other K9 training. The organization promotes realistic, scenario-based training that challenges dog teams in training as well as certifications. This new police dog organization is looking for new members and is seeking dog teams that are willing to work hard to earn a working dog certification that is probably one of the most demanding available. So, if you are up to a challenge, check them out on the web at www.policedogtactics.com

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The Vail Police Department has welcomed its newest member, K-9 Star. Star is a 19-month-old mix breed of Belgian Malinois and German shepherd. She will assist the department in finding missing persons, tracking criminals and narcotic detection, plus assist Vail Mountain Rescue with missing person searches.

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Highland Canine Training, LLC would like to congratulate the K-9 Unit of the Thomasville, NC Police Department on winning K-9 Hawk at the Annual NCEA Conference. Hawk is a dual purpose narcotics detection dog that was donated to the Thomasville Police Department through a raffle at the conference.

Hawk was trained by Highland Canine donated through our Annual Paul LeBlanc Memorial Police Dog Donation Program. Highland Canine Training, LLC donates one working dog each year to a department or agency in memory of Paul LeBlanc. You can learn more about our police dog donation program here.

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We are very much looking forward to not only having a booth for the 2008 H.I.T.S. Conference , but also participating in the all-day demo portion of the event on May 31st, a long with many others! This is a great time for all to show their training. It’s one thing to be able to read about different types of police K-9 training, and to see some of it advertised in magazines, or even on video, but to see the dogs in person, and the handlers, and to experience the different training systems and equipment in person is quite another thing. We actually have one of our Sit Means Sit schools for trainers in Denver Colorado, so it will be great just heading down the road to the Denver Federal Center for the demo. We will have quite a few of our trainers, and quite a few of our dogs.

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There is a great deal of controversy over police dog certifications and what standards are utilized in order to certify police service dogs. There are a great number of certifying organizations and police dog associations out there for handlers and agencies to choose from. I feel that it is important for police dog handlers, supervisors and administrators to take a hard look at the certifications and standards that they are holding their teams to.

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I have conducted dog training seminars throughout the country and even worldwide.  During these seminars, I have seen a great number of police dogs and protection dogs that do excellent bite work.  I have also seen even more of the dogs that didn’t.  The excuse for the poor bite work is never the same.  He has a weak grip, his drives are bad, female dogs don’t bite well, etc.  It’s easy to blame the dog for poor performance, they really can’t argue. A majority of the time however, the dog has been worked by a poor decoy to the point that the dogs bite is suffering.  A good decoy can easily change a mediocre dog to one that is excellent.  With that said, a poorly trained decoy can turn a great dog into one that will not bite at all.

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