K9 classes scheduled for the 2026 conference

Conducting Double Blind Exercises for K9 Team Certifications and the ORT process

This presentation will cover the topic of Conducting Double Blind exercises for K9 Team certifications and the ORT process. It is supported by a research paper recently published in January 2026.

No Equipment, No Hesitation: Muzzle Fighting for K9 Teams

No Equipment, No Hesitation: Muzzle Fighting for K9 Teams Muzzle fighting is a critical component of training that prepares your dog to confidently engage a suspect without the presence of bite equipment.

Building Reasonable Suspicion Through Conversation During Consensual Encounters

This course gives officers practical skills for developing reasonable suspicion through casual conversation during consensual encounters.

Reactivity, Impulse Control and Capping

Whether it be excessive barking approaching a deployment, training environment or during searching, breaking obedience, Decoy neutrality, reactivity to non-target humans or other animals, these issues span across every dimension of dog.

Operations-Based Training: Train the Dog, Train the Handler, Train the Team

This class is designed for professional working dog handlers and teams seeking to enhance operational effectiveness through realistic, principle-based training.

Tactical Debrief: Optimizing K9 Deployments

This class uses real body-worn camera footage to examine decision-making during critical incidents incidents involving police K9s. Participants will watch and debrief actual events ranging from officer-involved shootings, barricaded.

Why Dogs "Disobey", How Context and Conditioning Control Behavior

This class explains how context and past training shape a dog’s expectations and behavior, even when no command is given. We will show how environmental cues and repeated training setups prepare the dog’s brain for specific actions.

Heat Kills K9s: A Preventable Line-of-Duty Death

Operational K9s routinely work in high-intensity environments that place them at significant risk for heat-related injury. Unlike humans, dogs have limited mechanisms for dissipating heat and can rapidly develop dangerous elevations in.

Learning to utilize "Point to Point" and "Quartering" exercises (Fieldwork) to enhance ALL aspects of your detection dogs performance

Utilizing proper training procedures, “fieldwork” training techniques both handlers and and trainers will quickly see improved performance and enhanced detection capabilities across the board.

Just Because You Can, Does Not Mean You Should: Is the Bite Really Worth it Nowadays?

This class will be interactive as we discuss the current trends involving canine units. We will discuss how some states are contemplating eliminating apprehension dogs for a variety of reasons.

Conducting Double Blind Exercises for K9 Team Certifications and the ORT process

This presentation will cover the topic of Conducting Double Blind exercises for K9 Team certifications and the ORT process. It is supported by a research paper recently published in January 2026.

The Silent Career Killers: Early Recognition and Management of Over-Use Injuries in Working K9's

Many career-limiting injuries in working K9s develop gradually from repetitive micro-trauma associated with patrol and operational work.

Advanced Decoy Techniques

Building upon the foundation established in last year’s course, this class is designed for experienced K9 handlers and decoys who want to further refine their skills in realistic working dog scenarios.

Markers and Prey Toys: Shaping Behavior for Patrol

The class will provide the student with the tools to implement reward and correction markers, and prey toy work into their training routine.

The Nose Knows: DEA"s Canine Training Materials Program, Registration and Safety

This course provides canine agencies with a comprehensive overview of the DEA’s Canine Materials Program, which supports training with six narcotics: crack cocaine, cocaine HCL, black tar heroin, heroin HCL, methamphetamine, and marijuana. Attendees will learn how to apply for, obtain, and maintain a DEA registration, as well as how to submit complete and accurate requests for training materials.

Operational Obedience: From Foundation to Deployment

Operational Obedience: From Foundation to Deployment Operational obedience must be fast, reliable, and clear under pressure. Done correctly, obedience and control do not suppress the dog—they enhance drive, clarity, and performance in.

From Error to Excellence: Leveraging Mistakes to Improve Detection Performance

This class examines how training and operational errors can be intentionally used to improve detection performance rather than avoided or dismissed.

Canine Nutrition and Heat Stress in the Working Dog

Rob’s talk will focus on the science and practical application of feeding the canine athlete and managing heat stress, with emphasis on high-performance working and sport dogs.

AI-Powered Grant Funding Strategies to Equip and Sustain K9 Units

K9 units face increasing demands, rising equipment costs, and shrinking operating budgets—yet most teams are unaware of the grant funding available to support dogs, handlers, vehicles, training, detection equipment, kennels, PPE, and.

Just Because You Can, Does Not Mean You Should: Is the Bite Really Worth it Nowadays?

This class will be interactive as we discuss the current trends involving canine units. We will discuss how some states are contemplating eliminating apprehension dogs for a variety of reasons.

Canine Program Management

This course focuses on the administrative and supervisory responsibilities that follow K9 deployments and apprehensions. Instruction covers what post-apprehension follow-ups should include, how incidents are documented, and how records.

Outs, Recalls, and How to Train Control for Both the Street and Certifications

Outs, Recalls, And How To Train Control For Both The Street And Certifications” This course is designed to teach you how to train the immediate out, an explosive recall, and modern control techniques needed for the street/certifications .

Practical, Science-backed Tactics for Producing Operationally Relevant Detection Dogs

While detection canines have the potential to provide unmatched capability in terms of speed, mobility, selectivity, and sensitivity, common training pitfalls and missteps can have long-lasting detrimental effects on their realized.

Operational Detection: Closing the Gap Between Training Success and Street Reality

Detection dogs often perform well in structured training environments but struggle during real deployments where conditions are complex, unpredictable, and imperfect.

