Let's Train: Mike Ritland's Team Dog Online Training

Issue 1 | January/February 2017 | $9.95

Muzzle Training for Police Patrol Canines

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Let’s Train

Introducing Mike Ritland’s Team Dog Online Training

Health & Wellness

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Let’s Train INTRODUCING MIKE RITLAND’S TEAM DOG ONLINE TRAINING

By Logan Alexander

B

orn in Waterloo, Iowa, Mike Ritland served 12 years as an active-duty U.S. Navy SEAL on multiple special operations missions, including combat during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Ritland also served as a BUD/S instructor and Naval Special Warfare Multi Purpose Canine (MPC) trainer. In 2013, Mike and Rico, his personal K-9, collaborated with the Xbox crew to create Call of Duty: Ghosts. He currently resides in Dallas, Texas, and dedicates his time daily to working with his K-9s at Trikos International and the Warrior Dog Foundation. When he’s not traveling on business, he enjoys spending quality time with each of his dogs, working out, playing guitar, and perfecting the art of barbecue.

After separating from the Navy SEALs, Ritland founded Trikos International, a company dedicated to providing high-caliber working dogs to government agencies and also private individuals. Trikos International has grown to a global brand and has gained acclaim for its unique training approach and proven success. Through Trikos International, Mike has provided single- and dual-purpose dogs for celebrities, private individuals, and government agencies, including the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, as well as numerous law enforcement agencies across the country.

Ritland witnessed firsthand the lifesaving operations

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carried out by military working dogs and wanted to give back to the special operations community, so he founded the Warrior Dog Foundation.

The Warrior Dog Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving military working dogs, the special operations community, and their families. With the foundation’s state-of-the-art kennel facility, these dogs are given the opportunity to live out the rest of their lives with dignity and grace, and they are attended to with compassion to both their mental and physical rehabilitation for the rest of their lives. To learn more about the exceptional work the foundation does, how you can support the cause, or to make a tax-deductible donation, visit: warriordogfoundation.org.

Ritland has had a lifelong dedication to raising and training dogs, starting from a young age with family pets and hunting dogs. He has nearly 20 years’ experience in importing, breeding, raising, and training multiple breeds of working dogs, and he has trained hundreds of working dogs for real-world and combat scenarios. He specializes in online training, private protection dog training, military dog training, and police dog training.

Mike is the author of three New York Times Best Selling books: Trident K9 Warriors, Navy SEAL Dogs, and Team Dog — must reads for anyone interested in working dogs and dog training. He is also an active content contributor to numerous journals, blogs, K-9 training magazines, and other publications, including SOFREP and Men’s Journal.

Additionally, Mike has been a keynote speaker at Purdue University’s Discovery Lecture Series, C-SPAN2 BookTV, and various K-9 training conferences. He also has provided insight and interviews to dozens of media affiliates, including CBS’s 60 Minutes, ABC, NBC, FOX, and PBS.

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After the release of Team Dog, Ritland received a flood of questions from individuals seeking dog training advice and an influx of requests looking for any opportunity to train alongside a highly accredited canine trainer.

Wanting to be able to guide people who truly had the drive and desire to learn, connect, and form better relationships with their dogs, Mike founded the Team Dog Online Community.

The community is dedicated to providing dog owners the opportunity to virtually train and interact with Mike, while strengthening the bonds they share with their dogs.

Mike strongly believes that training begins by building a solid relationship based on trust and mutual respect between dog and handler. The Team Dog approach is to build a solid foundation of understanding and communication between you and your dog.

Even the most seasoned dog trainers often need reminders not to jump into trainingspecific behaviors too quickly before that bond is built and solidified. Team Dog is set up as an available resource for trainers to follow along at their own pace and problem solve individual issues they may encounter. Each month, a training video and transcription is posted, giving the handler/dog teams a set of skills to focus on. Unlike traditional training environments, each individual is able to work at his or her own pace and use the tools that are best suited to his or her dog.

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Once the foundation is laid, and handlers have solidified their relationships with their dogs, the training of specific skills can begin. Skills are introduced and demonstrated in the training videos, largely using a marker (clicker) training philosophy. While Team Dog certainly focuses on obedience skills, such as sit, down, stay, heeling, and recalls, there’s also a strong focus on environmental stability, how to respond to and manage reactive behavior appropriately, problem solving for behavioral issues, and proper care, conditioning, and feeding. Ritland is a strong proponent of a wellrounded training platform, which encompasses more than simply obedience behaviors.

To have a well-trained and stable dog, whether working dog or family pet, it must be properly cared for off the training field as well.

There are several facets to joining the Team Dog community that one simply cannot get through other avenues of training. First and foremost, the skill and knowledge Mike imparts is nearly unmatched in the working dog community.

Ritland does not subscribe to a cookie-cutter “one size fits all” mentality when it comes to training dogs. Multiple options of training a particular skill are presented, ranging from simple obedience tasks to chained behaviors. Most importantly, there’s always a “why” presented - the theory and explanation behind the

movement and the rationale as to how the behavior is being taught. Training is delivered using primarily positive reinforcement techniques but presents a balanced, nononsense approach.

By subscribing to the Team Dog community, owners have the opportunity to review any part of the website once it’s posted, allowing them to re-watch videos, interact with other dog owners, and directly ask training questions to Mike and his team of other highly skilled dog trainers.

On the online forum, Team Dog members have the option to network with other dog owners on their quest for raising and training the perfect dog. They share questions and training obstacles, as well as success stories with other members, forming a true training community.

This community atmosphere is perhaps the most notable and rewarding part of joining Team Dog. Subscribers range from first-time dog owners to seasoned K-9 handlers and working dog trainers who are all working toward a common goal: a well-trained dog in whatever discipline they choose. Supplemental articles are posted to the site frequently, allowing users to gain insight into other aspects of dog training they may not be familiar with, opening the door for additional training opportunities, information about health and wellness, and also tips and tricks to keep the mind and body engaged in training.

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The Team Dog training community has quickly become a sustainable resource for dog trainers around the world.

Handlers log in daily, and membership is growing at an exponential rate among pet dog owners and working dog trainers alike. Members continually expand their experience and knowledge base from the comfort of their own home and without the lofty expenses of traveling to a seminar for just a few short days.

The biggest investment to be a part of the Team Dog community is time dedicated to training. Membership costs just $84/year — $7/month — and includes unlimited access to training videos, blog posts, the interactive community message

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board, and one-on-one guidance from Ritland, someone with truly unrivaled experience.

Membership is 100% guaranteed and comes with a 60-day moneyback guarantee. Regardless of when you join, members gain immediate access to the beginning of the fundamental series.

As the Team Dog community keeps growing, so do the potential opportunities for members. The community is flourishing and hopes to continue to attract talented trainers as well as those who are brand new to dog training. Ritland continues the expansion of Team Dog with training videos into more advanced behaviors and guestauthored articles and posts, with

many additional opportunities for working dog trainers, law enforcement, and military handlers on the horizon. Mike will also be making his tactical K-9 training courses that he has been teaching nationally available through the Team Dog community as well, including K-9 aggression and decoy work, the selection test, basic training principles for the police K-9, and detection training. More are planned for the future. Join the growing network of like-minded dog owners and trainers of the Team Dog community to learn and share ideas, whether you’re just beginning down the path of dog training or are a seasoned veteran. For more information or to join, visit mikeritland.com.

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