Prevention Is Better Than The Cure

If you have a new dog or puppy, introducing thunder and loud noises as part of a socialising program is ideal. Below are some steps you can do to introduce your dog to loud noises.

1. Whilst playing with your puppy, have another house member bang on a saucepan in another room. If the dog is startled, ignore that behaviour and attempt to give them attention to distract them. Make the introduction of the loud noises a positive experience.

2. At the next session, move the noise closer and closer until you are making the noise in the same room. Even use food and rewards to give the dog a positive experience of the sound.

3. If the dog acts startled or shows fear, do not reinforce this behaviour or try to reassure it, just lessen the noise and continue as if nothing is happening, try to make you and the play/rewards really really fun.

4. Eventually, you should be able to drop pans and all sorts of things beside the dog without them flinching. As far as the thunder goes, there are cd’s and digital recordings of thunder everywhere that can be purchased. Expose the dog or puppy to the replays of the thunder the same as you would introduce the loud banging noises of pots and pans.

5. Another great place to expose dogs to loud noises is beside roads and cars driving past. Start in a suburban street and just let cars drive by. The fast motion and noise should intrigue the dog but not be too overwhelming to scare it. Again make the experience positive and fun.

6. Increase the exposure to the side of busy roads over time. These roads will have a multitude of vehicles, trucks and motorbikes that will expose your dog to the different tones of vehicles.

It won’t be long before your dog is taking all of these things in its stride. Desensitizing to loud noises should be part of a dog’s socialising program from the get go. Like in all dog training, addressing possible problems before the arise is a much better way to own a dog than dealing with the problem after it exists.

For dogs that already have a fear of loud noises, use the same exposure program. You may have to take things quite slow and let the dog’s reaction dictate as to how fast you expose them to the louder noises.

When I was a police dog handler, one of the very first things we taught our dogs, was to go to the toilet on command. Needless to say, whenever I did school or community displays, everyone and sundry was very impressed when I would give the command to go pee, then after a few seconds I could stop him with another command.

Now, not everyone needs this level of control over their dog, but knowing how to toilet train dogs on command is a very useful training exercise. Especially when you have a brand new puppy, or you have a dog that is becoming a nuisance with its excrement’s.

The thing to remember in how to toilet train dogs is control.

You need to control your dog’s environment to toilet train dogs.

1. Firstly, you need to consistently feed your dog at the same time every day. I usually break up my dog’s meals into 2 feeds. 1 in the morning and 1 at night. Generally dogs, especially puppies will be inclined to go the toilet after eating.

2. After waking, dogs will be more inclined to go to the toilet, so preparing for that time is also advised.

3. During or after exercise. If you are playing with your dog or exercising your dog, they will be more inclined to go as well.

Toilet Train Dogs

The Next Step In How To Toilet Train Dogs Is…

Now when you have identified optimal times when the dog is inclined to go the toilet, take the dog to the place you want it to go, and use a command, over and over and over. I used to say, ‘BE QUICK’. The first few times, this will be blah blah blah to the dog but don’t worry about that. Walk around with the dog to keep it moving. If it is taking too long, perhaps run a bit to get it’s metabolism going. Keep repeating the command. As soon as it does it’s business give monumental praise to the dog, even food rewards.

Initially, the dog will have no idea what happened. By though the conditioning process of taking the dog to a particular place at optimal times of the day or night, repeating the command over and over and rewarding the dog for emptying itself, eventually the dog will associate the command with the act. Then, you can place the toilet emptying on command.

This is a repetitive process. But consistency is the key. Don’t expect this to work in 2 days. Expect weeks until you are getting the dog consistently going to the toilet but eventually, you will get there. I hope this helped you understand how to toilet train dogs and in particular your dog.

Barking is one of the most natural and hardly wired behaviours dogs do. Dogs bark for a variety of reasons, but it can become a problem when it starts annoying neighbours and even you as the owner. As in all behaviour problems I try to solve, I like to look at when the dog is barking and what is causing it to bark. These are the reasons and steps I employ to stop barking dogs

Why Is It Barking?

