A Dog is Not A Gun

One of the purposes of this book is to provide a psychologist's perspective on K9 policing and to share - with police K9 handlers, trainers and administrators - the author's observations and perceptions, gained through participant-observation research in Canada and the U.S., and through over 4000 hours of shiftwork partnered with police officers in six different Canadian jurisdictions. The title derives from one of the sources of frustration experienced by many handlers and trainers, stemming from the failure of administrators to understand that dogs are not just another piece of equipment, that the strong bond between the handler and this living, thinking, feeling "equipment" is essential to safe deployment, that adequate preparation takes months rather than hours or days, and that training must be throughout the career of the team, so as not to put handlers, dogs and the public at risk. Interviews with Dr. Stephen a. Mackenzie of the State University of New York (Animal Science), Staff Sergeant Donn Yarnall of the LAPD, and Staff Sergeant Gil Radke of the RCMP shed further light on these difficulties. This book includes a well-known article on muzzle training by Brian Amm, Director of Training at the Law Enforcement K9 Center in Richmond, British Columbia, as well as a foreword by Professor Samuel G. Chapman, author of Police Dogs in North America (1990) and Murdered on Duty: The Killing of Police Officers in America (1998).