K9 Instructor Program Details

The lessons come from the approach of a high standard. In other words, this course teaches how to solve problems and -better yet- how to prevent those problems from developing in the first place. Furthermore, there are many ways to train a police dog. We will repeatedly supply the student with the best ways to accomplish that goal. Your uncle Wilbur may have trained dogs differently than we teach, but be assured the methods taught are literally world-class, up-to-date, and relevant to the times in which we live.

K9 trainer training

There will be handouts for you to download, videos to view, and notes to be taken while watching the videos. Some videos may not have accompanying handouts; it is therefore your responsibility to take notes of the information therein. There is a Final Exam at the end of the course so these handouts and notes will be extremely valuable for review. The Final exam can be taken here on-site, if you like. Contact us for available dates.

To facilitate hands-on training, online students are invited to visit us here at the College. This is NOT required but certainly encouraged. Be advised that there are prerequisites for your visit.  The visit is designed to be towards the end of the course.  Therefore, at the time of your visit, you and your dog will need to be on cold trails, past imprinting on target odor, and you should have some decoy/helper experience.  Your visit will help to expand the skills of both you and your dog.  If you are not far enough along in by one of these dates, you must wait until the next available date. Contact us for available dates.

Course requirements for graduation: complete all course material and homework assignments, Final Exam, send videos to your instructor of you and your dog/s completing K9 skills (what we call the Practicals), or visit on-site to take your Final and Practicals. The final grade will be determined by these Practicals videos as well as the Final Exam. As with all of our other courses, students must at least acquire a final grade of 80% to graduate. Graduates are certified as a K9 Instructor.

The four video requirements are: #1) Off-leash obedience training with you and your dog/s, #2) a detection dog trained/handled by you, #3) a tracking/trailing dog trained/handled by you on cold trails at least 10 minutes old and 1/4 mile long, #4) you acting as a decoy/helper with an apprehension dog, with at least a minimum skill level of puppy sleeve work.

This course emphasizes obedience, trailing, bitework (including decoy work), and detection. These skills are taught from a leading-edge perspective, not low-level, outdated training. Graduates who utilize these methods will operate on a higher tier than many K9 trainers out there. DTC constantly encourages our students to strive for excellence; never settle for mediocre.

A snippet of what the course includes is below:

Training Fundamentals

Conditioning

Phases of Training

Correction vs. Reward

Obedience Training

Basic and Advanced

Proper use of a Prong collar

Proper use of a Remote collar

Canine Health

Canine CPR

Canine First Aid

Kennel Management

Teaching Practical Agility

Confidence Development

Scent Theory

The Trailing Dog

Osphresiology

Narcotics and Explosives Detection

Selection of K9s

Puppy

Adult

Testing necessary drives

Drive Development

Puppy development

Prey Drive

Defense Drive

Hunting Ability

Training the Search (Narcotics & Explosives)

Imprinting Target Odor

Simple Direct Association

Deferred Response

Other Detection Training Methods

Search Methods

Vehicle Searches

Building Searches

Teaching the Alert

Problem Solving

Proofing

Protection Equipment

Bite Sleeves

Bite Suit

Muzzle

Decoying Techniques

Proper Handling Techniques

Agitation

Working the Grip

Target Biting

Channeling Drives

The Trailing Dog

Scent Theory

Variable Surface Trailing

Scent Discrimination Trailing

Problem Solving

Patrol Containment Techniques

Criminal Apprehension

Building Searches

Open Area Searches

K9 Swat Integration

Problem Solving

Law Enforcment K9

Case law

Tactical Insertions

Search & Seizure

History of K9 training

Real-life Scenario training

Final Exam and Certification