He waffled all over the place on that one.
Except that I never addressed that question. The only thing I stated in my original post about the officer and the dog was that there wasn't trust between them, and that they were new to the program, both in training, and were not out working the streets. The rest of my comment was just some of my background knowledge as a former handler. I was never a dog trainer.
There are enough members here that will bash on police, right or wrong. Everyone is entitled to their opinions. I don't necessarily feel the need to jump in on it, as many others have already posted their disapproval. That's not the same as me posting that what he did was correct and I fully support it. I just didn't feel the need to jump on the bandwagon. The bandwagon was pretty full. And it doesn't really matter what I say or don't say. I'm just a dude on a motorcycle forum, who also happens to help out with moderation. Other times in the past, and there have been quite a few other times, when I have jumped on the bandwagon, and condemned the behavior of some cop, it doesn't really matter. I will still have people constantly talk down at me and talk about blue lines and boot lickers and the like. So, whatever.
As far as other questions, I don't know how that officer was trained. I also don't have experience training a dog from the very beginning, as the one I had was already trained before he came to me. I do know that some schools of the past (and maybe present?) have employed pretty cruel training methods, but those methods are now considered to be less effective than positive reinforcement. However, training police dogs, especially ones trained to bite, or ones trained in bomb detection, must follow commands to a high level. And sometimes corrections needs to include negative reinforcement. That could including mounting and punching, but I doubt repeated punching would be an effective method.
That's about all I have to say.
