Dogs are tools, but they’re not robots. If a $20-30K weapon fails to fire, we move on, we don’t beat the weapon against the deck so the crew can watch, right? (not to mention if we did do that, we’d be on the carpet for damaging govt property). Self-confidence is the number one trait demanded of a police dog - the trait that saves lives. An animal can’t be intimidated into being self-confident.
The dog gets a passive send and telegraphs confusion by looking back at the handler, who might as well be vacuuming with all the energy he sent the dog with. When dog sits, dog is clearly saying, hey buddy, there’s a communication issue here. Are we at Aunt Tillies or what? Trust in the handler is further broken by ‘trapping’ and then hitting/kneeing. [What was the dog supposed to do, anyway? go Cujo and eat the doorknob?].
The second the dog’s butt hit the ground, he should have been recalled and re-sent with higher energy. Kenneling up, removing him from the ‘fun’, will send a stronger message to the dog than smacking him on the nose. And kenneling up may momentarily mean being one man off, but isn’t it better to return the focus of the remaining officers off a dog being harshly disciplined (and that psychological impact) back onto the existing threat - namely, the perp inside? imo
This:
“An animal can’t be intimidated into being self-confident.”
Good way to erase $20K of training, right there.