K9 Development

08/12/2025

The lesson many a dog trainer must learn at some point in their career...... Hopefully sooner opposed to later!

05/22/2025

When all of the hard work pays off! again it's been a great week for me. Got a walk up trailing find, a cadaver find and a live find area dog certified. Live is good, but the most touching for this old dog is watching his daughter work her first trail! It really doesn't get any better!

05/22/2025

Speaking of great weeks, a huge congratulations to Buzz and Harrison for passing their Live Find Area Mission Ready Test. GET SOME!!!!!!! Proud of you guys. Safe searching my friends!

05/22/2025

It's been a great week for the working dog side of the shop! Dolly and Ryan got a walk up trailing find and Quinn and Michelle had a Cadaver find and recovery! Super proud of our teams out there making a difference!

05/21/2025

Look who got another one! Super proud of Team Dolly! "GET SOME!!!!!!"

🚓🐾 Exciting News from the Cotati Police Department! 🐾🚓
Meet our newest team member, K9 Dolly, the incredible Bloodhound who specializes in finding missing individuals. 🐶👃🧬
Did you know that in the United States:
Every 65 seconds, someone with Alzheimer's goes missing.
Over half of individuals with autism have experienced wandering or going missing.
Six in 10 people living with dementia will wander at least once; many do so repeatedly.
Dolly is here to make a real impact in reuniting those at risk due to Alzheimer's, autism, and dementia or other reasons with their families. Her extraordinary skills will help us keep our entire community safe.
Join us in welcoming Dolly to the Cotati PD family as we strive to ensure the safety and well-being of all who need it the most! 🌟

04/30/2025

This one's a better write up with better pictures. Nice, everything starts somewhere.

This Day In History April 25 1928 Buddy, a German Shepherd, becomes 1st guide dog for a US citizen Morris Frank

Morris Frank became the first American to benefit from the help of a Seeing Eye dog. Frank lost the use of one eye in a childhood accident and the other in a boxing match as a teen and before his soon to be companion Buddy came into his life, Frank received assistance from a human guide.

Morris Frank was a blind man from Nashville. His father read him an article by Dorothy Eustis, a woman living in Switzerland who had seen shepherds training dogs to lead blind people get around. Excited by the idea, Frank wrote a letter to Eustis and received a response letter 30 days later inviting him to come see for himself. Frank then took a ship to Europe and trained extensively with a dog that had been bred specifically to lead a blind person. The training was hard, but after weeks with the dog, Frank could get around the nearby Swiss village holding tightly to a harness to which Buddy was strapped.

Morris Frank returned to America. From the day he got off the ship, he was successful. At one point, in front of a group of dumbfounded reporters, Buddy led Frank safely across a busy New York street. “I shall never forget the next three minutes, Ten-ton trucks rocketing past, cabs blowing their horns in our ears, drivers shouting at us . . . When we finally got to the other side and I realized what a really magnificent job she had done” Frank later wrote.

When Frank returned to Nashville, people were amazed at the sight of the blind man and his dog successfully navigating busy sidewalks and couldn’t believe that it was the same blind boy they had so recently taken pity on. What amazed people the most was that Buddy had an ability best known as “intelligent disobedience,” which meant that he would obey Morris except when executing that command would result in harm to his master. If there was a low hanging branch ahead on the sidewalk, for instance, Buddy knew how to navigate around it to the point where Morris wouldn’t hurt his head on it.

About this time, Frank, Eustis and several others cofounded The Seeing Eye, an institution set up to train guide dogs and their blind masters. Today, the organization reports that it has, in its 80 year history, trained 14,000 dogs. Buddy is considered the first. In 1978, on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the school, the U.S. issued a commemorative stamp in honor of The Seeing Eye.
Frank worked with Buddy until her death on May 23, 1938; he named her replacement Buddy, as he would all his subsequent guide dogs.

04/30/2025

Nice.....

97 years ago today…

Seeing Eye co-founder Morris Frank met the first Seeing Eye dog, a German shepherd. At the time, she was named Kiss, but Morris soon renamed her Buddy.

The pair were trained together in Vevey, Switzerland by Jack Humphrey, the first Seeing Eye instructor. Afterward, the first Seeing Eye team returned to the United States and went on to make history in more ways than one!

PD: A black and white photo shows twenty-year-old Morris Frank working with Buddy. Morris and Buddy stand at the curb edge, which Morris taps with his cane.

04/10/2025

Interesting.....

SNAKES are out in many locations
and people are asking about the Rattlesnake Vaccine for dogs.

