(TEN AND TWO) METHOD

Ken Licklider - January BLOG

I watch too much T.V! My favorite shows are investigative shows and cop shows especially anything to do with police/military working dogs. I say they are my favorite but realistically they can drive me crazy.

I’m critical of what I see on T.V.: Detection dogs with no drive. Handlers calling responses that just weren’t there, it drives me crazy, worst is seeing unnecessary bites specifically with the handlers not being able to get their dogs off of a bite!

Outing techniques vary but what I’m seeing more and more are handlers using a bite build up technique as their primary way to out their dogs. I’m referring to the 10 – 2(Ten and two) method of choking their dog off of a bite. This is not an outing technique. It is actually a technique used to build dogs bite. It’s called praise off or power off, used in training to take a dog off of a sleeve or suit while praising him,building his/her bite and training dogs to bite hander and hold on no matter what the handler is doing. We want the dog to be confident in his grip and not letting go just because the handler is up on him. Using this to out a dog on a actual bite does notwork well after using it to build a bite. The dog will actually grip tighter in response to the praise offs we do with equipment!

What we need to understand most is that when you 10 & 2 him on an actual bite you are pulling on the dog’s neck causing a lot of damage to the tissue of whatever part of the body the dog is biting. It is even worse when the suspect is on the ground due to the angle you are pulling / squeezing from.Watch YouTube videos on handlers 10 & 2-ing a dog to get him off a bite. You can see that most dogs bite down harder in response to the earlier praise off training.Handlers not meaning to are causing more damage than necessary. Stop the 10 & 2 go to a true choke off or an actual verbal out. These can be achieved with the proper training!

     Kenneth D. Licklider.