BUILDING TACTICAL OBEDIENCE

Donald Meece

Donny started his law enforcement career as a Military Policeman in the United States Marine Corps in 1991. In 1997 he entered the Cincinnati Police Academy and was assigned to District 4 upon graduating. In 2007 he was selected to attend the Cincinnati Police K9 Academy instructed by Police Specialist David Kennedy. Donny is currently working his third dual purpose Police K9 named Pedro. He has a decade of S.W.A.T. experience and has worked two of his K9 partners as a member of the CPD SWAT Team. In 2011 Donny graduated from an intense 12-week trainers’ course at Shallow Creek Kennels under the instruction of Mr. John Brannon.

In 2013 He left the CPD and began working for Shallow Creek Kennels in Sharpsville, PA as a fulltime lead trainer. While at Shallow Creek Kennels Donny had the pleasure of training K9 teams from numerous Federal, State and local law enforcement agencies. This time at Shallow Creek allowed Donny to expand his knowledge and skill by training hundreds of green, pre-titled and titled dogs.

In 2014 Donny returned to the CPD where he resumed responsibilities as head K9 trainer and SWAT Team Member. Since then he has trained over 30 K9 teams for the city of Cincinnati and surrounding agencies. He is responsible for overseeing K9 policy and procedure for CPD and is the agencies subject matter expert. He is routinely asked to consult other agencies in the region regarding K9 policy, procedure and training. In 2015 Kinetic Performance Dogfood Company invited Donny to be a member of their Pro-Staff Team. Being a member of the Kinetic Pro Staff has allowed Him to meet and train with K9 professionals from all over the country.

BUILDING TACTICAL OBEDIENCE

It has been said that Obedience is the foundation of all other K9 work. That saying is forever true. However, there are different levels of Obedience. In today’s fast paced and dangerous environment it is not enough to have a “certification level” of obedience only. The essence of K9 tactical obedience is to have down range (off leash) control over your Dog while operating in a heightened state of drive. Having off leash control will allow the handler to safely and methodically search for dangerous suspects who have a tactically superior advantage from a position of cover and concealment. Training these skills do not happen overnight. This course will give the new or experienced handler who is having trouble with Tactical Obedience a pathway to build their skills overtime. This is not a K9/SWAT integration class. This is a classic field work class using using positive reward and operant conditioning techniques to teach your K9 to respond to your commands with alacrity even while in a heightened state of drive. This course may not be as sexy as other classes but the skills you learn may save your life.

REQUIRED EQUIPMENT:

-Duty Gear

-All K9 gear

-Rewards

-E-Collar*

*Annotates recommended if handler utilizes E-Collar but not required