Last time we were talking about trends. The next trend worth mentioning is that of new handlers expecting to get a near perfect dog and thinking that the department is going to pay for everything. This is a characteristic of what is known as the “entitlement generation” which is having a profound effect on the K9 industry. People of this new generation were raised to think that they are entitled to have everything they need provided for them. Young handlers are no longer grateful when they get a quality dog; they expect it. They are not grateful when they are assigned a good vehicle with a nice insert for the dog; they expect it. They don’t feel grateful when the department sends them to training seminars; they expect that too. If the dog needs extra work and the department won’t pay overtime, the extra work doesn’t get done. If the dog needs certain equipment and the department doesn’t pay for it the dog goes without.

This last item came to light at a recent seminar where I asked 15 handlers to go to their vehicles and see what kind of equipment we had between us to work with. They came up with 1 tennis ball, a couple of Kongs, 1 tug, no hidden sleeves, 1 external sleeve, no scratch pants, 1 stake line and 3 decent muzzles. This was all they had to train 15 patrol dogs. They all had long lines but those were probably for tracking. At a major seminar each dog should have had several of its favorite toys, tugs, its favorite sleeve and its own muzzle. When I questioned them, most of the handlers said they didn’t have more because the department didn’t fund such things. This is a problem because many times the safety and efficiency of the team is determined by how well it is trained, which in turn is limited by the equipment available. For example, the dog in the photo above is being trained to ignore distractions like balls, chew sticks, tugs, extra sleeves and bite jackets and to focus on what the handler and decoy are doing. This kind of proofing is very beneficial for many dogs but is quite difficult to accomplish when you don’t even have the necessary items. It doesn’t matter who should have paid for them; if they are not there you can’t do the training.

This entitlement attitude is somewhat irritating to older handlers and instructors who remember the early days of their careers when you were fortunate to get a dog that would work at all, least of all a good one. There were no inserts for vehicles and in many cases the K9 vehicle was not dedicated to dogs, it had to be shared with non K9 personnel. In most cases it was the old clunker no one else wanted and the handler had to take out the back seat himself and make a platform for the dog to ride safely on. Rarely did the department pay for seminars or fancy equipment, most of that came out of the handler’s pocket. Overtime pay for extra work was unheard of. Compared to those who went before them, many present day handlers act like spoiled brats.

Naturally we would like the department to provide everything, but we need to understand that this is not a perfect world and that will not always happen. When it does not, we find out who the real K9 people are. They are the ones who understand that life in K9 is not one of entitlement, but of sacrifice. Like those who went before them, they know that the only entitlements you have are:

1)      You are entitled to get an imperfect dog and to do the best you can with it.

2)      You are entitled to sacrifice your image and look stupid in public because of said dog.

3)      You are entitled to start at the bottom and work hard for many years before you look good or become truly proficient at anything.

4)      You are entitled to sacrifice financially when the department won’t fund everything.

5)      You are entitled to sacrifice your free time to put extra work into your dog when needed; even when the department doesn’t pay for it.

The list goes on but this will do for starters. If you would like to add to the list, by all means leave a comment below. Remember that it is a privilege to follow in the footsteps of those who went before us; and none of us are entitled to a free ride. Welcome to K9. See you next time.

One thing most of us can agree on is the importance of a good decoy in the development and maintenance of a patrol dog. As we all know, decoying is a lot more than just taking bites. To be a good decoy requires communication skills along with timing, balance and other physical and mental attributes. It seems that there are always people to take bites but there are never enough good decoys.
With regard to this important resource, I'm concerned by a trend I think I'm seeing - namely a divergence between the number of dog teams and the number of good decoys. I don't have actual statistics on this but it feels like the number of K9 teams is increasing and the number of good decoys is not keeping pace with them. It seems that we have fewer good decoys at a time when we have a growing number of dog teams. Hopefully I'm wrong, but if this is actually happening, it will soon be a problem for our industry.

So we should either 1) determine that no problem exists; or 2) turn our attention to the  topic and create solutions. I'm wondering what other people think about this. 

Welcome to my blog.
These are big words from a man who, when asked by Jeff Myer if he would be interested in doing a blog for the magazine, gave him his best suspicious glare and replied "Maybe - what's a blog?" Fear not, my children know exactly what a blog is and were appauled when they heard the story. They immediately read me the riot act and got me started. I only hope they don't find out that I have no idea what "twittering" or "facebooking" are either.

We should all be able to learn from each other, so I look forward to getting comments etc. to my remarks. They will not be intended to offend anyone, so please keep that in mind as you consider them. It has often been said that the sign of a good education is that you understand how little you know - something to keep in mind in an industry with as many out of control egos as we have. So let's check our egos at the door and stay open to learning from each other - our dogs will appreciate it. See you next time.