Generally, it is because they are becoming under stimulated and this behaviour becomes exacerbated as an outlet as other instincts are not being satisfied or being suppressed. The popularity of anti bark collars are high because of their immediate effect in stopping the dog barking. The act of barking does not become reinforcing as it is met with an electic shock or a spray for dogs using citronella collars and these tools can assist to stop barking dogs.

The dogs will become collar smart as they will learn that there is no barking when the collar is on, but as soon as it is off, the flood gates open. In situations where the dog is put on notice by council or local law officers, the anti bark collar is effective in stopping it immediately, but what needs to be done is a program to put the barking on cue, then a quiet command to cease the barking.

So in other words, teach the dog to bark on command using positive methods then once you have that on cue, teach the dog to be quiet on command. Now lets look at some steps we can use to stop your dog barking.

Where Do You Start To Stop Barking Dogs

To teach the dog to bark, you need to find something that will excite the dog. If it has a favourite toy, put the dog on the other side of a fence or tether it to a stationary object and tease the dog with the toy. Try to elicit a bark then, reward the dog with a treat. If you are struggling getting a bark, reward a whimper or any noise that could lead to a bark.

Make this session go for 5 minutes only. Then try to do a few sessions per day in trying to elicit a bark from the dog. It will generally take 2-3 sessions until you get a bark. As soon as you get a bark, give a huge reward with food or even give the dog the toy to play with. At this stage, don’t use an commands.

When you are getting the dog barking pretty well instantly upon teasing it, begin using a word just as you start the excitement. Something like ‘SPEAK’, or ‘TALK’. Keep saying the command and tease until the dog barks, then reward with food and praise.

A good hint is to click your fingers at the same time when saying the command. The clicking is associated with the command then eventually, you will be able to make the dog simply by clicking your fingers.

Once you have the barking command on cue, get the dog continually barking by one command. Try to get multiple barks from one command or get a string of barks in a row before rewarding. Eventually, the dog will do a good 5-10 second string of barks from one command.

Then look for the exact moment the dog is quiet then at that exact moment, say the word, ‘QUIET’ and then reward profusely. Then rinse and repeat. Once you are having the bark command on cue every time, try to slip in the quiet command whilst the dog is in a full blown barking act. You might need to give a few commands for them to be quiet on the command but as soon as they do…reward profusely.

Shaping To Stop Barking Dogs

Essentially what you are doing is shaping the dog very gradually into the two commands ever so slowly but because you are using a reinforcement schedule, that behaviour will be quite strong as will the commands.

If you make this part of your training routine, the dog will be less likely to indiscriminately bark as it will wait for the training sessions to do the barking and you have effectively placed the bark and quiet command on cue. Easy Hey?

If you are at your wits end and you need help, don’t hesitate to contact me and we can work out how to stop barking dogs.

The age old argument of whether or not to begin training dogs using food will go on for ages.  I believe training dogs using food to teach  behaviour is by far the best way for the dog to learn.  However, understanding how to use food properly to teach a desired behaviour is the question.  Here I go over  the 3 methods of using food in training.

Always remember, when using food, try to use food that is really tasty, something the dog loves, and make the rewards, very small so not to fill the dog up.

Training Dogs Using Food:3 Methods

1. Luring

This is a simple process of using a small morsel of food and using it to lure the dog into a position.  The sit for example is a process of putting the food tidbit above the eye line of the dog and move it back until it’s bottom hits the ground.  When it does sit, you  then reward.  Any obedience exercise can be trained using luring. This is the easiest and most well known way in training dogs using food.

2.  Shaping

Shaping involves rewarding the dog when it samples behaviour.  This is very similar to how mammal trainers train dolphins.  They look for the behaviour to occur naturally, then reward that behaviour with a fish.  They use a whistle as an even marker to let them know the exact moment that earn’t the fish.  We can use the same methodology in training our dogs.  We can use our voice as praise to let the dog know when it has done the thing we want or we can use a clicker.

We can shape our dog to retrieve a toy, or the paper.  We start in getting the dog interested in the thing we want it to retrieve and we note the different types of interest we get.  We only reward the behaviour that resembles what we want.  With consequent training session, we then raise the bar and only reward better behaviours. After a few session, we are then rewarding only those behaviours that we actually want.  We have gradually shaped the dog into doing what we want. Not as easy as luring, but still works well in training dogs using food.

