Service-Disabled
Veteran Owned
VA DCJS #:
11-5079

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American K-9 Interdiction: Training

AK-9I offers superior training designed to meet your specific requirements.  Whether you require a dual or single purpose canine team, AK-9I offers a training solution and course of instruction specifically tailored to your specifications. Our current training standards meet Department of Defense and other federal agency standards (DOT, DOS, DHS, etc.). Our certification standards are uncompromising and are based on these standards.   

The key to any successful canine team is predicated upon the canine’s obedience and the handler’s ability to accurately read his/her canine’s behavioral changes.  Our police K‐9 training courses use this basic foundation.....solid Obedience. Obedience training is the common thread that runs through all K‐9 training. Obedience training not only builds a strong handler/K‐9 relationship but also builds a strong work ethic that enables the dog to pass rigid K‐9 certification requirements. Solid obedience training develops the control that today's K‐9 handler must have over his/her working dog. The root cause of many of the problems K‐9 handlers experience in the field is due to a poor obedience foundation. Any K‐9 handler graduating from our K‐9 training courses has been able to demonstrate absolute off‐leash control of the dog in all working tasks and all working environments.   

Explosives or Narcotics Detection: All canines are thoroughly conditioned to conduct searches in buildings, vehicles, and route clearance on roadways (surface and buried hides); they are trained for both on- and off-leash control with a passive alert final response. Canines are also conditioned to search independent of handler “cues”. Students are taught and  demonstrate tactical movement, cover and concealment, pre‐search threat assessments, derelict building searches, search patterns, escape routes, systematic and center interior search, exterior search, booby traps and hides, independent and team searches, occupied building and occupied houses search. Students are also taught to conduct initial odor imprinting protocols for future implementation. 

Area/Venue Searches: Students are taught and demonstrate proficiency in clearing areas and venues for Vehicle Check Points, Helicopter Landing Zones and pre‐VIP arrival.  Students are taught to consider and assess the venue, the routes to and from the venue, vehicle control and search points, adjacent buildings, surrounding open areas and contingency plans. Students demonstrate the ability to formulate a search plan, assess the area for dangers to both the canine and handler, and assess the area most likely for placement of IEDs and other explosives. Students are taught both orbiting and point‐to‐point handling techniques for off‐leash search techniques. Emphasis is provided on wind direction and terrain analysis. Open area searches utilize airborne scent techniques to detect hidden suspects in outdoor areas of concealment. 

Building searches ‐ tactical search techniques for locating and apprehending suspects hidden within buildings: Canines demonstrate independent search behavior, both on and off‐leash, independent of search objective (human or explosives/narcotics.) Students are taught and demonstrate tactical movement, cover and concealment, pre‐search threat assessments, derelict building searches, search patterns, escape routes, systematic and center interior searches, exterior searches, booby traps and hides, independent and team searches, and, occupied building and occupied houses searches. 

Vapor Pressure (Scent Cone): Upon course completion, students possess an in‐depth understanding of the scent picture and factors affecting the scent cone, (e.g., wind, humidity, ambient temperature, vapor pressure, convection, and terrain/topography.) Voice inflections, leash control/manipulation, search patterns, drives and instincts, decoy/quarry/agitator roles, accurate record keeping, commands, and veterinary and health care are emphasized repeatedly throughout the duration of the course.  

Bite/Muzzle Work: At the end of this portion of the course, students have a full understanding of canine drives (food, play, prey, defensive, fight, and pack) and are able to both read and activate these canine drives. AK‐9I canines are screened and selected for their great character, physical strength, agility, stamina and tractability. Our and client canines are or can be trained to attack and hold both passive and aggressive adversaries as well as dead prey. 

The following is a short list of our aggression training topics:

Tactical Obedience: In order to produce a canine that works high in drive and channels all energy into correct performance, it must have a solid foundation that will have taught the canine how to achieve what he wants through correct performance. Obedience training is that foundation.  Students and canines are taught the basics of agility, obedience, obstacle course training, and combat-related tasks such as long downs, vertical/horizontal carries, ladder climbs, window entries and tactical movements. 

Tracking/Trailing in Urban and Rural Terrain: AK‐9I has access to and actively utilizes numerous training venues which cover thousands of acres in the Hampton Roads area. These venues will provide the various surfaces and terrains required (grass, sand, gravel, asphalt, woods, marshes, ponds and streams) to thoroughly train and certify Tracking/Trailing canine teams. Using these venues, AK‐9I conditions the canines to successfully track/trail a minimum distance of four kilometers on a track two to four hours old. Students are instructed on multiple tracking techniques, which include ground scenting, air scenting, trailing, pre‐scenting and article search. This training is designed to teach tactical skills that enable a tracking team to conduct a high‐risk deployment successfully with emphasis on handler, officer or squad safety.