“Old School Dog Training” Commentary by: Lynn Stark August 2013 Who is Lynn Stark ? Lynn Stark has always loved dogs and had a strong desire to get involved with Police dog training in the early 1970’s. He became a member of the Seattle Police K9 program by acting as “Quarry” the bad guy for dog training. The Seattle Police K9 program started with 6 Officer/dog teams and a Sergeant by getting dogs through Loomis armored cars along with a dog trainer who taught them the basics of handling. The dogs, which were imported from Germany, were Schutzhund trained at various levels and thought to be ready for work with law enforcement. This turned out to be only partially true. A great deal of training went into making them suitable and not all of them performed as expected. As the unit matured an officer was designated as the K9 unit trainer due to his dog training experience with hunting dogs. The teams, Officer/Dog, were designated K9-1, the Sergeant, thru K9-7 as their police radio call signs. The program slowly changed and added a new member with a donated, untrained dog. This Officer was Lynn Stark the first Seattle Police K9-8. As new teams arrived the numbers were repeated for replacing original members and new numbers up to K9-15 were used at one time. To continue this commentary I will write in the first person. I originally trained with two dogs, the first dog succumbing to illness shortly after training completed. My second dog, “Rusty”, worked with me for several years and I then transferred out to become a Helicopter Pilot. Rusty was transferred to another handler to replace one of the German dogs who was not performing as expected. This transfer did not stop my love of dogs or my interest in training and working with police dogs. In 1978 I helped form the Edmonds Police K9 program and selected the first handler they deployed. I trained him with SPD K9 Rusty who was declared surplus by SPD and the program became very successful. During this time through the early 1980’s I trained Handlers and Dogs for the Lynnwood Police Department, Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, and Bellevue Police. I also worked with the Washington State Police Canine Association and being certified by that organization as a Master Trainer of “Generalist and Detection” dogs. I was promoted to Sergeant and assigned as the Commander of the Seattle Police K9 Unit in 1982. Throughout my career with dogs and to this day I have attended countless seminars, training schools, audited other agencies such as the Vancouver, Canada K9 program, Royal Canadian Mounted Police K9, German Police program, Guide Dogs for the Blind puppy program, numerous kennels and training schools, University level courses on biology and scent work, animal behavior and so forth. Throughout my time with dogs one thing is clear the basics of training a dog have not changed since man first tried to get their pets to behave, or, working dogs to perform. Calling the use of any method “OLD School” is meaningless. Correctly used the methods of training with Choke Collars, a bag of treats, clickers, keys or whatever “new” means your devise can be used. To condemn a method because you don’t like it is not reasonable nor is it Productive. The oldest, yet newest and best method is; repetition of commands, praising (reward) in a timely appropriate and consistent-consistent-consistent manner!! I recently, August 2013, entered a training program conducted by Canyon Crest K-9 Training Center in Tacoma Washington, Ron Pace Trainer and his staff of trainers. This training is fantastic, Ron and the staff couldn’t be more professional, consistently helpful, determined, and obviously dedicated to doing an excellent job. They use the choke collar method of training. Horrors to some who do not know how to employ it! It can be abused; IT’S NOT ABUSED AT CANYON CREST! Very careful and strict guidelines are used to properly train the dogs. To quote a trainer I really respect “Treat her neck like glass”. I know there have been “So called studies Re; choke collar throat injury”. Injury can occur with almost any training method not properly used! My dog, an 8 month old German shepherd, couldn’t be happier, she really enjoys working and her leash work is excellent. I’m the slow one. Ron’s team insists on a method of leash work that was and is completely different then the methods I have used. While the basic premise remains the same (obedience) the goal is to get the most out of the dog with the proper use of the choke collar to ultimately work the dog off leash, safely! Training the human is always the most difficult part of any course. Once the training sinks in and your responses become consistently automatic the effort made becomes very gratifying. IT Takes Work, follow up and continued refresher training in all environments! Then you will have positive results. PLEASE DON’T DISCOUNT CHOKE COLLAR WORK AS OLD SCHOOL! Old school is people without knowledge decrying a tried and true, positive method of training!!
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 22:40:43 +0000
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