3. Targeting

Targeting is a technique where we train the dog to touch or go to a certain point.  We can do this with shaping the dog to touch the end of a stick or our hand.  When it does, it gets the food reward.  This could be useful in teaching a dog to heal nicely behind our hand, or if you wanted the dog to shut a cupboard or a door.  This is especially useful if you need to send the dog away from you to perform a behaviour.  You could teach it to target a marker on your hand or end of a stick.  Then move the marker further and further away and put the command to move away on cue.

Training Dogs Using Food At Home

This is of course a brief overview of the 3 types of training.  I will be going over in much more detail on my site about how to do this training in more detail. However, if you are looking at ways in training dogs using food, understand these 3 types of methods and you will master the art of dog training.

I learn’t how to train a dog 18 years ago to do obedience.  This involved, saying a word, like sit, then pushing down on the dogs behind and pulling up on a lead where the dog wore a choker chain to force the dog to sit.  This continued every time until the dog sat.  Then we would say the word, sit and hope the dog would and if it didn’t we would correct the dog with a snap on the chain and push it’s behind down.

Imagine if you were trying to be taught something, and a word was said and all you got was a push on the bottom and choke around the neck are when the word was said.  What impression would you have of that word?

This is often how we try to train our dogs to do obedience. This is known as compulsion training.  Now don’t get me wrong, over time and repetition, you will be able to make your dog’s perform obedience using these techniques, but it will come at a cost.

The dogs will associate the commands as an uncomfortable experience and not something to look forward to. You can see the dogs that have been trained using compulsion.  Their body language is usually such that their ears are back on their head; there tail is still, or tucked under its legs.  It walks in a very unsure way.  It sniffs the ground, constantly looks away from its owner, all calming signals that dogs exhibit when they feel stress.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I had trained my dogs this way all the time, until I discovered the methodologies around operant conditioning.  I studied how dolphin trainers train their dolphins and became fascinated with their techniques.  I began using clicker training and positive reinforcement training on my dogs.

Then something amazing happened.  It became absolutely fun.  I enjoyed the training, they enjoyed the training and their performance skyrocketed.  The way to start is start using clickers to train your dog.  If you have used compulsion training before, just go right back to the start.

1. Firstly, with clicker training, you aren’t actually saying any commands until you are getting the behaviours you want.  You begin with simply clicking and treating. This conditions the dog to what the click means.  It means, when you hear the click, you instantly get a treat.  I use something really really tasty, like cheese, or small bits of ham or bacon.  Make the treats very small, you don’t want to fill the dog up, you want it to be a taste sensation.
2. Do the click and treat for a period of 20 times and stop.  Do this say 2 times until the dog is focused on you and the clicker.  Then start moving your hand over the eyeline of the dog, shaping it into a sit position.  As soon as the dog’s bottom hits the ground, click and treat.  Don’t say any commands, they come last.
3. Try luring the dog into a down position. If it doesn’t hit the ground all the way first up, that’s ok.  The thing with clicker training is you can reward just a part of the behaviour and raise the bar over time.  So in a down, if the dog moves it’s head down, or lowers it’s upper torso, reward it with a click and treat, then gradually reward only better downs.

This is the trick with reward training.  Don’t try and force the behaviour, shape it, like the trainers do at seaworld with the dolphins.  Look for an indication of the behaviour you want, then shape it to what you want.

This goes against the grain of conventional training where you push, pull and force the dog into the position you want.

In one of my other articles, I talk about how to lose the food altogether and the dog will perform the behaviour, because the dog actually enjoys doing it, not just for the food.

Is that a bold claim or what?  Well in my opinion there are a few things you must do as a new puppy owner must do to make sure you have no problems in the future as the dog grows older.

Puppy Training Tips-1

Get a dog crate. Dogs are denning animals and a crate goes a long way to helping them satisfy that inherent instinct.  Not only does it satisfy that instinct, it also helps you as a new dog owner to establish a place where the dog can go at night when it sleeps, a place to go so it can’t destroy or chew things and also establish training.  Note, do not leave toys or other items that are used in future puppy training.

