The training instructor must be adept at affecting the handlers both positively and negatively so as to clearly see their capabilities. He must look at each dog and handler as a single team and then utilize him or her as a part of a larger team. The handler and dog must not only be confident enough to make and carry out decisions under stress on their own, they must also be totally capable of adjusting to and adapting to team decisions without breaking down. It is I feel, very important that any and every theory practiced has not only been proven but is constantly being refined. Yet it must never stop here. These techniques must be constantly challenged and tested. If I return to this earth in two hundred years I should not teach but be taught by those who hold these words to be true. I hand over what I have learned at the end of my walk in life. He who takes this torch must continue to grow and learn with and from the dogs of his lifetime.

©Mike McConnery-Baden K-9 February 13,2003

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