K9 Behavior Basics

This book takes a close look at the dog’s behavior and signals, which are fundamental to understanding how dogs play and learn. Every K9 handler needs to understand these behaviors, because understanding them makes dogs easier to raise and train.

It is a pleasure to have a K9 as a reliable companion in service. It is important that the parties at both ends of the leash can trust one another. To that end, it is essential for us to recognize and correctly interpret the expressions, gestures, and signals of the dog. The authors also explain the principles and techniques of operant conditioning, a modern and successful method of K9 training for search and detection, patrol, remote guided camera, and attack.

Dr. Resi Gerritsen and Ruud Haak are world-renowned specialists in the field of dog work and the authors of more than 30 titles on dog training. They train search and rescue dogs for the International Red Cross and the United Nations (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), and they have trained drug and explosive detector dogs for the Dutch police and the Royal Netherlands Air Force. Gerritsen and Haak also act as international judges for the International Rescue Dog Organization.

Simon Prins trains police dogs in the Netherlands. He has more than 15 years of experience working with specially trained police dogs in special operations and search-and-rescue missions in many different countries.