High Risk Tracking with Limited Cover

Tactical tracking is one of the most dangerous operations a patrol K9 handler will face. Jeff Schettler covers Small Unit Tactical Tracking for limited-cover situations — minimizing risk while maximizing find ratios.

How to Make Money Training Dogs

This course provides a practical look at how dog training can be turned into a reliable source of income. Designed for handlers, trainers, and anyone with experience working dogs, this class outlines what it actually takes to begin.

Reliable Detection: Clarity of Task, Confidence, and Operational Accuracy

Detection dogs are naturally proficient at communicating when target odor is present—but true operational reliability requires equal clarity when odor is absent .

Reactivity, Impulse Control and Capping

Whether it be excessive barking approaching a deployment, training environment or during searching, breaking obedience, Decoy neutrality, reactivity to non-target humans or other animals, these issues span across every dimension of dog.

K9 MYTHBUSTERS: Advancing Science & Standards

This talk will demonstrate how new scientific discoveries are dispelling common K9 odor myths and how new national standards incorporating these discoveries are intending to advance K9 teams and how you can get involved to improve the.

Drive Engineering: Apply Behavior Science to Build Reliable Combat-Ready K9s Under Stress

Effective K9 performance is not defined by drive alone, but by the ability to control,channel, and sustain that drive under real operational stress.

E-Collar Mastery: The 5-Step E-Collar System for Working K9s

This course presents the 5-Step E-Collar™ System, a structured, step-by-step approach designed to turn the e-collar into a precise communication tool rather than a simple correction device.

No Equipment, No Hesitation: Muzzle Fighting for K9 Teams

No Equipment, No Hesitation: Muzzle Fighting for K9 Teams Muzzle fighting is a critical component of training that prepares your dog to confidently engage a suspect without the presence of bite equipment.

Heat Kills K9s: A Preventable Line-of-Duty Death

Operational K9s routinely work in high-intensity environments that place them at significant risk for heat-related injury. Unlike humans, dogs have limited mechanisms for dissipating heat and can rapidly develop dangerous elevations in.

Operational Detection: Closing the Gap Between Training Success and Street Reality

Detection dogs often perform well in structured training environments but struggle during real deployments where conditions are complex, unpredictable, and imperfect.

K9 MYTHBUSTERS: Advancing Science & Standards

This talk will demonstrate how new scientific discoveries are dispelling common K9 odor myths and how new national standards incorporating these discoveries are intending to advance K9 teams and how you can get involved to improve the.

Why Dogs "Disobey", How Context and Conditioning Control Behavior

This class explains how context and past training shape a dog’s expectations and behavior, even when no command is given. We will show how environmental cues and repeated training setups prepare the dog’s brain for specific actions.

Tactical Debrief: Optimizing K9 Deployments

This class uses real body-worn camera footage to examine decision-making during critical incidents involving police K9s. Participants will watch and debrief actual events ranging from officer-involved shootings, barricaded.

Canine Nutrition and Heat Stress in the Working Dog

Rob’s talk will focus on the science and practical application of feeding the canine athlete and managing heat stress, with emphasis on high-performance working and sport dogs.

Learning to utilize "Point to Point" and "Quartering" exercises (Fieldwork) to enhance ALL aspects of your detection dogs performance

Utilizing proper training procedures, “fieldwork” training techniques both handlers and and trainers will quickly see improved performance and enhanced detection capabilities across the board.

Drive Engineering: Apply Behavior Science to Build Reliable Combat-Ready K9s Under Stress

Effective K9 performance is not defined by drive alone, but by the ability to control,channel, and sustain that drive under real operational stress.

Operational Control: The Skills That Get You to the Dance

Everyone wants to talk about the flashy parts of training — bites, scenarios, and high-drive moments. This class focuses on the skills that actually get you there.

Drug Canine Legal Update

Nationally recognized for prosecuting drug trafficking cases, Ted Daus tells it like it is — a direct opportunity for K-9 handlers to learn what prosecutors need on the stand when presenting drug cases to a jury.

Outs, Recalls, and How to Train Control for Both the Street and Certifications

This course is designed to teach you how to train the immediate out, an explosive recall, and modern control techniques needed for the street/certifications .

AI-Powered Grant Funding Strategies to Equip and Sustain K9 Units

K9 units face increasing demands, rising equipment costs, and shrinking operating budgets—yet most teams are unaware of the grant funding available to support dogs, handlers, vehicles, training, detection equipment, kennels, PPE, and.

Practical, Science-backed Tactics for Producing Operationally Relevant Detection Dogs

While detection canines have the potential to provide unmatched capability in terms of speed, mobility, selectivity, and sensitivity, common training pitfalls and missteps can have long-lasting detrimental effects on their realized.

Building Reasonable Suspicion Through Conversation During Consensual Encounters

This course gives officers practical skills for developing reasonable suspicion through casual conversation during consensual encounters.

From Error to Excellence: Leveraging Mistakes to Improve Detection Performance

This class examines how training and operational errors can be intentionally used to improve detection performance rather than avoided or dismissed.

Operations-Based Training: Train the Dog, Train the Handler, Train the Team

This class is designed for professional working dog handlers and teams seeking to enhance operational effectiveness through realistic, principle-based training.

Explosives Explained

This presentation provides a thorough but palatable introduction to explosives for the canine handler. With an introduction to transnational threats with the use of home-made explosives devices.

Markers and Prey Toys: Shaping Behavior for Patrol

The class will provide the student with the tools to implement reward and correction markers, and prey toy work into their training routine.