Course Details

A.  Urban Trailing / Tracking Virtual Classroom / Hands-on, fieldwork

Jeff will walk you through our urban trailing program through virtual classroom and/ or video review. Each step will be covered online with plenty of time for Q&A. Once you are ready for the field and your K-9 first trails, Jeff will give you a detailed outline of training steps for your two weeks of training including instructions for videography, video upload, and online Q&A sessions with video review.

Training area:  Working in primarily hard surface environments with citylike activity, distractions, and contamination.

B. Urban Problems

*Changing up the scent article

Now it is time to start working the dog with. The type of scent articles one might really encounter in real-life cases. It is no longer a matter of throwing down a rag and starting the dog on it in a clean environment. Now the dog will have to start a track off of contaminated scent articles, high, and fixed objects. Jeff will show you how to do it, quickly and easily.

*Instructions for the trail layer

How the trail layer works these initial trails is supercritical. Jeff will assist you and your trail layer in establishing a proper protocol for this portion of the training.

*Instructions on training locations

As with retail sales, location, location, location! Location is everything and without the right environment, success will be fleeting. Jeff will study your training areas to teach you where to start surface changes and where to graduate to!

*Training intervals, repetition, and distance

Jeff will study your dog’s behavior and demeanor to gauge its response to training intervals and repetition as well as the best distance to initially track and then create a training regimen that will maximize results and excitement for the dog.

*Scent Inventory

It is crucial that the dog starts its trail in an urban environment with every available tool at its disposal. This means allowing the dog to know what it’s dealing with before the trail begins. Jeff revolutionized this system in his book, K9 Trailing The Straightest Path. Jeff will show you exactly what he does when trailing in the city!

*Missing Member

Missing member is a method of training that was initially written about in 1937 as an observation not so much a method of training. Jeff similarly discovered this situation during many of his actual deployments working the streets of the San Francisco Bay Area as a Police K9 Handler.

*Working intersections

Working busy intersections is probably one of the most difficult conditions a tracking K9 can face. It is the confluence of human and vehicular traffic. Tons of scent and it is constantly shifting and moving. Jeff has a tried and true way to work into these conditions effectively.

*Drop Trailing

Drop trailing is the art of stopping a trail mid-stride, moving the dog by vehicle to a new location, and beginning the trail again. This technique is often used to make time on a suspect who was observed somewhere ahead of the dog team. Jeff used this technique successfully in numerous cases during his career.

*Online exam with certification

Once you’ve completed all of Jeff’s virtual classroom and fieldwork you will be prompted to take the Scent Evidence and Crime Scene Exam. The final certification is through our University Portal where you will take a 40 multiple choice and essay-style question exam. Then, with an 80% passing rate, graduate with your certificate of completion.

*Your own DropBox Folder

We will set you up with your own Dropbox folder that will give both you and Jeff, concurrent access to all of your training videos and map overlays. We will maintain this folder for you until course completion where you will have the opportunity to download everything you have completed.

*Personal Coaching

Jeff will schedule periodic classroom time with you which may include, slide shows, map overlay review, and training video review. This training will be face to face on your computer screen! You will receive a maximum of four personal coaching sessions for this course. Personal coaching classes are from 20 minutes to a maximum hour long and spread throughout the two-week program. Two hours maximum coaching per week.

*Daily Email Q&A session

You will have the opportunity to send Jeff a daily Email. This email may consist of up to ten questions. Email Q&A is for each training day. There are ten training days in our two-week program.

Online testing for Trailing Imprinting. Training manual is K9 Trailing; The Straightest Path, The Tao of Trailing, and Scent Evidence and Crime Scene Processing PDF. *Books mailed with Free Shipping in the USA. We pay 50% of your Shipping fees to Europe with normal first-class mail. You will receive a certificate of completion for this and all online exams at our university.