Todd Mona is a Sergeant/K9 Handler for the East Hartford Police Department in Connecticut.  He is the founder and lead trainer of the Capital Region Police K9 Academy and the Capital Region K9 Training Group.  Todd has been a Police Officer since 2002 and in K9 since 2006.  After working his first dog K9 Primo from 2006 until 2015, Todd raised and trained his second dog from ten weeks old until present, K9 Casus Belli.  In 2014 Todd earned his Connecticut Police Work Dog Association Trainer and in 2022 he earned his North American Police Work Dog Association Trainer.  Over the years Todd has been involved in numerous high risk deployments including three officer involved shootings where he was able to get criminal apprehensions with his dogs in two incidents.   Todd offers a real life approach and scenario based training to his group and others, utilizing a broken down step by step process to help the dogs forward progression and avoiding regression or lingering training scars.        Aside from running Police K9 academies, Todd has instructed at Hold The Line Conference, Georgia Police K9 Foundation Workshop, Massachusetts Police Work Dog Association and held several seminars in Connecticut including, E-Collar, Decoying and his building search class titled 'Increasing Hunt Drive While Expanding The Building Search'.  Recently Todd, Justin Rigney, Southern State K9 and Eric Good held a 'Power and Control' seminar collaborating with the mentioned trainers to bring different approaches to increasing and capping drives when desired.  In September Todd will be instructing at ATK9 in Indiana.  Todd is currently working on a gunfire neutrality and desensitization to back up officers shooting course and an increasing the pressure decoying course.What are you looking for from a podcastIdeas to make yourself betterWhitenoiseBreaking tasks downCompartmentalized trainingGood dog trainers don't train dogs like you train humansLet's do it again.....lets not!Phases of learningWhy do I need to motivate my dog to perform a specific task.Continuing education. Get out and see what other folks are doing.Good trainers and handlers never stop learningTacticsDeveloping dogs that can integrate with a teamThe dog is a location toolDecoy development taking dogs to the next levelProper grip workPreparing dogs for the next level...facing the 1%ers. What steps are necessary for the dog to achieve the next levelChecking the boxesManaging the environmentConsequences of using an ecollar to proof off odorYou don't pay for things you don't wantThe guys break it down on the flyBreaking things down to overcome a bad associationSeparating the hander from the bad associationEcollar basics, work to obtain the lowest level Muzzle neutralityWe are happy to announce Fox and Hound as our title sponsor. Please checkout shopfoxandhound.com or on Instagram @shopfoxandhound. Remember to use the discount code WDDP for 15% off your Fox and Hound order.Also checkout Fox and Hound K9 Foundation Nonprofit Organization.Fox + Hound K9 Foundation is a K9-focused organization that seeks to assist active and retired k9s. "Making a difference, it's what we do."