The APDT Chronicle of the Dog Summer 2018 | Page 15

ASSOCIATION NEWS | FOUNDATION NEWS
APDT Foundation Proposes Plan to Provide
K-9 Outreach to Kenya Relief
It was more than a year ago when
American-based Kenya Relief
reached out to the Association of
Professional Dog Trainers for help
in getting proper training for their
security handlers and dogs.
Kenya Relief (KenyaRelief.org), which provides near-free surgical
services, orphan care, education and community outreach projects
in southwestern Kenya, is getting some relief now, thanks to the
APDT Foundation and its ambitious plan to send a trainer to
conduct a workshop in Kenya.
The APDT Foundation understands the importance of helping
professional trainers who seek to broaden their understanding
of humane evidence-based training protocols, to incorporate the
principles of LIMA into their training, and to always embrace
best animal husbandry practices into their training programs. The
Foundation appreciates that trainers in some areas of the world may
lack access to information and to trainers who have embraced the
concepts above. To that end the Foundation determined that helping
Kenya Relief with its goal of improving their security dog program
would not only generate increased animal welfare outcomes for
the dogs who serve them but also, given the cooperative training
that occurs within the working dog industry, help to bring these
concepts to that area of the African continent.
After a call last spring for dog trainers with a sense of adventure,
Don Blair, CPDT-KA, founder of the Canine Intelligence
Academy, took up the challenge. Blair is a former K9 officer who
was responsible for the supervision of Department of Homeland
Security/Customs Border Protection anti-terrorism inspections
and special enforcement operations as well as canine training and
research development programs. Blair has also worked overseas
in areas of the world that lacked access to common resources
found in western nations and he is uniquely suited to connect with
professional handlers who want to improve their training programs
but must work with limited access to resources.
The benefit of having a professional trainer work with these dogs
and their handlers, who lack access to information regarding best
practices, extends beyond helping these particular dogs live better
lives and be more effective at their job of deterring criminals from
harming the KR community. Indeed sending Blair, who was one
of the first professional detection dog trainers in the US to embrace
and convince others in the industry of the benefits of progressive
training programs like ‘chicken camp’, will help raise awareness
of the principles that thousands of APDT members support every
day. Blair’s main focus will be to improve their training protocols
but he also believes that increasing the general animal husbandry
knowledge of the handlers will help instill an appreciation that
these dogs will perform better if outstanding food, medical, and
kenneling care is provided, according to Foundation President
Jennifer Brown.
Br