[Morgan in Denver]

What shocked me is how poorly trained the so-called police dogs are trained! The stated reason to not release the dog was it might attack the police following the bad guy.

I hate to say it but the WWII dogs in the Pacific, trained by William Koehler, and subsequent police dogs trained by him or the people who followed him, would not have had that problem.

[Carry_Okie]

I hate to say it but the WWII dogs in the Pacific, trained by William Koehler, and subsequent police dogs trained by him or the people who followed him, would not have had that problem.

Yes, there were such problems at that time; they were merely discounted as an inevitable risk to the operation. Dog training has come a long way since Bill Koehler, and no, I'm not talking about "Pet Smart" style all-positive training. There was an enormous amount of work done after WWII on operant behavior and positive reinforcement. There is a balance between reinforcement and 'not taking any crap' that depends heavily upon the character of the dog.

IMO, the Dutch have it about right, which is why there are more dog dealers crawling all over southern Holland than just about anywhere. I'm a KNPV fan myself.

[Slyfox]

I hate to say it but the WWII dogs in the Pacific, trained by William Koehler, and subsequent police dogs trained by him or the people who followed him, would not have had that problem.

Koehler's method was also used on all those Disney dogs of the 50s and 60s. No treats.