Proper desensitization and training techniques are presented for using muzzle work as a component technique to help make a police K9 ready for a real street encounter. Proper techniques are presented for both desensitization and decoying muzzle encounters, as well as problem solving.

1. Secret Service Dogs
Not on My Watch...
or My Dog’s
Issue 1 | January/February 2017 | $9.95
Health & Wellness
for the Thin Blue Line
Understanding Macronutrients
Let’s Train
Introducing Mike Ritland’s
Team Dog Online Training
Muzzle Training
for Police Patrol
Canines

2. 36 | workingdogmagazine.com
A
real street bite is the one thing
that as police dog trainers,
we cannot actually set up and
practice as it would happen
on the street. Because of this,
we have numerous techniques that we use to
simulate a real street bite. One is the muzzle
attack.
Numerous brands and types of protection
muzzles are available. Be sure you have
an actual agitation muzzle and not just an
everyday-wear muzzle. Most agitation muzzles
have a reinforced steel bar framing the leading
edge of the muzzle to keep the leather from
collapsing on the dog’s mouth when he makes
contact. The typical agitation muzzle you see is a
“Dondi” style three-strap muzzle, which buckles
behind the ears (this is the part that secures the
muzzle), and one strap that goes over the head,
between the ears, and secures to the head strap.
There are also “Belgian Ring” style muzzles
of similar design, but these often come with
bite-bars covered with leather and affixed to the
inside of the muzzle for the dog to grip during
a muzzle fight. Some muzzles have only the two
straps that fasten behind the head, and not the
overhead strap. These muzzles are safe to use if
properly secured. The overhead strap is not the
key part of the muzzle’s safe operation.
Make sure you choose a muzzle that fits
comfortably. The dog should be able to breathe
and pant normally and even bark and clack his
jaws inside the muzzle. Manufacturers make
many sizes. You should try a few different
ones and choose one that secures nicely and is
comfortable for the dog. An experienced trainer
can help you select the right size. If it is too big,
the dog may be able to work it off with his front
paws. Too small, and it will not be comfortable
and will restrict his breathing and panting (the
dog’s cooling mechanism), and it can injure the
dog when he makes contact with the subject.
Article by Jerry Bradshaw
SIMULATE A REAL STREET BITE
BY USING MUZZLE ATTACK
Muzzle Training
for Police
Patrol Canines

3. January/February 2017 | 37
Once the muzzle is secure, perform a safety check. The
handler should grab the muzzle underneath and gently but
firmly lift the dog straight up by it. The muzzle should stay
securely fastened. Next, to ensure that a determined dog
cannot take the muzzle off, grasp the muzzle top and bottom
in both hands and try to “roll” the muzzle down off the
dog’s snout to mimic the pawing action the dog can make.
Do this gently but firmly, and don’t wrench the dog’s neck.
Some people allow the decoy doing the actual muzzle attack
to make a secondary safety check (since it is his ass on the
line with no equipment on). I don’t like doing this because
it ruins the realism of the encounter to some degree. I do
like having a second person (most preferably the training
instructor presiding) do a safety check as long as the dog is
social enough. If not, at least have a third party observe the
handler’s safety check. I also encourage some backup by
having a decoy with a sleeve hidden in close proximity just in
case the muzzle comes off.
Photos by Dawn Rabinowitz
caninesonduty.com