Puppy Training Tips-2

Toilet train the puppy. Upon waking,  take it to a place you want it to empty itself. Say a command, like..be quick, toilet or whatever word you want to reinforce the empty action.  Once the puppy is emptying itself, give lots of praise and pats. This is one of the most important puppy training tips. I go into more detail about toilet training dogs and puppy’s in one of my other articles.

Puppy Training Tips-3

Begin Obedience. Simple commands like sit, come and stay are very simple to start teaching your puppy.  Use flavoursome tiny tidbits like cheese, ham or whatever is very tasty to lure the puppy into these positions.  A sit for example will entail moving a small morsel above the dogs head until the dogs bottom hits the ground.  As soon as it does, give the dog the reward and praise profusely. A very important puppy training tip.

Puppy Training Tips-4

Bullet proof your puppy. Take your puppy to parks, side of roads, meet lots of kids, other people, make noises around, drop pans on the ground. The best way is to make sure you are doing something really really fun when exposing your dog to these situations so they have a positive experience to them and they are not startled.  This will ensure they are not startled in thunder storms or any other situation that may startle them unexpectedly.

Puppy Training Tips-5

Take it to puppy school. Socialise your puppy to other dogs.  Your dog needs to continue to learn dog behaviour and dog body language.  If your puppy can interpret when dogs are feeling fearful, anxious, happy, angry it will continue to know how to act around other dogs.  Dogs use calming signals continuously to communicate with other dogs to exhibit how they feel. Continual exposure to other dogs will allow your dog to interpret these signals and act accordingly.

Now these puppy training tips are by no means exhaustive, but they will help you in getting started with your new puppy when you bring it home.

There is much misconception about using food to train dogs. Dog trainers who do not advocate the use of using food do not understand why you should use food. They believe, as soon as you start using food to elicit behaviours from dogs, you are bribing the dog. That is true if you do not adopt a methodical approach to how you use the food.

If you simply give a food treat every time a dog does something, then you are bribing the dog. However, you can use food in a way that it becomes a reinforcer for wanted behaviour. Then, using a proven routine, you can then begin phasing out the food, until such time as food is no longer required to get the behaviour you seek.

When I teach people how to use food to train their dogs, I explain to them the concepts of primary and secondary reinforcers. Now this is not gobbledgook or fallacy. This style of training is based upon operant conditioning techniques.

The use of operant conditioning involves conditioning a dog to perform a behaviour then get rewarded for the behaviour. A good operant conditioning program involves getting our dog to perform the behaviour consistently every time we guide the dog using food to do what we want. This is known as a continuous schedule of reinforcement.

Then we being using a ratio of reinforcement. We would only reward the for every 2 times the behaviour is performed, then perhaps 3, 4 etc etc. What actually happens is the behaviour is then strengthened as the dog works out, it has to perform the behaviour more times until it is rewarded.

Then we can move onto a variable schedule of re-inforcement. This is where we can mix up the ratios of when the behaviour is rewarded, so every 2 times. Then we use every 5 times.

Then, we move on to a random ratio, whereby we can reward, the 2nd, then the 5th, then the 10, then the 11th, then the 12, then the 17th. You get the idea.

What happens is the dog does not know when it will be reinforced for the behaviour. Using this method, we can only reward only the best, sharpest or outstanding behaviour. This teaches our dog that only perfect behaviour will be rewarded and they work even harder to get the reward.

Once we are continuously getting this, a reward at the cessation of the exercise is all the dog will be working for. We can then eliminate the food altogether and use, our attention, a favourite toy or other thing the dog loves as a reward for completing our exercise.

Now, I have trained dogs using compulsion and food reinforcement for years. After knowing how to use both methods, I will always go for the food reinforcement every single time. I get better, faster and more reliable results. It is also, really really fun for both me and the dog and that goes a long way to making my training effective and long lasting.

I was working a late one this night, 8p-4a on a Friday night.  It’s usually a busy night, but this night was going to be a night I would never forget.

The Friday night progressed as it was any other, the odd domestic, a few blews with the locals in Flinder’s street in Townsville.

I was working with Andrew, his nickname was Fang, my partner that night with our respective dogs. I had a young police dog, ZAC and he had BEAU, and experienced and very awesome police dog.  Usually we work solo but Friday and Saturday nights we would sometimes double up in case it got a little silly.

