The Detection Dog School

This in-depth 80-hour course, led by renowned experts Cameron Ford, Michael Ellis, and Natalie Morris, offers a thorough education in detection dog training.

In the initial week, Michael Ellis will guide students through the nuances of selecting and preparing detection dogs, examining the advantages and disadvantages of common training methods in this field. Topics will include cooperative play, the development of play strategies, impulse control, the creation of conditioned reinforcers, enhancing search intensity, and an introductory exploration of odor work.

The second week, led by Cameron Ford and Natalie Morris, advances into more complex areas such as recognizing responses to odor, Power of blanks, distinguishing between different odors, the application of variable reinforcement schedules, understanding behavioral economics of detection training and how to create a dog who is addicted to finding odor.  They will also cover effective methods for training aid placement, odor hygiene and storage. This segment also delves into strategic hide placement use of distractors for training objectives and advanced search techniques.

This course is meticulously designed to serve all professional Detection Dog Handlers across a spectrum of disciplines, including Police K9 units, Search and Rescue (SAR) teams, Bedbug detection, Conservation Detection, and other specialized areas.

Students can bring their own dogs or if they are unable to bring a dog with them we will sometimes have dogs available to work. However it is preferred that they bring a dog with them that has a basic understanding of odor or has begun the process of detection work. If they have a dog that is never started detection work they can still bring it with, but the work will be a little bit more limited.

Note: If scheduling makes it difficult to attend 2 weeks at once, you can sign up, attend the first week, and then come back later on to another event to complete the second week. The full tuition is still due upfront for this option.