'Dog whisperer' comes to Luke

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Melanie Holochwost
  • 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  The K-9s at Luke Air Force Base are some of the best trained dogs in the military. This is partially due to the fact that Brice Cavanaugh, a nationally known dog trainer and behavior specialist, and his team, come to the base Wednesday nights to help with training.

Mr. Cavanaugh started off as a military working dog handler for the Marine Corps in 1992. During his nine years of service, he and his bomb detection dogs conducted more than 100 missions in support of the United States Secret Service protecting five U.S. presidents, multiple first ladies, King Hussein of Jordan, Butros Ghali and Arnold Schwarzeneggar.

"My experience has taught me that all dogs are different, as is each owner," he said. "In order to train them, you need to identify your dog's desired behaviors and have an appropriate reward system. There needs to be a balance of control and allowing the dogs to do what they love. For example, German shepherds tend to be good military working dogs, because they love to herd. Once they are trained and can be controlled, the attack is their reward."

There should be no reason to yell at dogs, Mr. Cavanaugh said. When he commands his dog, Monk, he always speaks in a normal conversational voice.

Mr. Cavanaugh said he adopted Monk after a police department wrote him off as a liability, because he was dog and human aggressive, poor at detection and ineffective in patrol work.

"Within 90 days of having Monk, I corrected all of his problems," he said. "I sent the police department a video of Monk demonstrating his new behaviors and skills. After seeing the difference, they hired me to train the rest of their dogs."

During his last year of active-duty, Mr. Cavanaugh said that the Marines sent him around the country to learn from the best trainers and implement new training techniques.
"During the training I learned that most of the training methods we were using were extremely obsolete," he said. "Now, I'm always bouncing training ideas off others, like Staff Sgt. Kyle Alltop, 56th Security Forces Squadron MWD handler, to stay ahead."
Mr. Cavanaugh also trains pet dogs and offers discounts to military, police and fire personnel.

"Once your dog learns 12 commands (come, heel, let's go, sit, down, place, wait, off, out, kennel, quiet, and break) there shouldn't be any problems," he said. "But, chemistry is also important, because just like people, dogs have different personalities."

For more information, visit http://www.totaldog.com.