Anyhoo, we got the call over the police radio, armed holdup at the the service station on the western side of  Townsville…miles away…and we were miles away when the call came in.  So we started heading in that direction.

There was a heap of generals cars that were well and truly in front of us, and got on the scene way before us.  They gave out the the description of the offender and his getaway vehicle over the radio, so we were on the lookout for a vehicle matching  the description given by the first crew, not that it really mattered to us…we were miles away…and the baddy would have been the unluckiest bugger in the world to run into us so far away.

BINGO….HE’S FOUND

Literally….2 minutes later…a call comes over the police radio….VRK…IN PURSUIT…a generals car had spotted the car matching the description of the suspect vehicle and the chase was on.  I glanced at fang…and said….lets go….WEEEEEEEEE….there was a fair chance the the baddy was gunna run…and that’s where we come in….hide and seek,  ready or not here we come.

So off we go…the call is continuous over the radio, eventually 2 police vehicles are in pursuit and the pursuit is called over the airwaves of the police radio.  Now, if anyone is unaware of how this sounds, it sounds like controlled panic.  Imagine traveling at over 120klm chasing someone, probably on drugs, armed not wanting to be caught in a high speed pursuit and police need to call the pursuit in a manner that can be recorded accurately via the communications section at headquarters in case of presentation in court, professionalism paramount, yet, adrenalin rushing though the police officers in the vehicle like you wouldn’t believe…unless you have done it..experienced it…it is a hard thing to understand…let alone do.

The pursuit goes on for a good 5 minutes and we are monitoring the path in which it is progressing and are proceeding at close to the speed of sound to get there.  You see, in the dog squad, the quicker you get to a person who decamps, the better your chances you have of catching them. The thing was, worst case scenario…we would be 5 minutes, but we were cutting down that window big time.

OMFG…

Then we hear over the radio…VRK, THE VEHICLE HAS CRASHED….woohoo, we are so close, man this guy is toast, if the boys in pursuit don’t get him, we will….then there is silence for….about 30 seconds…which when you are driving at the speed of sound is along time.

Then…probably one of the most scariest sounds I think I have ever heard in my life…..

VKR URGENT…WE NEED URGENT ASSISTANCE………………………

Not only that, that was drowned out by the sound of gunfire in the background.

OH…MY…GOD…that was the most sickening sound.  We went from the speed of sound, to the speed of light at this stage, we were literally 30 seconds away…and what we were prepared for was a scene that will be embedded in my mind forever.

THIS IS A GRADE NOW…

We came screaming around the corner to the scene and saw two police vehicles with their lights angled towards a black ute about 20 metres away.  We jumped out of  the car and were engaged by a screaming police officer with their guns out with two fellow police officers laying on the ground screaming from gun shot wounds.  Oh the adrenalin.  To be able to think in that situation was far from easy.

It was surreal…it was like slow motion, what do you do, think on your feet, adrenalin pumping like no mans business, coppers screaming everywhere.  You look around frantically, is the baddy still here?  You instantly rip out your firearm from your thigh holster and frantically scan the surrounds..Is he sitting in the car? beside the car? where is he? will he shoot us?

The first priority is making sure the boys are ok.  Make sure ambulance is on the way, and make sure they are ok.  After about 2 minutes, we make sure all bleeding has stopped.  Andrew says to me, lets get him….here we go.

Andrew’s dog is the more experienced dog, he’s about 6 yo, mine is 2 yo, no time for the young buck to chance his arm here, this is A grade, we gotta catch this prick.   Armed hold up, shot 2 coppers..not time for guesses..we need the serious dog.

We get information for the boys on the scene in the general direction where we think the baddy has run off… and it’s now our time to chase him down and find him.  It’s pitch black, he has shot 2 coppers, he don’t want to be found and he has a firearm….a shotgun to be sure.

We get ready, we don’t put on the vests, cos we didn’t have any back then, but as Andrew is harnessing up his dog, he says to me…if you see this prick…he is yours, I won’t have my firearm or torch out, I will be concentrating on the dog, so I need you to sort him out if he pulls a gun on us.

