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I. Carlos had gotten paired with a good-looking one and a half-year-old German Shepherd named Trigger and was in charge of completing all his training. Carlos was fine with the standard age that they got the K9s, but he personally liked starting at two or three months of age, even though it wasn’t standard. It allowed him to establish a bond with the K9 through every single aspect of training.
This, however, was beneficial for him. It was his first K-9 that he would be in charge of by himself and he was excited. The chief of police allowed him to rename the K-9 since he was going to be working with the dog every day. So Trigger became Feroz, and Carlos fell in love with him. Luckily, TK did too.
Carlos completed a lot of ongoing training at home, so there would be faint clicks around the house at any given time. Feroz received a lot of his meals through training, Carlos opting to use Feroz’s kibble as rewards instead of treats. Feroz absolutely loved it; his favourite time of day instantly became training time.
One of the first things Feroz learned was ignoring anything that could be distracting to him. He learned to ignore Carlos handling his weapons, he learned to ignore shouting in the distance, he learned to ignore people calling out to him while he was on duty. He learned to stay focused through Carlos deploying his weapons.
The clicker came in handy when Carlos needed something to mark Feroz’s good behaviour, whenever he didn’t react to the people running past him, there was a distinct click and Feroz got a treat. He caught on quickly, but he was still having a bit of trouble with Carlos discharging his gun.
To help Feroz become more confident, Carlos him to the shooting range and they got rid of Carlos’ real gun and gave him a BB gun, which meant the noise would be quieter. After five shots discharged, Feroz learned to disregard it, so they moved up to Carlos’ handgun with the suppressor on.
It had taken seven shots before Feroz was okay with the weapon being fired.
The real test was establishing how he would do with Carlos firing his gun without the silencer on, and within four shots, Feroz was staring at the target, listening to Carlos shoot blanks at it.
Once Feroz had mastered ignoring the handgun, he and Carlos started working on desensitising him to the carbine, which Feroz was terrified of to start with. However, he quickly learned that the carbine was not going to injure him, so he was able to focus on the target he was supposed to focus on.
By the end of the training session, Feroz had begun to ignore the rifle with the suppressor on, so Carlos considered it as a success and let Feroz know how proud he was.
They picked TK up on their way home, TK having only just finished back to back 24-hour shifts. He wasn’t expecting Feroz in the car, so when he got in the passenger seat Feroz licked his cheek happily, tail thumping against the back of the seats. TK yelped in surprise before realising it was just Feroz.
“You’re more thrilled to see me than my boyfriend is; hey, buddy, how was training?” TK scratched behind Feroz’s ears and smiled. Carlos chuckled from the driver's seat and shook his head.
“And my boyfriend is more excited to see my K-9 than me.”
TK blushed and leaned over the console to give Carlos a hasty kiss, mumbling a ‘sorry’ into Feroz’s fur, obviously not sorry at all. Carlos moved both his hands off the steering wheel. He put one hand on top of Feroz’s head and the other on top of TK’s, ruffling fur and hair alike.
II. The next thing Carlos worked on with Feroz was his off-leash heel. There would be times that Carlos wouldn’t have his hands free to hold Feroz’s leash, so they worked on a tight attention heel. That meant Feroz would be next to Carlos on his left side, watching Carlos or watching where he was going.
The clicker marked Feroz’s eye and head placement; so, once Feroz would be in the right position, looking right where Carlos wanted him to look, Carlos would click and give Feroz the reward.
This was also where Carlos learned how motivated Feroz was with toys as well as food, which was a blessing because the last K-9 Carlos had been paired with hadn’t been toy motivated at all and he couldn’t constantly have treats on his person.
Feroz also learned tactical heeling, which was a non-verbal heel and in between Carlos’ legs, making it harder for both K-9 and handler. It was essential for them to learn for instances when it would be risky for Carlos to speak. Feroz learned that when Carlos wanted him to move right, he would shift his left leg up to block Feroz from trying to turn left. He caught on quickly and soon the backyard was filled with a click, click, click.
