About FSI Training

With all the dog trainers out there today, you may ask, what makes FSI different?  The answer is simple – the way FSI trains dogs.  David Latimer, owner and head trainer at FSI knows what it means to rely on dogs to help you make a living.  He’s trained and used dogs as a part of his vocation so for many years in both public and private jobs.  David is keenly aware from his early years in canine scent detection of how frustrating and disappoitning it can be to try to work with a poorly trained and motivated dog.  He soon figured out that poor performance is not the dogs fault; dogs know only what they are taught.  Poor training and/or starting out with the wrong dog for a particular task is usually the cause of a canine/handler team not performing well.  

At the outset of David’s dog training career he learned and used the widely accepted training methodologies and stuck to conventional wisdom about dog training.  The trainers he worked with were trying to communicate with dogs on a more human level and expected the dogs to be motivated by what drives humans.  It soon became apparent to David that you have to have more than just a kibble of food or a favorite toy to get a dog to give its best effort.  Just as is the case with humans, dogs have to be motivated by something other than fear of punishment to get their best effort.  While physical corrections can serve as an effective means of teaching dogs avoidance of certain behavior patterns, it simply doesn't work as motivation.  In fact, it causes dogs to be more and more reserved about offering new behaviors which is essential to succes in any animal training endeavor. 

Years of experimenting with innovative and revolutionary ways of training scent detection dogs resulted in the development of a proprietary and copy write protested method of dog training, B.I.T.©, (Basic Instinct Training).  B.I.T. utilizes and enhances the dog’s natural instincts and drives, channeling the dog’s genetic programming to hunt, track and stalk prey.  Rather than trying to force dogs to conform to human methods and what we think the dog should be doing to search for an odor, B.I.T. encourages dogs to use their natural predatory instincts to stalk and capture prey.  Dogs learn to follow odors emitted by such things as termites, mold or bed bugs to its source much like they would a deer or rabbit. 

B.I.T. was developed through years of experimentation, observation and real world experience using dogs in both private and public service.  David also relied heavily on advice from canine behavioral experts and veterinary professionals while developing B.I.T.  B.I.T. is based on positive reinforcement and operant conditioning in an extraordinary mix.  Because of its emphasis on positive reinforcement, B.I.T. produces top quality work dogs that are happy, highly motivated, excited and enthusiastic.  Every detector dog trained at FSI, whether a termite dog, bomb dog, mold dog, bed bug dog, accelerant dog, tracking dog or narcotics dog - all are trained with this exclusive and revolutionary method.

If you need a detector dog to help with your livelihood, call David’s cell number (205) 966-8739 or contact him by email at alfirek9@aol.com.  You won’t be bombarded with absurd claims of grandeur and hype.  Dogs aren’t very impressed by TV appearances nor do they read university studies; all dogs know is what they’re taught.  What you’ll get from FSI are reliable, well trained work dogs at reasonable prices.  If you just want a good work dog at a reasonable price; make sure the trainer you choose focuses on dog training rather than hype and personal aggrandizement.