As I had a torch as well, he said, whatever you do, do not silhouette me so he can see me and gets a shot at me….so I had to be weary not to use my torch at the wrong time.

Could you imagine what it’s like to know, you are about to charge into the dark of the night, not knowing where..when you will find this guy…and there is a fair chance you are going to have to shoot someone or be shot….WOAH…..

IN KICKS THE TRAINING

So off we go, Andrew casts the dog around the area where we think the offender has gone (casting is a process where you place the dog in a body harness and you hang on to him with a 30 foot line whilst the dog searches for scent) Literally, instantaneously…the dog indicates and charges off into the darkness…and I mean…dark..it was pitch black.  Fang (Andrew) sprints off after him and I follow in hot pursuit…firearm drawn in the right hand and torch in the left….and away we go….to find an armed offender who has shot two police officers and done an armed hold up….he has the upper hand..he could very well see us…we cant see him

The dog sprints off into the dark…and we track for about 150 metres and we hit a river…SHIT…if he has gone in it…the dog will lose the scent.  The dog launches itself into the water, but we can’t go in, it’s too wide…we have to go around.  Lucky we know, the river goes under a causeway about 300 metres up the road, so we sprint up to the causeway, cross over and come back to where we think we were at.

Fang begins casting the dog again to see if he can pick up the scent again…a few minutes go by with Fang focusing on the dog’s reactions the whole time with me having my firearm prepped ready to engage. He kept saying to me, don’t let me get shot…you get him…the pressure is on.

Then…BANG…the dog hits the scent and off he goes up the bank of the river then after about 50 metres halts and then feverishly starts clawing at a brick wall…I quickly light the torch…and there I saw 2 wet hand marks on the brick wall….the hair on the back of my back stands up….we are on him.

We launch ourselves over the the brick wall.  Fang and I on the other side of the wall, squatting with the dog, look at each other.  We are in a courtyard of a unit complex.  The unit complex is a u shape with car parks in each one, about 6 I think.  Fang says to me,

PUCKER UP..TIME TO GET SERIOUS

‘Clear the car parks’

Stay Tuned for part 2……

So, I go methodically  up to each car park, firearm drawn peering around each car park bay, under each car, looking, finger on the trigger, ready to fire….let me tell you…I’m ready to shoot.

I even went through every refuse area, anywhere that we thought someone could be hiding.

Now, can I say, this was one, if not the most adrenalin rushed situation I have ever been in my whole life.  I was literally ready to engage in a shootout.  The thing is, when you are in this situation, the fight or flight instinct kicks in. You train for certain situations…but not this…this is instinct….

Needless to say, we cleared this area…and Fang had to re-engage the dog again.  He tried to pick the scent up.

STAY IN TOUCH

Also, I had a police radio, so I was staying in touch with police communications, and letting them know of our progress.  Unbeknown-st to us, literally every police officer in Townsville had been called out to try and contain the area we were trying to locate the offender.  Every operational police officer as well as those off duty were called out so we could create a cordon to contain the offender.  I made the contact very limited, so as not to project our presence in case of giving off our location.

The search continued with the dog locating…losing and relocating the scent.  We found ourselves going though suburban yards at 1am in the morning.  The whole time, every instance we came to an area where  we thought the offender might be, around a corner, under a car, in a shed, in a garden bed…Fang would stop the dog, I would go forward with the firearm and clear that area, ready to engage.

WHO ARE WE CHASING?

We  had a basic description of the offender..he was dressed in black…so anyone in black was a suspect.  We came over another fence and we came to the side of a house, then from the side of the house comes a male…dressed in black….I CHARGE HIM WITH MY GUN IN UP AT HIS HEAD…ON THE GROUND….ON THE GROUND..ON THE GROUND…I am screaming…he screams back in fear, arms flayed in the air, I charge him firearm armed at him charging him……I LIVE HERE, THIS IS MY PLACE…….he yells….

ARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHH

GET BACK IN YOUR HOUSE, we have just given ourselves away….my god, I thought it was the offender, my hands are shaking.   Fang, the dog and I regroup.   Ok, let’s keep going.

He begins to recast the dog, let’s see if we can pick up the scent again.