When Feroz felt pressure on his butt, he knew that was Carlos’ non-verbal way of instructing him to sit down. When he felt pressure between his shoulders, he knew to drop into a down position. Every so often, Carlos would give him the non-verbal command for ‘stay’ and then leave him in the down-stay or sit-stay. Feroz hated it, but he learned anyway.
This also meant that they had to have a non-verbal command for when Feroz was to move to a side heel or tactical heel. Since they didn't have one, that meant they needed one. Once they started working on it, they quickly found that it was different and difficult for both of them. Carlos decided that to get Feroz into a side heel, he would get his attention and move his arm up and then put his hand flat as he lowered it to his side. Feroz caught on almost instantly.
Trouble arose when Carlos tried to come up with a signal for a tactical heel. He struggled for a few days before finding one that would work. Unfortunately, it confused Feroz, so it was back to the drawing board. Thankfully, he soon found one that would work, and Feroz understood. When he swept his arm around to get Feroz to stand behind him, he realised that the move could be manipulated to teach him to go between his handler's legs.
With the clicker, it took three days for Feroz to really get the hang of it and by the end of the week, the command was completely non-verbal.
III. Feroz didn’t like being left behind. He didn’t like when Carlos went ahead without him, but he knew that he’d been given a command and he was going to stay whether he liked it or not.
The distance commands were harder to train, but only because Carlos had to wait until he could do bite work with Feroz. He needed to have a tangible body for Feroz to ‘apprehend’ or else it wouldn’t work. That also offered them the opportunity to work on other distance commands.
Unfortunately, Feroz couldn’t hear the clicker from far away, he just heard Carlos voice mark the command. Which indicated that when Carlos gave him his command drz, he had gotten it right when he bit the “suspect” because Carlos gave him the verbal click, which was just Carlos excitedly saying “yes!”
They’d spent a total of three hours building Feroz’s bite command without the “suspect” so Feroz would be comfortable with the command. It was one of only three commands Feroz would learn in Czech. The other command was his guard command, which was pozor to Feroz. The third was a command they hadn’t started on yet.
When they worked on their distance commands, Carlos made sure Feroz knew when he’d gotten the command right. They’d worked on all the commands from reasonable distances, but Carlos had seen Feroz’s confidence drop when they were farther away. Carlos knew Feroz could perform his duties regardless of how he felt, but he also wanted him to be confident, so they worked on it more than they likely needed to, and Carlos made sure he was giving Feroz extra praise and rewards.
After weeks of persistent work, Carlos knew that Feroz was confident in his own ability to listen to his handler when he was given a command from twenty yards. They’d worked on more commands than necessary, but Carlos figured you could never be too prepared.
IV. Feroz was an athletic boy. He was extremely fast and was intelligent beyond what Carlos was prepared for. So, to help them work better as a team, they started going to agility. Carlos had no doubt that Feroz could figure out obstacles in the field by himself, but this would be fun for both of them. Plus it would aid them in the field, especially if Carlos had to call out commands for Feroz.
TK tagged along to the second practice, his jaw dropped in surprise, in awe at the equipment set up. He took in everything and looked over at Feroz to see his tail wagging excitedly. He smiled and looked back up at Carlos.
“You look excited, too, TK,” Carlos said with a grin, handing TK the leash, still connected to Feroz’s harness. TK’s eyes widened as he realised what Carlos was telling him. “You can work on the obstacles with him; the instructor should be here soon, but it’s just us in the class.”
So, for ten minutes, Carlos stood back and watched Feroz and TK run around like maniacs, no real rhyme or reason to the pattern, but they came crashing to a halt as Feroz paused at the teeter-totter.
“C’mon Feroz, you got it,” TK coaxed Feroz up onto the dropped end of the teeter-totter, feeding him little bits of kibble as rewards for getting further onto the obstacle.
