Just donated to ATK9!🐾❤️

They are true legends

You learn from every dog. Looking back at the beginning is something I too did. Probably the biggest difference today is I take the dogs for what they are, for who they are and don't mess with behavior modification for things are just aren't important. I didn't realize until about 5 years ago (40+ years with dogs then) that when I come home from work, they know my car. Yeah they know the sound, but they know what it looks like too - all my dogs do, even my pound rescue dogs. They are far more aware and intelligent that I ever realized in the early days.

I would like to be a dog trainer I have a standard poodle that I am training him to be a service dog for PTSD and seizures and anxiety depression

A lot of police departments have a huge disconnect between handlers and K9S, I have been seeing a lot of handlers in the police force just being complete scum bags to the k9 they work with, the expect the dog to be a robot like they don't understand k9 behavior at all. They can not read the dog's body language, their timing sucks, they get the dog worked up without wanting to because of how they are carrying themself then take it out on the dog when the dogs existing and work drive come alive and the handle does not want it. However, it is all on them and how they are around the k9. Don't get me wrong there are some police forces that have a great k9 system running. However, from my perspective that is the minority, The trainer and the K9 are holding them up but the police officer i.e. the handler is nearly riding on the skill of the dog. Hard to get my point across I just see what I see. I"m not the best trainer ever, However, I have a great understanding of how your high-drive k9 mentally operates. All I"m saying is these handlers are 2-3 out of 10 in a lot of cases. Like I said they see the dog as a robot like they are not, even with the best training a crapy handler can destroy it fast.