If you look up articles or read books on becoming a dog trainer, many will caution those who are great with dogs but may lack interpersonal communication skills. It only makes sense that many who are great when it comes to communication with animals may not have the same gift with people I started the other way around.
After enlisting in the Army at 17 I found myself one year later at the US Army Military Police School. I realized early on that if there was something that I was interested in, I wanted to study to the point of being able to teach it. After 4 uneventful years in the Army I found myself discharged and looking to start my civilian law enforcement career. Within the next 8 years I found myself working as a patrol officer for the City of Aberdeen Police Department in Aberdeen MD. In the late 90’s and early 2000’s departments had money and would invest in training. During my 10 years with the Aberdeen Police Department I attended over 40 specialized schools ranging from SWAT to several firearms instructors schools. In addition to that I became a subject matter expert in edged weapon survival for law enforcement. I was also selected as a special adjunct instructor at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds DOD Police Academy where I taught officer survival. My entire view of training changed on 07AUG20 when I was involved in a fatal shooting. At the time of the shooting I had been to SWAT school and two of what would eventually be five firearm instructor schools. All that training failed myself and the other officers involved that night. That is where I developed my training mindset of researching the reality of what really happens during a critical incident and using that as the foundation of training instead of what the crowd thinks will happen. I developed my own systems called the Modern Combative Systems and it was a comprehensive system of open hand combatives, impact weapons, edged weapons and firearms. Basically I took the piece meal that everyone one was teaching and shook it out and put it together in such away it was digestible and repeatable under stress.
When you are teaching police officers and soldiers how to survive critical situations you need to start with what happens physically and mentally to humans under combat stress. It’s all about taking the complex and making it simple. The next step is the parameters of how they will most commonly face the threat. Here are two examples-
The FBI has reported for years that the majority of police involved shooting occur at 3-5 feet, in 3-5 seconds, with 3-5 rounds being fired, typically one handed. But police firearms training focuses the majority of rounds fired at 7-25 yards using two hands on the gun. So you can see the disconnect and why police officers loose gun fights.
The second is the use of edged weapons by attackers. Traditional martial arts and edged weapons program teach you how to defend against the weapon as soon as you see it. Most training knives are 6-8 inches. When interviewing those who have been cut or stabbed you will find that none of them saw the weapon and believed they were being struck, not stabbed or cut. One average the size of the weapon is 2 inches with more box cutters and screwdrivers being used than knives.
So by now if you are still with me you are asking “Ok George, but what does this have to do with dogs?” Everything. Just as with anything that causes people anxiety based on “what could happen” we have to narrow our scope as to what is most likely to happen first.
Many trainers start with the dog, not us, we start with the people. Between my law enforcement career, time as a bouncer, and a DOD Combat Skills Instructor teaching high threat driving, advanced weapons and handling, and combatives I know how to train people to use what is familiar known, and natural to them to prepare them for intense situations. After teaching well in access of 14000 people of various back grounds to survive brutal combat, getting them to calm down and walk their dog on a loose leash is pretty easy. Now my Focuse Based Canine training systems is evidenced with over 3000 client outcomes.
Stress is relative, so to the cop on the street, or the soldier overseas, their stress may be more intense to them, but to the Mom who is afraid that her dog is going to attack another dog or person its the same or worse.
Before I started working with dogs I was a master instructor / teacher and trained as such with others constantly critiquing me under pressure. People who train with us will notice a crawl, walk, run approach and how we share information by written word, modeling, and talking using comprehension checks along the way.
More than anything I enjoy sharing knowledge that will have a positive impact on people’s lives. It’s very fulfilling. Remember we there to train, not entertain (even though that often happens) you.
The teaching I do now is seldom life or death for a person but could be for their dog. That is my mindset. Thanks for reading.