Your First Time Catching a Dog - SOURCE Short Set

All right, real quick, I'm on my soapbox for just a moment, okay? Anybody here not want to be here? You want to be here? I want to be here. You want to be here? All right, both of you guys work patrol dogs, right? Yes, sir. You got a patrol dog? Yes, sir. Okay, you know patrol dogs bite, correct? Yes, sir. Okay, yep. All right, so you guys are here because you want to be here and you understand that your dog bites, which means it takes training, correct? Yes, sir. Correct. Okay. With that training, there's a responsibility to also learn how to catch bites and be a decoy, because ultimately neither one of you guys are going to catch your own dog. Would you agree? Yes, sir. With that being said, that means you're going to have to teach someone else how to do it for you to make sure that they do it correctly and not injure your dog and advance your dog in the patrol training. Do we understand that?

Yes, sir.

So here's my soapbox real quick. I don't want to hear shit about it hurting or shit about you want— not wanting to do it, period. And you want to have a patrol dog which bites, so which requires you to learn to catch dogs. And it's painful, it doesn't feel good, but I can assure you that nobody's ever died from catching a dog bite. It hurts. But the more you get used to doing it, the more you understand about it, the more you're going to enjoy it. I assure you of that. But initially there's going to be some pain. Yes, sir. So I'm just laying the foundation now because what I don't go through is a course where I have a bunch of moaning and groaning. When I ask for a decoy, I expect somebody to step up and get the suit or the sleeve or whatever else I need to get done so that we can catch dogs. You got a patrol dog, you're going to catch bites. You got a patrol dog, you're going to catch bites because you're going to do it for each other or for other people that have patrol dogs. My point behind this is, guys, is that I don't want to hear any crying, okay? I don't want to hear any sighs. We got to catch dogs again. Oh, we got to do patrol work. Are we going to be doing patrol work this afternoon? I don't want to hear none of that. Because it's part— not only part of your course, but a necessary part of being able to advance your training. I worked 2 patrol dogs in my career. Every one of them that I worked, and every bite that I ever got, and every successful patrol deployment was because I had a great decoy. That's it. I didn't do anything. You're just the butthole following the butthole when you send your dog. The real work is done with the person in the suit. So that's very important to understand. Are we on the same page with this? Yes, sir. All right, that's my soapbox. I'm done talking about it. I'm gonna turn it over to this great instructor, and he's going to get the foundation laid for you guys for patrol work. Okay, you can come in, Josh. Right here.

So you picked out a suit. Now, first thing we want to make sure is that suit is serviceable. We don't want a suit that's torn and ripped open. Because then the dog can bite you back. So let's take a look at this one. No tears anywhere, looks good. Same with the pants, check the pants, make sure there's no tears anywhere, and it looks good. Next, never get between the decoy and the dog, okay? Never present anything to the dog that you don't want bit. You don't want your hands bit, don't, don't present them to them, okay? All right, um, first thing when you get into a suit, first you're going to downgrade everything. Take everything out of your pockets, any jewelry, Glasses, wallets, phones, keys, any piercings you have anywhere on your body, take them out. Otherwise they will get ripped out and that'll be more painful.

All right.

Next, listen to the trainers at all times. They know what they're doing. They've been bit. So just listen to the trainers. Okay. Next, let's show you how to get into the suit. Um, so downgrade everything.

It's important that we also check each other.

All right, all pockets empty, everything. Any piercings anywhere? Gotta check. Okay. All right, first put the pants on. You will have to take your boots off for them.

So glad I'm not a firefighter.

All right, yes, make sure these are clipped. You don't want these open because otherwise if your jacket gets pulled up, these will flip back and the dog may bite you there. Always have someone check, make sure everything is on properly. Good. Other side clipped. Good. Okay, now the jacket. Make sure everything is secured, even the Velcro.

Do my hand just stay in it?

I would keep my hands tucked in, that way they don't get bit. Okay.

