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6 Week Instructor Course

November 10 - December 19 2025 @ Scotland Neck, NC | Host: Ventosa Kennels

6 Week Instructor Course

November 10 – December 19, 2025

Scotland Neck, NC

This course is designed to prepare the experienced police K9 handler for the role of instructor/trainer. The training emphasis is on developing the skills necessary to conduct initial training and in-service training for a law enforcement K9 program.

  1. Instructor Guidelines and Objectives
    1. Defining the role of K9 instructor
    2. Developing K9 instructor skills
    3. Choosing appropriate training methods
    4. Teaching correct training practices
    5. Teaching correct handler techniques
  2. Police K9 Selection and Training
    1. The suitable police dog
    2. Understanding K9 drives
    3. Understanding K9 temperaments
    4. Testing for appropriate drives
    5. Selecting a suitable police K9 candidate
    6. Developing K9 drives
    7. Building block training
    8. Choosing the correct training approach
    9. Analyzing training problems
    10. Training issues and problem solving
  3. K9 Handler Selection and Training
    1. Defining the K9 handler skill set
    2. Interviewing, testing, and selecting the K9 handler
    3. Creating the learning environment
    4. Understanding teaching approach differences
    5. Choosing the appropriate teaching approach
    6. Matching teaching approaches to student personalities
    7. Student motivational techniques
    8. Typical student handler problems
    9. Student handler problem solving
  4. Obedience Training
    1. Understanding and teaching the obedience foundation
    2. Teaching the fundamentals of obedience training
    3. Teaching practical obedience
    4. Developing correct instructional techniques
    5. Teaching the reward and correction system
  5. Patrol K9 Training and Utilization
    1. Teaching the various patrol training disciplines
    2. Apprehension
    3. Building searches
    4. Area searches
    5. Article searches
    6. Tracking
    7. Decoy work
    8. Deploying the Patrol K9 team
    9. Teaching best practices for deployments
  6. Narcotics Detection K9 Training and Utilization
    1. Understanding and teaching K9 scent capabilities
    2. Teaching various scent detection training methods
    3. Choosing the appropriate training method
    4. Training techniques for drive building in the detection K9
    5. Search techniques for building, vehicle, open area, and parcel searches.
    6. Problem solving for the narcotics detection K9 team
    7. Teaching best practices for deployments.
  7. Administration
    1. K9 unit record keeping
    2. K9 unit initial and maintenance training
    3. Testing and certifying for the K9 unit

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