My name is Bun Montgomery, I am a evaluator for NESDCA. I am also a retired Law Enforcement K-9 handler, K-9 training coordinator for our agency, I am a certified K-9 trainer and evaluator in the State of Florida and a Law Enforcement evaluator for a National Law Enforcement K-9 certifying organization. I currently work for a Florida Police Department where I am the K-9 training coordinator for their K-9 Unit.
I wanted to provide some information about certifications and the evaluators for NESDCA. I am providing this information due to some recent evaluations and conversations that questions have been brought to evaluator’s attention.
Every NESDCA evaluator is a Law Enforcement Officer who is or has been a Law Enforcement K-9 handler, trainer, and/or evaluator. Evaluators are not going to place their personal ethics or reputation on the line for the evaluation of a K-9 Team. As numerous have found out, you must meet the standards that are set forth by NESDCA or you don’t pass. The standards for certification are published for all to see and there is no question as to what is required of your K-9 team to pass. If you don’t meet the standards, you can request another evaluation 15 days after your failed certification attempt.
A certification is to determine if the K-9 can locate the target odor for which it was trained, and the handler is capable of recognizing the dog has located that source. NESDCA standards are basically identical to those of Law Enforcement detection certifications due to the fact they have been tried and tested time and time again in Courts of Law. The times they have failed are usually due to handlers making mistakes or intentional acts, ie: ethics. Certifications are NOT to determine a K-9 Teams ability to work in the field, that’s for the K-9 Team itself to know they’re ready to work in the field. Law Enforcement or Entomology, certifications are that your team meets a minimum set standard. Evaluators for NESDCA and those of us who are evaluators for Law Enforcement tell everyone who pass certification, today is your first day training. You got your team to meet these standards now you must meet the standards of the real world.
I’ll close with the best advice I can give and take some time to really think about this. Train like you work and work like you train. Here are a few examples for that thought: You don’t know where bugs may be in the field, you can’t know where they are in training. You can’t put one hide out during training every time and expect your dog to continue to work after it has found a source in the field. You don’t conduct three searches of a room in training, don’t search a room three times in the field.
Thanks, Bun
Evaluator
NESDCA