🐍 First and foremost!
❌ It does NOT eliminate the need for immediate veterinary care including Anti-Venom!!
❓Can it be useful for your K9? Read the article and then talk to Your Veterinarian about Your Dog!

https://www.k9medic.com/rattle-snake-vaccine/

04/05/2025

Dolly n Ryan got another one! GET SOME!!!!!! Proud of you guys!!!!!

🚨 Gang Fight Gone Wrong - Suspect Arrested 🚨

Earlier today, a gang altercation broke out, leaving both parties injured. One victim was transported to the hospital by ambulance. The suspect fled the scene on foot, but thanks to the quick response from our officers and assistance from Cotati Police and their K9 unit, Dolly, we were able to successfully locate the suspect hiding under a tarp.

The suspect has been arrested for assault with a deadly weapon. Great teamwork between local agencies to keep our community safe!

03/14/2025

I thought this was pretty interesting, especially for my students that are learning to cast. We're "On" moving North, then suddenly Mouse starts to drift East (at about 3.53 into the clip). We got a stiff wind about 10 mph from the West. I'm thinking "Blow, or possibly a turn?" Hmmmmmmm, I'm giving her line and working with her as she casts. (At 10:00 seconds) I'm gathering line (wanna stay in the sweet spot with my gear) and I'm anticipating a full circle. At (11:67) Where'd she go? (sorry, Kev, Took my eyes off of the ball!) As I'm thinking "Looking for a Left Turn" or the circle to complete its self, Mouse cuts my circle, headed North again! We have to stay flexible and not get so fixed into anything that we're not movable. Ok, and the other point I found pretty cool was how much that tree affected the scent picture for the dog. Well at least I believe it was the tree. A lot happens in just a few seconds. "Life in the Fast Lane!"

03/14/2025

Ok, can you tell I'm playing with video? Go pro is your friend..... Thanks Jeff Schettler for showing me this vital tool! Shoot way back in the early 2,000s. Been using one ever since. We're on Hammering Nails headed North. Wind still from the West. There's a Left turn (unknown to me, I'm thinking it's a right turn, based on my dog and what a beautiful catch by her.) At the intersection of that Left, Mouse chases the blow. I go with her and Shoot she solves the problem and is headed West (ish). Don't think too much about any one thing. Or as Kevin Baughn once quoted, and I've shamelessly looted! "See Everything BUT look at nothing" (Bruce Lee)

01/29/2025

Good little read....

GENETIC FEAR

I sometimes see or hear of dog trainers that claim they can do well with “any dog, any breed, anywhere, any time.”

I always wonder if they have ever come across a dog with what I describe as having “genetic fear”.

This is not just a timid dog that needs slow-going, or a confused dog (most), or a previously abused dog that needs to learn confidence through routine and reliability.

Genetic fear is… something else.

In his book, ‘The Farmers Dog,’ John Holmes touches on the problem, which is always a deal breaker with me — the thing I think nearly impossible to tease out.

Holmes writes:

“It must be remembered, too, that not all the instincts of the wild dog have proved useful to mankind. On the contrary, there are some which man has had to breed out to the best of his ability.

“One of these is the instinct of fear, common to nearly all wild animals. A natural fear of man (the enemy), of gunfire and a strong desire to keep well within range of bushes or cover of some sort. When taken from the nest at an early age, many wild animals lose this fear. Our two badgers were more friendly with people (including strangers) than many dogs. They never attempted to run away on the several occasions they escaped from their run.

“This fact has enabled man to breed out this instinct to a great extent so today we find dogs that are far more courageous than the average person. Many wild animals, however, no matter how early they are taken from the nest, never lose their natural suspicion or fear of mankind. People have taken fox cubs and brought them up like puppies. A few will allow strangers to handle them, but some resent being handled, even by those who have reared them. Often, as they grow up, the urge to return to the wild, becomes more obvious and many succeed in doing so.

“These, no doubt, were problems which confronted the prehistoric men who first tamed the wild dog. By domestication, and even more by selective breeding, these problems were to a great extent overcome. But breeders of all animals and plants must always fight against the tendency to revert to Nature. That is why while anyone can breed scrub stock, the number of breeders like [Thomas] Booth, and [Robert] Bakewell, who will go down in history, is great improvers of our breeds of livestock, are few in number. I doubt very much, if, in the many aspects of livestock breeding, there is a stronger tendency to revert to nature than in the mentality of the domestic dog. One has only to consider the mean, cowardly, furtive collection of thoroughly unlikable creatures, from which ‘man’s best friend’ is descended to realize what that means.”

Right.

The number of reliably trained wild animal species is not open-ended, and those we have domesticated and bred for trust and bidability is finite.

There are no wolves at the circus.

We can breed animals away from their wild roots, but every once in a while the unwanted pentimento of a past incarnation will bleed into the foreground.

When that’s genetic fear, it’s a real problem.