K9 Teams

A professional development masterclass for K9 detection teams and people who work with them. Explore: Questions, ideas, and opinions from handlers across the United States and around the world. Controversies and sensitive topics such as frauds, glory seekers, and credentials. Methods and practical tips gathered from more than 27 years of training and field work. It has been said that about the only thing two K9 handlers agree about is what a third handler is doing wrong. Whether in search and rescue or cadaver and human remains detection, there’s a variety of opinions in how handlers and dogs train and work. K9 Teams: Beyond the Basics of Search and Rescue and Recovery uses solid science and the experience of dozens, if not hundreds, of handlers to explore the issues teams and organizations commonly encounter in training and operations. Vi Hummel Shaffer is a professional K9 handler who has worked in search and rescue and recovery, including mass fatality recovery, for over 27 years. Along the way she’s attended dozens of seminars, learned from some of the top trainers in the world, and spent countless hours in the field working with a wide variety of agencies. In K9 Teams, Vi compiles the questions most often asked, the issues handlers struggle with, and some of the best suggestions handlers share with one another. K9 Teams explores dog selection, training methods, professional certification, team dynamics, issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder, and much more. Everyone working with or interested in detection dogs needs this book. Those in law enforcement, fire departments, and other emergency response agencies will also benefit from the book by learning what K9s can—and cannot—reliably do. Get the most from K9 teams in the field.

Offering a unique perspective on dog training, a former Navy SEAL and trainer of military working dogs discusses the science behind gaining a companion dog's trust and achieving desired levels of canine obedience.

Around the world, K-9s play a crucial part in police work. But more goes into the training and selection of these dogs than you might think.Go behind the scenes of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department K-9 Section with a look at how to work with police dogs and what it takes to become a K-9 handler. A great book for people who love dogs and want to learn more about their importance in law enforcement, Dog Teams explores the selection, training, and work of K-9 handlers, as well as their relationships with the dogs. It details the process of securing a spot in the K-9 unit and the challenges in selecting the right dogs for the work. It also includes interesting facts about police dogs and how dogs solve crime.If you want to learn about K-9 police dogs, this fascinating and entertaining account will give you a new perspective on the world of these canine heroes.

In this fascinating book, Nigel Allsopp lifts the lid on the world of police dogs, examining the vital roles they play both in Australia and around the world. Despite the numerous high-tech devices now available to law-enforcement officials, `K9's - as they're known in the trade - remain an indispensable part of police work in a range of fields, notably terrorism and border protection. K9s may sometimes be sent into difficult and dangerous situations, but this is never done without care and concern, for at the heart of their role is the intimate and symbiotic relationship between dog and handler. K9 Cops explores the history, training and current use of police dogs, as well as considering what future dogs have in modern law enforcement. It also includes an A-Z of police canine units in 47 countries. For all police and military personnel, K9 Cops is an informative, must-read book. For the rest of us, it is an entertaining and heart-warming account that dog lovers the world over will enjoy.

Tactical Tracker Teams was written to help K-9 handlers and tactical units to prepare and execute a high risk manhunt safely and effectively. Based upon personal experience and years of teaching, Schettler offers realistic recommendations and practical guidelines to assist in the planning and preparation for a fugitive hunt. High risk trailing is a team operation—no matter if conducted by an assigned tactical tracking team or a hastily assembled patrol team. This book will benefit everyone involved with the tracking team, including handlers, cover officers, supervisors, operational commanders and support personnel.Tactical Tracker Teams is not a “this is my way, this is the only way” instructional book. Schettler admits making mistakes—some that could have cost him his life. However, those mistakes have made him a better trainer and the lessons learned are readily and openly shared in this book.

In late March of 2014, death descended upon the community of Oso, Washington in the form of a massive landslide. Ten million cubic yards of dirt and mud crashed through homes, sweeping a 20-foot-high wall of debris before it and scouring the valley floor. In the cold rain of that morning, an entire community disappeared in a sea of mud. In the desperate hours that followed, rescue crews were able to pull only eight survivors out of the wrecked landscape. And then all became quiet, with the stunned realization that many more people were missing, but none were still living. This is the moment when the story of A Dog's Devotion begins. The emergency call from Oso went out, and was answered by K9 Search and Rescue (SAR) teams from across the Pacific Northwest. Suzanne, along with her 4-year-old Labrador Retriever, Keb, and her teammate Guy, was one of the SAR teams to respond to this disaster. In this book, readers immediately find themselves on the ground in the cold mud of the Oso Landslide Disaster on the desperate search for the remains of over forty lost souls. In subsequent chapters, readers will accompany Suzanne, Guy, and Keb as they are inserted by helicopter to search high snowfields on Mount Rainier, or as they traverse steep, forested slopes searching for the clandestine grave of murder victims. They’ll join K9 Keb, as her keen nose leads to human remains in the forests of Washington State and as far away as the woods of Scandinavia. Keb’s story is of a dedicated K9 who can distinguish the scent of the dead from the scent of the living, and who can detect buried bones and even corpses underwater. Readers will follow this intrepid K9 and her teammates as they face the challenges of changeable weather, deep northwest forests, high mountain slopes, and menacing coyotes to find dead bodies, missing hikers, and even the bones of murder victims from long ago. Among their successes: finding multiple victims buried by the 2014 Oso Landslide, solving the mysterious disappearance of women in wealthy suburbs, and finding human bones thought to be forever lost to time. It’s their story about evolving as search and rescue volunteers while overcoming harsh conditions, inner demons, a rust-bound bureaucracy, and back-stabbing teammates. While internal conflicts threaten their larger K9 team, Keb’s training, loyalty, and perseverance inspire them, and help them find the resolve to carry on their service to the community.

This book is for the tactical K-9 handler and team members looking to improve and evolve their skill set in K-9 team takedowns of a suspect. We focus on using dynamic tactics, basic martial arts and coordinated responses to safely and effective apprehend or defeat a suspect attempting to escape or harm the team. Our mission is to respond with the proper precision and tailored amount of force needed to subdue a suspect in order to reduce the use of excessive force. This book includes instruction on K-9 team takedowns in hazardous environments, close quarters and of armed suspects as well as K-9 choke defenses.

Training that works by harnessing your dog’s instincts. Learn how to: Stimulate your dog’s natural hunting drive for effective SAR training. Start your dog’s training program with an easy, three-step process. Develop skills in a variety of search operations, including wilderness, avalanche and disaster scenarios. Dr. Resi Gerritsen and Ruud Haak have trained search and rescue dogs for more than 30 years and have taken part in rescue operations around the world. They serve as training directors and international judges for the International Red Cross Federation, the United Nations, the International Rescue Dog Organization and the Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI). Based on their decades of study and experience, their innovative SAR training method is rooted in a firm, scientific understanding of K9 instincts. Step-by-step instructions, dozens of illustrations and photographs from the field establish a professional K9 SAR program to benefit both beginners and experts. Get a free ebook through the Shelfie app with the purchase of a print copy.