propose new dog job... have some questions.

[Dogdragoness]

Hi guys, i recently got a job offer working in a kennel for this lady who owns 20 or so drug/exposive detection & suspect apprehention dogs (mainly mals, GSDs, & dutch shepherds) although i have had a lot of experience working with DOGS in general i understand that these dogs are different, of course she has trainers to work with their training & such, but she has contracts several shipping companies that 'lease' her dogs out to run their cargo ships & such, so she needs someone part time to care for the dogs that are staying home (mainly kennel cleaning & letting the dogs out one at a time into their yard while their kennels are being cleaned... etc, feeding & just general animal husbandry duties)

In short my questions are how are these dogs to work around & what can i expect, i would love to learn more about this, but i am super nervour because the lady is like 'now i wont lie to you there is a possibility you could be bit', now i have been bitten before but not from a dog like this lol

 

[crazedACD]

You know...one kennel I worked at, there were 3 border patrol dogs (detection and protection), and another they were contracted to house the local PD dogs when the officer was out of town. The border patrol Mal knew the drill, but was still a little iffy with us. You could not invade her space.
The PD dogs were not to be taken out of the kennels, came with a list of instructions, put the dog out, close the middle door, put food down, get out of kennel, open the middle door. Someone did not do that one time (before I was there) and had the GSD hanging off them while they climbed out of the kennel. It actually kind of bothers me because you would think they would be a little more...stable..but then again I'm not really into the protection side of dogs.

I guess you just have to exercise common sense and don't assume these dogs are your typical family golden retriever. It shouldn't be a big deal, a dog is a dog is a dog, but take all the safety precautions you can with them. There's a fine line, too, between being too nervous with the dogs and too confident. Both ways get you bit. A healthy respect and common sense is always best .

 

[FG167]

I work in a similar facility but I'm the canine trainer. Our Mals/GSDs/Dutchies are all soft dogs. If you are confident (not rough, just sure), they will very happily, and politely come out and go with you and load back into their boxes just fine. They're all more sensitive than bitesport dogs I've met. These are bomb detection/human detection/drug detection dogs - not patrol dogs though.

 

[Dogdragoness]

i have never done this before, i am to meet the lady & she will go over with me about what the dogs like & dont like etc, she also has a trainer that works with the dogs & his assistant that go with the dogs when they get sniffing jobs etc... it just seems like there will be a lot of pressure with this job, at least thats what my intuition is getting.