All right.

And that's what the suit is on.

That's a lot. You don't want your hand bit, don't put it in the dog's mouth. Okay. I want my arm bit, I make sure he bites my arm. Okay. Simple as that, right? You drop your hands and put your hands in the dog's mouth, guess what's going to happen? You're going to get stoked. Okay. Oh wow. So, all right, thing to remember is nobody's ever died from doing this. All right, we're going to keep you as safe as possible.

So when you hear present, lift up your arm like a chicken wing. Keep your hand in. Just present your arm just like that. Yep, you're going to be running away from the dog. Present. All right, so just take a few moments, practice that movement, make sure you get that movement right.

You haven't seen my running, have you? If you fall before the dog gets to you, okay, remember what we talked about. Don't put anything in the dog's mouth you don't want there. You're going to have to get eyes on that dog and get something moving. The dog is going to target something that's moving. So if your head's moving, guess where he's coming? That's not protected, right? So if the dog's coming from this direction and I'm down and I fall, the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to turn and begin to move. But guess where my arm is? It's in front of my face. All right, and so if the dog tries to come around, I'm just going to roll and I'm just— I'm going to protect my face in all cases. All right, there's no recalling the dog at that point, especially when he gets so close to you. The handler's coming, but stay calm. You start to panic and that's when shit goes bad. Yes, sir. Keep— this is the only thing that should be moving. And again, if I'm here and the dog's there, I fall, I'm gonna come right here, okay? And I'm gonna start moving this and drawing the dog into me. If he tries to go around, I'm just going to roll with him, just like so. You're protected everywhere but your head. That's the only risk. And he's gonna bite what you put in his mouth. So once he commits, I'm just gonna throw that in his mouth, and then once he's on, I'm just gonna pulsate that. Okay. All right. The other thing— lay down. I'm gonna help you down. Go to your knees. Dog knocks you down. Boom. Okay, he's on your arm. Okay, remember, even in this case, what's the only thing not protected?

My face.

Your face. So we'll have the handler come here, or he will step in, and we're going to put our legs here right in front of your head. All right, so if he's going to bite, he's going to bite my leg and not your neck or your face. Okay? Yes, sir. Then we're going to take control of the dog and we're going to step away from you until you can safely get up. Okay? As you get more skilled, then we're going to have you table up and help you to stand up with the dog there. But for right now, it's going to be a mess because you're not prepared for that right now. Okay, so we're going to help you with that, protect you, get the dog off you, and help you get back up. As you become week 2, week 3, week 4, then you're gonna have to table back up because you're going to have more comfort. You're going to know that the dog will stay there. And then you're going to table up and stand up. Yes, sir. Okay. Yes, sir. Table. Bring your feet to your chest. Now push up. Put one leg up. There you go. There you go. That's tabling up. Now stand up. So this is where we would come in, and I'm going to grab you and help you up. Okay, but you got to get to that point. Because I can't pick your big butt up, right? But you got to get to that point, then I'll come in and help them up. All right, we got a dog coming out. I got the handler, you got the dog. All right, all right, all right, let's do it.

You just need to see the dog in your peripheral. You don't need to lay eyes on it.

Stop moving. Hey, hey, here we go. Oh, we can look. Last one. Is that— there you go. Not bad. Hey, I don't want to hear you can't. You can stand up, get control, just like you just did. You did it. I don't want to hurt the dog. You're fine. We're not going to let you hurt the dog, but I don't want to hear can't come out of your mouth. Squat. Use your legs though. You can't control like this, it's too much. Your legs are going to help you. We'll get you those buns of steel that you've been asking me about. It's called K9 CrossFit. You did good, man. You're good. Not too painful, is it? That's a big suit too though. No, it wasn't painful. It was more so mental. Yeah, no, no, no, that's perfect. It was 100% mental and you've never done this before and a dog is chasing you to bite you. Like, that's not normal, right? So we would expect that. Yeah, that's perfect.