Advice Needed-THANK YOU!

I have been a dog handler of GSD watch dogs for 20 years used for patrolling a special enclosed area.I have also worked with the Belgian Malinois watch/guard dog trained for protection work. [Looks can be deceiving!] I have trained with a local k9 Officer in protection work. As you can see by the photo, I was a religious nun and had the responsibility of being the dog handler for the monastery and total care of the GSD watch dogs. They patrolled and alerted on a 4 acre enclosed area and were a deterrent for intruders and drug users using the parking lot! A Belgian Malinois was used as a watch/guard dog also. I have recently left the monastery, but am in the planning stages of setting up a professional breeding kennel for the Belgian Malinois dog for K9 service work and SAR. The kennel, I will purchase brood bitches/stud dogs from, is top of the line! I am in this for service to our local police/sheriff departments. I plan to breed and train high quality working Malinois, not pets or multiple breeding for quantity. I have a separate profession for income.
Question: After selecting out proper puppies for K9 service dogs via professional testing, at what age would prospective police K9/sheriff K9 officers want the dog? Would they want an 8 weeks pup or 6-12 month old dog with obedience training with some prey work. [obedience training via operant conditioning method] I need to know this for facility building plans. Perhaps both? Thank you so much for your time and thank you for the wonderful work you do to make our neighborhoods and country safe.

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Comment by Brenda Day on December 1, 2008 at 2:49pm: Yes all information helps, A Lot. