In the part of North London that I patrolled as a police dog handler is located a huge graveyard known as Highgate Cemetery. The cemetery is famous for two things: the tomb of Karl Marx and the main entrance, which was featured in the opening scenes of some of the old “Hammer Horror” films. The cemetery dates to 1839 and contains hundreds of tombs, crypts, and gravestones — many of which have an eternal flame.

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An alternative approach to minimizing equipment fixation.

Talk to anyone who has worked in K-9 for any significant amount of time and you will learn that the image of a dog that goes into a frenzy at the mere sight of a bite suit is a common one. In other words, the moment the dog sees someone in a bite suit, his eyes roll back and he becomes a shark on four paws. Control is significantly diminished, and the handler spends the next part of the training session trying to get the dog dialed back down to a level at which he can be controlled.

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What constitutes a drive and how drives can be enhanced.

Ask any room full of K-9 handlers and trainers how many drives dogs display and the answers will be as varied as the handlers themselves. Numbers will be thrown out: 10, 15, 25, or more. Most behaviors are identified as “________” drive — just fill in the blank. You will hear about ball drive, play drive, chase drive, fight drive, drag-his-butt-across-the-carpet drive, and more. But if a drive is a naturally occurring, internal motivation to perform a behavior, how can there be a drive for something that doesn’t exist “naturally”?

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Part one of a two-part article on how KNPV training affects your K-9.

During my first visit to a Koninklijke Nederlandse Politiehond Vereniging (KNPV) club in the Netherlands, I was unsure what to expect. The people were friendly and generally seemed okay with the fact that I was a visitor from the United States. Most had the ability to speak English, although they predominantly spoke Dutch while I was standing around a little unsure of who to speak with or what I should say.

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An unexpected gun battle leaves a K-9 fighting for his life.

On August 23, 2009, I was involved in a shooting incident with my partner, Bosco, a dual-purpose police K-9. A 3-year-old Dutch Shepherd, Bosco has been my partner since June 2007. This is the story of a deployment that changed our partnership forever.

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