You see, the dog is following something we can’t see, we are only relying on his body language, and there are factors like surface scent, airborne scent we have to take into account.  Sometimes the police dog will overshoot a scent picture and we have to come back and recast the dog and try to pick up the original strong scent.  This is a process of patience and elimination.

At this stage, we have been searching for over an hour.  Imagine being amped up for that long.  During that time, we would sit in the dark and rest the dog, I would communicate with police communications and give them our exact location, whispering so they could co-ordinate road cordons.

We begin again, searching for the scent…BANG….WE ARE ON IT….the dog goes off flying over 2 suburban fences and peel right down the side of a house.

AND THE FINALE…..

I remember looking up and seeing under the street light…a police officer standing beside his police car at the front the house we were running down.  I think he was more surprised to hear us…because he pulled his gun out on us…..on the noise we made coming down the side of the house…then the dog, in front of us launches himself into a bush on the side of the house…literally 10 metres from the lone police officer standing by himself by his car.

The police dog  ‘rat’ as we called him, as he was this tiny little german shepherd, but my god, what a police dog he was, launched himself into this bush and began attacking.  The offender was laying in this bush with his shotgun, and the police dog just went nuts. Fang, the police officer standing on the corner and myself launched ourselves into this bush with dog and we dragged him out….with a fully loaded shotgun.

…………………………whew…………………………….

What a 1 hour and 2o minutes……………………..

We contained the offender.  The criminal investigation branch came and took him away.  We stood on the side of the road as he was taken away.  The inspector in charge came and debriefed us and advised us, there was an operational debrief at the police station that we all needed to attend to advise of the situation of all involved.

IT’S ALL OVER

As I mentioned earlier, literally every single police operational police officer, on duty and off was attempted to be called out to create an outer cordon to contain this offender due to the fact that he had shot 2 police officers.  We were unaware at this at the time, we simply ran off into the dark and tried to catch him.

Fang and I eventually got into Townsville Police Headquarters at about 4am.  We walked up the stairs to the district muster room and walked into a room full of police officers, a number I have never seen before…and when we walked in….we received a standing ovation……

Let me say….any commendation…any medal….any bravery award….does not compare to the recognition that you get  from your mates on the ground that overtly acknowledge the effort you put…..nothing…

That is a night I will never forget…I can remember it like it was yesterday…not because of what we did….but because of the brotherhood and sisterhood I experienced that night.

Anyway, there was a couple of noise complaints, a few disturbances but rocking up in the dog van with satan’s spawn (my beloved dog in the back) was enough for anyone to shoosh up and calm down, a couple of kids ripping around on motorbikes in the neighborhood and after dealing with these minor issues, it was time to duck and have a feed and let the night wind down whilst everyone settled down at home to watch the Sunday night movie on TV.

Then, over the police radio was a goose who had stolen a car, be on the look out for.  Usually, when these calls come over, it’s very rare you run into them (wind back 10 years, armed holdup, coppers shot-another story).  Shortly after the bulletin, a uniformed car reported spotting the suspect vehicle and a pursuit ensued.  I was sitting in the school yard, when I knew times would be slow, polishing up a little dog training with super dog.  A bit of advanced obedience, send aways, hand signal obedience, very difficult scent discrimination and some hard surface tracking.

I overheard the pursuit over the radio on my portable setup over my shoulder, thinking to myself, I better get my butt into gear just in case this goose hits the toe.  I wandered to the car, put Geordie in the back, gave him a big drink and a little wrestle.  I then went through my pre-job routine.  I stopped still, for a good 10 seconds, this caused him to pause and look at me whilst he was standing in the back of the cage of the police vehicle.  He knew in an instant….I looked and I whispered to him…..’Watch those *&%*”, he began spinning in the cage, he knew, it was time to work and  got immediately excited.  I slammed the cage door shut and hopped in the car and off I went, towards where this so called chase had begun with the call emanating over the police radio.

I was a good 30 k’s from where this was happening based on the description that was coming over the radio, so off I went.  Then, all of a sudden, panic over the radio. ‘URGENT VKR, WE HAVE BEEN RAMMED!!’  WTF.  Geese, this guy was serious.  So serious that he put the police car out of commission.  Then, he was gone, no one knew where he went.