As Feroz’s weight shifted the teeter-totter and it started going down, Feroz froze in place, waiting for it to hit the ground before he jumped down, hearing both boys cheer. He stopped and looked at TK, then looked around for Carlos, spotting him and running over to his handler.
“Yes, I am so incredibly proud of you, Feroz!” Carlos gave Feroz a kiss on top of his head and then looked up to see TK coming towards them. “That was the first time he went on the teeter-totter, last time he was terrified of it.” Carlos stood up and wrapped his arms around TK, kissing him softly.
“Maybe I should be his handler from now on,” TK joked, knowing full well he couldn’t do Carlos’ job. They both laughed as Carlos pulled away and playfully pushed TK.
“Feroz, stekej,” Carlos commanded, hearing Feroz give a half-hearted “woof” from between the two men. Carlos laughed, “We’re working on it. Once we’ve worked on it more, his ‘speak’ command is going to be terrifying.”
They stood around for another couple of minutes before the instructor came out, Carlos called Feroz into a side heel to await their first activity. Carlos introduced TK to the instructor, then moved all their things to the side, including Feroz’s harness. He left his collar on, just in case.
They worked on Feroz’s confidence on the teeter-totter, and now that Carlos was using the clicker, Feroz grew more accustomed to the obstacle. He merely followed what he had executed beforehand before attempting something new, especially as the clicks in between were getting longer. At first Carlos clicked for two paws on, then three, then all four. At that point he wouldn’t click until Feroz took a step up the teeter-totter, then two, then three. He clicked when it shifted to go back down, waiting with a treat at the other end.
Soon, the teeter-totter was a breeze and they were back to working on their verbal-only commands. Those commands included: left and right direction changes, a crawl command, jumping on command as well as going in between two obstacles.
Carlos had never seen TK so engaged with something, but TK hadn’t looked away the entire hour he and Feroz had worked. He rarely got to watch Carlos and Feroz work together, he got to watch them train at home, but it was a lot more relaxed at home. (Plus TK liked seeing Carlos be serious, it was kinda, really hot).
V. The most substantial training Feroz was receiving was narcotic detection. Carlos had done a lot of research on scent-work and decided that he would give Feroz a shot at it too. His position didn’t require narcotics detection for their K-9s, but it might come in handy someday.
So, they started working. Carlos had watched a lot of videos on how to start scent work training, so they started slowly. They started with one container, nothing inside. He clicked whenever Feroz stuck his nose to the cup.
Feroz was smart, he caught on quickly, so within three training sessions they were introducing their first drug. They worked on detecting marijuana first, so Carlos got what he needed from work, then spent an hour working with Feroz on shaping. Initially, he had the marijuana in a covered cup, a small hole poked in the top. He marked when Feroz sniffed the cup, gradually adding in another cup, this one empty.
Carlos clicked when Feroz sniffed the appropriate cup, marking the behaviour he wanted. Feroz picked up on the scent, realising that the cup containing the marijuana was what succeeded in getting him the reward.
Soon enough they had four cups total. One containing the marijuana, one containing treats, one containing his kibble and one not containing anything. Feroz was understanding that when Carlos requested him to “search,” he wanted him to discover which cup the marijuana was in.
Carlos was soon working with Feroz on his alert, so when he found the marijuana, Carlos instructed him to go into a down before he was rewarding him. Feroz was soon alerting on anything he could, so Carlos took a step back and they tried again.
This time, Feroz was a little bit less eager to go into the down command until Carlos said it. It took a while for it to click in Feroz’s head that he was meant to go into a down at the scent of the marijuana. He was excited when Carlos rolled out the praise, all the dots finally connecting for Feroz.
The next step for Feroz was hiding the scent of the drug in a random object and get him to respond accordingly. Feroz was trained to go into a passive alert — in his case, a down — when he came across the scent he'd been trained to alert to.
