ADVANCED DECOY DEVELPMENT (2 DAY COURSE)

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JOSH KIRBY - KIRBY K9

Josh is a retired police officer after serving at Garland PD and Denton PD in Texas since 2003. During that time Josh held positions as a field training officer, firearms instructor, active shooter instructor, academy instructor, K-9 handler, and K-9 instructor. Josh’s K-9 partners won numerous awards, both in police canine competitions, and on the street making high risk felony apprehensions and seizing thousands of pounds of narcotics and millions of dollars in drug money. During Josh’s career, he received numerous awards and commendations including over 50 meritorious conduct awards, officer of the year, and the life saving award. Josh’s first police dog won the United States Police Canine Association Region 20 (USPCA) “Top Dog” overall in the first two years he competed, before becoming a USPCA judge. Josh has trained and certified hundreds of police K-9 teams and is still active in the police K-9 community. 

In the civilian world, Josh competes with his personal dog that he trained from a puppy in Protection Sports Association (PSA) and is a certified trial decoy. Josh has trained his current dog to the level of PSA2 and has won numerous awards at trial with her including high obedience and high protection. As a decoy, Josh has been selected as a national select decoy four times, and has traveled all over the U.S. and internationally to decoy, train dogs, and certify decoys. Josh has decoyed over 150 competitive trials in five different countries. Josh is currently the secretary of decoys for PSA and maintains decoy evaluations and certifications of over 100 decoys worldwide.

Josh is the founder and owner of Kirby K9 which started as a custom leash and collar company for police and working dogs, and has expanded to include selective training for obedience and protection dogs. Kirby K9 specializes in working dog equipment and is the largest dealer for Demanet bite suits. Josh works very closely with Demanet to develop and test new products and bite suits, and Demanet has adopted the designs and construction of bite sleeves developed by Josh. 

Josh is passionate about training dogs, particularly in protection work and believes it is the responsibility of great trainers and decoys to bring out the best in each dog they work with.

ADVANCED DECOY DEVELOPMENT (2 DAY COURSE)

Class Objective: Students will learn and demonstrate how to set up bite training

sessions in the capacity of a trainer / instructor and address common training issues

and bite development problems. Students will learn and demonstrate techniques in

developing environmental exposures for police dogs in preparation for deployments.

Students will learn and demonstrate muzzle fighting techniques and set up muzzle

training to develop a civil profiles in police dogs. Students will learn and demonstrate

how to safely set up scenario based training from the decoy’s perspective and structure

training to challenge the handler and benefit and test the police K9.

Class Prerequisites

- Prior experience as a police K9 decoy

- Completion of basic LE decoy course or equivalent

- Ability to understand prey and defense drive

- Ability to recognize dogs displaying prey and defense drive

- Ability to channel between prey and defense effectively and clearly

- Ability to communicate with dogs while decoying and marking desired behaviors

REQUIRED EQUIPMENT:

- Bite Suit

- Gauntlets or Protective Padding

- Sleeves

• Hidden Sleeves

• Wedges

• IGP Sleeves

• Soft Sleeves

• Leg Sleeves

• Belgian Sleeves

- Muzzle

- Flat Agitation Collar / Harness

- Prong Collar, E-Collar

- Slip Leash / Collar

- Long Line

- Back Tie Anchor Line

- 1:1 Decoy to Dog Ratio