With no one around me, (Sunday night everyone’s in bed), I upped the tempo. Every police car available was now on the hunt.  Within minutes, another car spotted the suspect driving like a spastic.  Needless to say, another chase was on.  This guy in the car was obviously on something because he was driving like a man possessed.  The chase came to a major roundabout where he left the road and went bush in an attempt to evade the pursuing police, but to no avail, became…..bogged? for the want of a better word, or just stopped in a bush area.

I could hear all this emanating over the police radio moving at quite a rate of knots in the car towards where the scene was at this stage, about 15 ks.  Geordie knew what was going on by the speed of the car, police dogs usually pick up on cues to what is coming.

I could hear over the radio, police officers describing the scene. The offender and his vehicle had come to a sudden stop in a bushy type area, and he come to a halt.  Police had approached him and he threatened them from a distance that he had a firearm and was going to shoot them.  Not only that, the vehicle’s engine that he had been driving had become so hot, the it had began to set the grass surrounding the vehicle to ignite.  The firey’s, (fire brigade) were already there and the media.

I arrived on the scene.  I drove past the parked  3 police vehicles, 1 fire brigade unit and channel 10 all watching this goose, half out of the car yelling “Don’t come near me, I’ll shoot you all’.  I jumped out of the police van and ran back to the officers on scene and asked, ‘what was the go?’.

He’s threatening us with a firearm.

I could see there were flames starting to come out of the base of his vehicle and thought to myself, I gotta get him away from that car in case it blows, or we are all in big trouble.

I rushed back to the dog van, and got Geordie, he was spinning at this stage. I got him out and began to run back towards the scene.

I came up to police officers, who I knew and we ducked behind a police vehicle.  I said to them.

“You come with me, I will have the dog, if he pulls out a gun and points it at us, you shoot him.”

I approached the vehicle, I was about 20 metres away at this stage and the shouting match began.

I yelled, “Move away from the vehicle, get away from the car!!”.

Geordie was on a lead at this stage and he was going, ‘BALLISTIC’.  I had the 2 police officers flanking me with their guns drawn on him, in case he pulled out a firearm.  I made the decision, I had to get him away from that vehicle in case it exploded.

It was a mexican standoff.  I continually yelled at him, “Move away from the vehicle!”

He would come back with “F%^$ck off copper’s, I’ll shoot youse”, all the while, the flames were beginning to engulf the vehicle.

“Shit, this cars gunna blow”, the firey’s were sitting behind us ready to put the fire out.  I have to get this goose out of there before we all get hurt, I said to myself.

He was half leaning out of the car with half of his body in the car, as if he was hanging on to something. He and I were engaging in yelling match, with me slowly edging forward, Geordie at the end of my leash going nuts, ready to pounce.

I saw my chance, he momentarily glanced in the vehicle…I yelled….’ROUSE’ and let go of the lead, and Geordie bolted towards the man in the car  instantly closing down the distance between us and him and biting his legs.  I sprinted straight after him.

The offender lost all sense of awareness with the police dog on him and forgot all about us. In a second I was on him and grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him away from the vehicle hoping like hell he didn’t have a firearm in his grasp.

As it turned out, he didn’t have a firearm in his grasp.  He was on the ground with the police dog monstering him and the two police officers accompanying me right on top of him.

‘OH MY GOD’,These police officers assisting me were just rushing in and helping and I instantaneously thought, ‘GEORDIE’S GUNNA GET INTO THE BOYS’.

I knew with past experience that anyone rushing Geordie in his heightened state would be open slather to his teeth, I instantly grabbed him and ripped him away from the scene with the two police offciers restraining the offender and promptly rushing him away from the burning vehicle, which at this stage, had a full blown fire engulfing the car.

The firey’s promptly rushed in and extinguished the fire and it was all good.  The goose was placed in the rear of a police vehicle and escorted to the watchouse where he was charged with his offences.

Me, well, I knocked off.  I was a little…pumped after that.  I decided I needed to knock off and have a refreshment.

I went home, cracked a beer and got Geordie, and him I sat under the house in the dark.

“Wow, how about that mate…..Gee, you did a good job then buddy”, I said to him.

Police Dogs….Unreal, I tell you.