4. 38 | workingdogmagazine.com
Of course, before doing any muzzle
fighting, the dog should be conditioned
to be calm and accepting of the muzzle.
This part of the training should not be
rushed, but unfortunately, it usually
is. Most police agencies use the muzzle
when going to the veterinarian, so the
dog may already have a poor association
with a muzzle. Put food in the bottom of
the muzzle a number of times a day, and
allow the dog to dip his nose down into
the muzzle and pull out the food. As he
gets accepting of the confinement, strap
him up for a few seconds, letting him eat
the food like he has on a feedbag, and
then reward him after you take it off.
Strap him in the muzzle and do short,
fast-paced obedience exercises, ending
with removing the muzzle and rewarding
the dog. Even better than taking the
muzzle off to reward is to buy a cheap
leather muzzle, or wire basket muzzle,
and cut a hole in the front of it, to reward
with food while the muzzle is on the dog.
If the dog tries to get the muzzle off by
pawing at it, try to redirect his behavior
into some heeling or a recall, or provide
more frequent food rewards into the
front of the muzzle. Do something active,
rather than correcting him for pawing
the muzzle. Punishment will serve only
to create a negative association with the
muzzle at this point.
You can also muzzle him and let him
watch some decoy work on another dog,
and when he is barking in the muzzle,
give lots of praise and then pull it off for a
while and let the barking continue. Don’t
remove it and give a bite. I will address
why in a later paragraph. Take your time
with this desensitization part, and make
it a positive experience. If you watch a
Belgian Ring dog or PH1 KNPV dog
do muzzle work, you will see the dogs
generally enjoy the muzzle and willingly
stick their heads into it for you to strap
them up, because they are taught to
expect some fun when the muzzle comes
off. From when they are pups, they are
taught to eat out of the muzzle and
wear it for fun activities. Take your
time so you will not have a career of
fighting your dog over the muzzle.
Further, if the dog never learns to
accept the muzzle, he will never put
his all into the muzzle work, but
rather be preoccupied with always
trying to get the encumbrance off.
Another trick is to put the muzzle
on and give the dog a soccer ball or
jolly ball to play with. He will push it
and roll it around, and his prey drive
will become associated with being
in the muzzle. If the dog excessively
paws at the muzzle after you have
made a good effort at desensitization,
put an Elizabethan collar (cone) on
the dog before placing the muzzle on
him. Then let him watch some bite
work and feed him through the front
of the muzzle while in a sit stay. The
cone will make it impossible to paw
at the muzzle successfully and help
extinguish the behavior.
Many times, I have witnessed
muzzle training where the dogs are
sent off leash, and the dog slams into
the decoy, and decoy rolls around on
the ground with the dog migrating
around the decoy—to the groin,
head, and neck areas. I do not allow
any dogs to be sent completely off
leash for muzzle work simply because
it is too dangerous not to have a
way to control the dog positively if
the muzzle comes off. At least three
or four videos are going around on
Facebook in which a dog in muzzle
is sent, and the dog makes contact
with the face, head, or neck area of
the decoy, or the muzzle comes off,
and the dog is off leash and unable
to be brought under control quickly
before the decoy is hurt. The dog
will return to areas where the muzzle
punch gets the biggest reaction from
the decoy, and that is normally in
vital areas if the dog is allowed to go

5. January/February 2017 | 39
anywhere. Positive control allows you to make sure the dog
in muzzle contacts proper target areas. Targeting police
dogs to bite, rather than letting them bite anywhere they
can get, is becoming a less controversial subject, because
eventually the “bite anywhere” philosophy is going to be
used against us to deem police dogs deadly force. Whether
when actually biting hidden equipment or in muzzle,
they should be allowed to contact only non-vital areas. By
doing this and documenting it, you cover your own liability
as a handler making use-of-force decisions by having
conscientiously trained your dog to bite or contact only
non-vital areas. That way, if your dog does bite someone
in a vital area, it is explainable as an accident or an isolated
situation resulting from the manner in which the subject
fought the dog.
I recommend sending the dog on a long line (on slick
floors at first, so the dog slowly makes the entry, and the
handler can control the targeting better), so the handler
can work the line. If there is no line, and if the dog breaks
off the attack because he is unsatisfied or he is pawing
at the muzzle, there is no way for the handler to control
the session. The handler may end up chasing his dog as
he moves away upon approach. Intensity can go from
60 to zero quickly. In such a case, if the dog leaves the
engagement, there is nothing to do but have the decoy
attempt to attract the dog back into the fight with more
agitation. If the dog is on a line and starts to lose interest,
the handler can pull the dog back, and the decoy flees
out a door, and the dog loses his prey. Then diagnose the
problem: lack of muzzle neutrality, lack of well-developed
civil aggression, equipment fixation, or just too much
reliance on agitation.
The problem with using agitation to keep bringing the
dog’s interest back to the decoy and off the frustration of
the equipment is that we want the dog to bring the energy
to the fight, not vice versa. In fact, as with all our work,
we want the dog to bring enough energy to the fight that
we can do a passive muzzle attack and expect the dog to
remain engaged until the handler removes the dog. Too
many decoys, even in non-muzzle work, start the session
with agitation to attract the dog, rather than making
the dog alert and load first to make the decoy move or
load enough to send the dog on a passive bite. If your
dog needs agitation to start his bite session, you need to
retrain that before doing any muzzle work. Muzzle work is
proofing work for civil aggression and passive biting. For
these reasons, we must use skilled decoys, keep the dog on
line during this training, and work with dogs that have had
proper foundation in their aggression training.

