Call me mad - it's a buzz!!! Just imagine, you're running away, hear a challenge, hear the thud, thud, thud and you know the dogs on the way - then - all goes quiet. You sneak a peek round and you see a huge dog in mid air just about to drop you to the ground - OUCH!!! The adrenalin rush is phenomenal. I got a few bruises from a very good dog who could bite through the padded arm. I haven't decoyed in a while though due to a back injury. I also remember doing a muzzle bait for a psychotic, snarling, slobbering gsd who wanted to kill anyone. They didn't have a proper muzzle available so they put a normal leather muzzle on top of the other but upside down, got me kitted up - was the huge bird cage for head protection and a heavyweight suit and told me to run and not look back - so i did. Sheeesh - i hit the ground like a sack of spuds and this thing wanted to kill me. He was so worked up, he got the first muzzle off and was doing a good job on the second till the handler realised and got him off - whilst everyone else was p'ing themselves laughing. The handler got the dog back to the kennel, removed the muzzle and the dog ripped his face open.

Most dogs are arm true nowadays and it is tiring having to work more than a couple dogs and give full commitment to what you are doing. A problem in that seems to be people 'feeding' the dog the sleeve on a manwork exercise - we were always taught not to feed as it would cause problems in later training. Would i do it again - Hell yeh!! As long as someone was there to help me get off the ground and a physio/chiropractor on standby, lol

OMG!!! Did he end up making a good police dog, or was it worst case scenario for him? HOw long had that handler been handling this dog?? A tad over-exhuberant methinks! I honestly didn't realise just how much it takes to do this kind of work until you explained all this to me, I thought you were doing this all day long in their training, I just didn't realise how fit you would have to be to wear all that clobber etc. It's opened my eyes!

Take bucket of water in each hand and try walking at a fast pace for 50 meters

Imagine this with winterclothing in full sunshine

Physical very demanding and you have to keep your head with it. Making sure that the dog does what he is suposed to do

Greetings

Johan

Not a job for me then! NOt now anyway!!! Well done all of those who do it!!!

Helen - if this dog wanted to kill everyone as suggested, and it then went on to attack its handler, it would not have made a police dog in this country and would no doubt have been pts and rightly so.

K9xxb - are you a dog handler with the police?

2 of the neighbours opposite my house are police dog handlers (what are the chances of that?!!) and when I did my HND in Animal Science, our tutor was an ex PD handler with his retired dog. He often took us out into the fields and the biggest guy from the course would volunteer to be the stooge and he'd show us some training.

It was always something we were keen to see and take part in.

Sorry not been online - just catching up. I'm led to believe the dog actually passed his training - it was on a course which was teaching handlers to be trainers. I'm not sure how much experience the person had.

Hi Moobli - no, i'm not a police dog handler. I was in the RAF as a police dog handler and had the good fortune to do my trainers course. Previous to that i was in the Army and handled dogs operationally.

It sounds bad when you see it written down but yes its a physical job, very frustrating also when you teach something you think is easy but the dog is not getting to grips with it and you have to think of other ways round it and try to break the exercise down even further- but very rewarding when you get the end result that you want.

So you're one of those we've been discussing on another thread in the "Discussions" of late then, I don't remember seeing you in there, so maybe it might make some interesting reading for you K9xxb?

When I was renting a little bungalow when I first left home, I had a visitor from the army with his dog, although the person he wanted had by then left the place. Anyways, he made his dog sit at my gate, which was quite a long way from my front door and on a very busy road, and as he stood chatting to me on my doorstep, I asked if the dog would be ok sitting there like that, he wasn't tied up, but he never took his eyes off the young lad? He had no worries he said! I was sooooo impressed with that dog, he made a lasting impression on me, that I vowed I was going to have one of my own one day and train it to be as obedient as that! I've since had 6, but I'm sure it was this young army lad who got me started with these dogs, even though we had one when I was a youngster living at home. I asked him if he could bring him in but he wouldn't - don't know why that was?

I'd be very interested to hear you input in our discussion thread about army dogs going into battle if you have some time! I was against it at the start, but I changed my mind by the end!

Thanks for telling me about that particular dog, I am glad he proved himself to be worthy of further training and I expect he turned out to be quite a good one at that!

Hi, i'll have a look. I didn't see it but i've not been through all the sections yet

Is there one specifically on the dogs or was it the one about the armed forces?

http://www.dogsey.com/showthread.php?t=90938

It might interest you!