I would be remiss if I didn’t start this article by giving credit where credit is due.  Everything I talk about in this article, I learned from Dr. Stephen A. Mackenzie, either through discussion with him or having read about it in his book Decoys and Aggression 2nd ed...

TWO STYLES OF DECOYING;

Decoying for Certification & Decoying for Real life (Street Training)
For certification, it's pretty simple, train for your routine (False start, Recall, Verbal out, Handler protection etc).  It doesn’t matter what certification standards you fol...

The world around us is full of stereotypes and the ongoing battle of “My breed of choice is better than your Breed of choice”. Unfortunately, this mentality has slowly found its way into the working dog world, creating The Battle of  the Breeds. The American Kennel Clu...

"The more you challenge your K9, the better they will be when you need it the most."- Paul Ludwig

Finding the correct balance and maintaining it while you expose the K9 to new environmentals is KEY to the success and performance of your K9 Partner. Too many trainers and...

As trailing handlers progress in their craft and the trails become longer and more arduous – not only in length, but in age and complexity – it is very easy to succumb to the temptation to ease the workload.
“This really begins to happen when handlers form training gro...

“The best way I can explain how a dog breaks up a scent is by using the “Spaghetti” analogy. Dogs smell components, where as the handler smells items as a completed whole. Example: Someone is making Spaghetti, the K9 comes in and smells all the ingredients that are inv...

When considering the mistakes we as handlers/trainers make, I immediately thought of handling/training skills, which are obviously important to our success in the field.  I will address some of the mistakes that I make myself and that I see other handlers make. However...