# R+ Training in Police Dog Training - Upcoming WDJ Article



## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

Calling all Whole Dog Journal Subscribers...

I'm super excited to announce my upcoming article, currently scheduled for the Feb. issue. It's all about the use of positive reinforcement in police canine training. The idea is that, if police agencies can train their high-drive, taught-to-bite-from-infancy, mentally and physically hard Shepherds and Mals with positive reinforcement and NOT punishment or negative reinforcement, there's really not much need for it in pet dog training.

I interview Steve White at length, along with several of his colleagues who are leading the way in attempting to convert agencies across the country. A handful are already solidly on board and rave about the results - Phoenix, AZ, Seattle, WA, Simi Valley, CA, New London, CT and a couple other I'm forgetting.

I'm very excited about it!

If you're not a WDJ subscriber, I highly recommend the publication -not just b/c I write for it. ;-) It's a great source for info on training, health, nutrition, etc. and they don't accept advertising, so I personally feel it raises the credibility of what's written --- and if the publication recommends a certain food, toy, technique, etc., it's because the editorial team has personally reviewed it and not just b/c someone paid for an ad.

Learn more at Whole Dog Journal.

-Stephanie


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## Jersey's Mom (Nov 25, 2007)

Congrats on the article Steph!! I've been meaning to subscribe to them for some time now... this might just be the kick in the pants I need! Can't wait to read it!

Julie and Jersey


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## sammydog (Aug 23, 2008)

I am looking forward to reading it!

Julie, they also had an article recently for positive field training


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## Oaklys Dad (Dec 28, 2005)

Well done Steph. You do some great work out there.


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## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

Steve White is great! For anyone in the midwest, Steve White will be doing a seminar in OH in a few months. Not so much on police work, but on good training practices and problem solving.


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## jackie_hubert (Jun 2, 2010)

I'm excited to see this. My husband, a cop, was just this morning telling me that they had to put down one of the new police dogs, for biting his handler. They're blaming it on lack of socialization by the puppy raisers, I say it probably has a lot to do with training techniques too.


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

RedDogs said:


> Steve White is great! For anyone in the midwest, Steve White will be doing a seminar in OH in a few months. Not so much on police work, but on good training practices and problem solving.


Steve is awesome! I met him six years ago at a Clicker Expo and we became fast friends. Here's some info on his civilian training services:

Welcome to Rivendale Learning Center

His wife Jennifer is another awesome trainer. I brought them both down to So Cal a couple years ago for a nosework training seminar and it was awesome.


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

jackie_hubert said:


> I'm excited to see this. My husband, a cop, was just this morning telling me that they had to put down one of the new police dogs, for biting his handler. They're blaming it on lack of socialization by the puppy raisers, I say it probably has a lot to do with training techniques too.


So sad. Most of the police dogs come from overseas breeders who naturally tend to keep the best (in terms of structure and temperament) for themselves. From what I gathered in my research, there is the occasional "bad seed" dog, but it's rare -- and that type of temperament would have been noticeable to the puppy raisers.

Here's the company that runs the seminars on R+ training for police organizations:

Police Dog Home Page


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

My curiosity is peaked. Although I have a hard time believing they are able to strictly avoid punishment and negative reinforcement. Do they not even tell their dogs 'no' (or wrong/bad/etc)?


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

Also, what is the graduation rate of police dogs? I know there is a huge fall out in the service and guide dog industries.


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

GoldenSail said:


> My curiosity is peaked. Although I have a hard time believing they are able to strictly avoid punishment and negative reinforcement. Do they not even tell their dogs 'no' (or wrong/bad/etc)?


Well, I never said they claim to be 100% positive reinforcement, however, punishment and negative reinforcement is never where they start anymore (for the agencies who have made the switch). One agency reported an 80/20 to 20/80 switch in terms of punishment to reward-based. That's a HUGE improvement -- and what's more, they've found that with more reinforcement training, mostly done via free-shaping (so no, not a lot of no reward markers in training), the amount of training needed to maintain the behaviors is far, far less.

In many cases, the switch to reinforcement training is made to keep dogs in the program because punishment-based training is making them almost impossible to handle. Punishment training also results in things like this:






Or this:






Or a case in Florida where a Miami-Dade officer kicked and killed his canine partner in an ill-fated training session.

In all of the cases (excluding the Baltimore one b/c I couldn't find out the name of that handler to research what, if anything, came of the incident) the officers involved claimed their actions were in line with agency standards. And in the Baltimore video, you can hear an off-camera bystander giving him instruction on how to show the dog who's boss.


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## sammydog (Aug 23, 2008)

Those poor dogs, that made my stomach turn...


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

K, that makes more sense. You said in the first post that they did NOT use punishment or negative reinforcement. I am glad to see they are more positive now, and am glad that positive training is an upward trend--but for me I can't understand never using the other three quadrants. I definitely agree and like to see a the emphasis placed on motivation and R+ though.


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## LifeOfRiley (Nov 2, 2007)

Congratulations on the article! It sounds very interesting and I'll be watching for it.


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

GoldenSail said:


> K, that makes more sense. You said in the first post that they did NOT use punishment or negative reinforcement. I am glad to see they are more positive now, and am glad that positive training is an upward trend--but for me I can't understand never using the other three quadrants. I definitely agree and like to see a the emphasis placed on motivation and R+ though.


Guess I'm just not that literal to assume that saying, "... they train using positive reinforcement and NOT punishment or negative reinforcement" would mean NEVER using other quadrants. 

I will say, however, that in my experience as a trainer, most people who turn to punishment and negative reinforcement do so too soon -- before they have truly achieved fluency and generalization in the desired behavior. That takes a LOT of repetition (in different places, different conditions, etc.) When one officer talked about teaching the "out" he talked about 600 repetitions (free-shaped in the beginning, cue added later) in the first week of training.


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## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

FlyingQuizini said:


> Well, I never said they claim to be 100% positive reinforcement, however, punishment and negative reinforcement is never where they start anymore (for the agencies who have made the switch). One agency reported an 80/20 to 20/80 switch in terms of punishment to reward-based. That's a HUGE improvement -- and what's more, they've found that with more reinforcement training, mostly done via free-shaping (so no, not a lot of no reward markers in training), the amount of training needed to maintain the behaviors is far, far less.
> 
> In many cases, the switch to reinforcement training is made to keep dogs in the program because punishment-based training is making them almost impossible to handle. Punishment training also results in things like this:
> 
> ...


Is that first video the highway patrol guy from NC? Believe it or not, the courts ruled that he was fired wrongly because he was using the techniques that had always been used, so it wasn't really abuse. Sickening!

I can't wait to see your article Steph. I always enjoy reading them!


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

fostermom said:


> Is that first video the highway patrol guy from NC? Believe it or not, the courts ruled that he was fired wrongly because he was using the techniques that had always been used, so it wasn't really abuse. Sickening!
> 
> I can't wait to see your article Steph. I always enjoy reading them!


Yup. The first video is NC Trooper Sgt. Charles Jones, and in Nov. of '10, NC Supreme Court ruled that his was wrongly fired and deserved his handler job back along with lost wages and court fees.

Sad to think that hanging and kicking a dog is even remotely in line with agency standards. Hopefully over time the tide will shift toward more and more agencies changing their ways and using more R+ and less P+.

And thank you for the compliment on my articles... I'm really excited about this one.


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