6. 40 | workingdogmagazine.com
One of the big problems with
muzzle fighting is that it requires
excellent decoy work to make it
worthwhile to the dog. In most
instances when I watch muzzle
work, the dog will engage briefly,
is usually unsatisfied with simply
punching the decoy (the dog
knows he is restricted by the
muzzle because normally he would
bite), and breaks off the attack to
return to the handler or try to paw
the muzzle off. This is especially
true if the decoy is unskilled in
doing a muzzle attack. The worst
thing a decoy can do, given that the
dog is restricted by the muzzle, is
not to react to the dog’s aggression.
The decoy must act realistically and
both submit to the dog’s aggression
and use opposition reflex to keep
the dog engaged for short bursts of
fighting. But most decoys are at a
loss as to exactly what to do during
the engagement, so they roll away
from the dog and curl up in a ball,
and many dogs just lose interest.
One lesson I teach at my decoy
seminars is to have the decoy use
the dog’s natural opposition reflex
to keep the dog engaged. Often
during a muzzle fight, the decoy
gets hit on initial contact and falls
to the ground, and then the dog
will come in on him again on the
ground. When the dog comes in to
tag the decoy, the decoy must both
give ground when punched with
the muzzle and also push the dog
away and then let the dog come in
with another punch. The “fight”
then involves a flow of energy
from the dog to the decoy, and
then back at the dog in a pushing
motion. In this, the decoy opposes
the dog to make the dog drive in,
and then the decoy pushes the dog
away in a constant, flowing, but not
sharp, motion. This act of pushing
the dog results in keeping constant
tension in the forward press of the
dog, and it acts like a tight back line
in bite work training and causes the
dog to want to continue forward
in the fight. This is the nature of
opposition reflex. Pushing the dog
away makes him want to come
forward. All the while, the decoy
is moving in response to the dog’s
attack, staying vocal, and keeping
tension on the dog’s chest and
lower neck (the area that is to be
pushed).
The decoy can also manipulate
(pinch) the dog’s skin as he pushes
against the dog to create some
discomfort to peak the dog’s
aggression. These engagements
should take place for a matter
of five to at most 15 seconds at a
time, and then the handler should
pull the dog back by the line and
collar when the dog is aggressively
pressing forward. The handler
keeps a loose line during the fight
and snatches the dog out only
when he is most aggressive or if the
dog migrates from a trained target
area to a vital area. This should be
done on a variable interval (length
of encounter) basis to increase the
dog’s focus. Just as variable rewards
in detection or obedience make
the dog’s focus on obtaining the
reward stronger, the same applies
in muzzle work.
A good decoy can use this
technique to keep the dog
engaged. The handler can snatch
the dog out of the fight when he is
at his peak of aggression to further
frustrate the dog, and then let the
decoy escape for a short distance or
reattack defensively. The handler
will then have the dog chase the
decoy for a short stretch (holding
him back a little to make the dog
dig hard against the back pressure)
and release into another attack.
The training should be rapid
and intense sequences of ground
fighting and then frustration
that can then be lengthened into
longer, more intense sessions of
engagement. The handler must
position himself to manipulate
the line to keep the dog engaged
in proper target areas. Using this
technique will help you develop a
more focused and intense muzzle
attack. I cannot overemphasize
that the handler should keep the
dog from floating to the face of the
decoy during each encounter by
handling the line properly. This
is one more reason good, solid
targeting work needs to be taught
on the suit and hidden sleeve.
Don’t allow your dog to learn
something you don’t want him to
learn.
At the end of the muzzle session,
the decoy should escape as the
handler holds the dog back. Too
many times I see muzzle sessions
end when the dog gets frustrated
and aggression is low. Our goal is
to keep the aggression short and
intense and in a systematic manner
successively approximate longer
and longer encounters. Once the
dog is pulled from the encounter
by the line, the decoy can escape

7. January/February 2017 | 41
behind a door. The dog loses
the decoy, leaving him in a high
state of frustration. Do not take
the muzzle off and give a bite.
While for most this is standard
procedure, it teaches the dog
to “endure” the muzzle because
the real fun comes at the end.
We want the dog to inherently
enjoy the civil fight of the muzzle
encounter in itself. It also leads to
dogs wanting to get the muzzle off
to get to the part of the fight they
will be satisfied by, the grip.
Mixing this technique with
pure civil aggression sessions with
no equipment and no muzzle
as well as doing passive bites
on hidden equipment (hidden
sleeves, hidden leg sleeves, and
hidden suits), which then result
in satisfying fights, will go a long
way to getting your dog street
ready. Targeting training in itself
will make your dog much more
street ready, as the dog will have
the habit of going to a few, clear
target areas where he no longer
has to think about it or get choice
paralysis of where to grip as he
encounters the suspect on a real
deployment or in training. Good
muzzle work as described here,
along with all these techniques,
will make your dog a street-ready
biter.
Jerry Bradshaw is the Canine Training Director of Tarheel
Canine Training, Inc. in Sanford, NC. Tarheel Canine’s
School for Dog Trainers holds police K-9 instructor courses
for police K-9 trainers as well as civilians. Tarheel Canine
trains dogs for police departments worldwide.
Email: jbradshaw@tarheelcanine.com