I. TK washed his hands before he opened the door to the bathroom and walked out, quickly turning back around and flicking the light switch off. Out in the living room, Carlos clicked and said “good boy.” Rationally, TK knew it wasn’t intended for him, but he couldn’t help himself.
The clicks inevitably seemed to come when he was least expecting it. There was one day where it happened three times and every time, TK would hear the click and Carlos saying “good boy!”
The first time it happened that day, TK had been moving the dishes to the dishwasher and actually remembered to start the dishwasher after he was done. He frequently left it how it was and Carlos would take care of it.
So, TK had started the dishwasher and Carlos and Feroz had been training in the living room. As soon as TK had pressed ‘START’ there was a click and Carlos saying “yes! Good boy!” TK smiled to himself as he walked into the living room to inform Carlos he’d finished putting the dishes away and was going to go shower.
“Have fun, Feroz and I will be waiting for you,” Carlos said with a smile, kissing TK on the cheek. Feroz wagged his tail at the mention of his name but knew he wasn’t supposed to break his stay.
The second time it had happened was when TK was making the bed. He pulled the sheets and the duvet up, straightening them out. Then he fixed the pillows and heard the faint sound of Carlos’ clicker and him saying “good boy.” TK perked up and smiled at the sound.
He’d have to remember to make the bed more often.
The third time it happens, TK had finally remembered to take his medication on time. He thinks Carlos did it on purpose until he overhears Carlos’ voice raise an octave as he said, “good boy, such a good boy.”
The fourth time it happens is an evening where they’d been laying around and Feroz had finally got annoyed that they weren’t doing anything. Carlos decided to take him out to the yard to work on his agility for a bit before they went to bed.
TK stayed inside, watching and listening to them through the screen door. Eventually, he got up and started straightening the books on the shelf, hearing the clicker go off. So, he kept doing it. Straightening the books up before moving to their film collection, making sure everything was where it was supposed to be.
The fifth time it happened, TK had noticed the garbage bin was getting full. He went around the house and collected the individual bins of trash in each room and dumped them all in the big one in the kitchen. He took the large bag out and tied it up, his head snapped up when he heard the sound of Carlos’ clicker.
The unmistakable “good boy” followed, and TK’s heart skipped a beat. He called out to Carlos that he was going to take the trash out and then he’d be back in a minute. He heard Feroz give a small ‘woof’ in return and smiled.
He came back inside and started to head towards the bedroom, wanting to put his pyjamas on. As he walked, he felt like he was forgetting something, so he walked back to the kitchen and saw the empty garbage bin still sitting out where he left it.
TK grabbed a new trash bag and shook it out, slipping it onto the bin, and again he heard the sound of Carlos’ clicker from the living room. He smiled as he pushed the bin back into place before he left the kitchen.
The one time it didn’t happen TK and Carlos were leaving the kitchen and TK flipped the light off, absolutely expecting to hear the sound of Carlos’ clicker. When it didn’t come, he froze in place, his face turning pink.
“Ty? Are you okay?” Carlos asked, worried about his boyfriend.
Feroz was also worried. He came up and sat next to TK, leaning against TK’s leg as the man processed what had just happened. TK groaned and knelt down, burying his face in Feroz’s side.
“TK?”
“No, just leave me here to suffer in embarrassment,” TK responded, turning his head to the side.
Carlos rolled his eyes and pressed on, wanting a response from his boyfriend. TK mumbled something into Feroz’s fur that Carlos didn’t catch, so he asked TK to repeat himself. He watched the tips of TK’s ears turn red as he shifted his head to restate what he’d just said.
“You clicker trained me.”
“What?” Carlos asked, his lips quirking up into a smile.
“You basically clicker trained me to carry out menial tasks around the house. I would do something while you’d be training Feroz and the verbal praise that you gave Feroz was enough for my brain to connect that with the tasks and say ‘yeah, let’s do that.’” TK explained, risking a glance up at Carlos.
Carlos gave TK a slight smile and tousled his hair, giving him a kiss on the top of his head, “Good boy.”