E-collars are the wireless modern way to train police K-9s.
Consisting of a special collar equipped with batteries, electric contact points and a radio receiver tuned to the handler’s handheld transmitter, e-collars allow police K-9s to be trained off-leash and at a distance. The handler uses varying ranges of alternating current to shape the dog’s behavior in response to verbal/hand commands on an ongoing basis; from staying by the handler’s side to subduing a perp using a bite hold and then dropping that hold upon command.
Sergeant (ret.) Doug Roller knows all about e-collars and K-9 training. Now owner and lead instructor at Tactical K9 LLC, Roller was the Chief Trainer Metropolitan Division with the Los Angeles Police Department’s K9 Platoon. He spent 25 years with the K-9 Platoon and has helped with over 6,500 K-9 training deployments in his career.
Roller offers these three tips to explain the best ways to use e-collars in K-9 training.
Unlike humans, dogs do not make distinctions between work life and off-duty life. To them, it is all the same.
This is why handlers need to approach their K-9s in all instances as if they are in a training/working situation. Doing so will provide the dog with a clear, consistent environment that they can adapt to with a sense of personal security and trust.
In this environment, positive reinforcement is as important as negative reinforcement. The whole point of K-9 training is to shape the dog’s behavior in all aspects and situations, so that they can respond appropriately, obediently and willingly to their handler’s commands – especially when being told to release a bite on an apprehended suspect.
The fact that an e-collar can be used to “zap” a disobedient dog misses the purpose of its power. An officer could also TASER a dog to the same end – but that would hardly train the dog to willingly obey the human ordering them around.
In other words, an e-collar is a K-9 training/control tool; not a cattle prod. Handlers should never use it as such, any more than they should lose their tempers with K-9s and overwhelm them with fear.
A smart handler introduces a K-9 to an e-collar as early as possible in training. They also use the e-collar in tandem with other training techniques, such as leashes and verbal/hand commands, so that the dog will learn to associate specific levels of stimulation, patterns, and levels with specific leash-led commands.
If in doubt, turn to a K-9 professional familiar with e-collars to guide and train your K-9 handlers, to ensure that they get the most of the e-collars your department purchases. Properly used, e-collars can save the lives of officers, dogs and the public that they work together to protect.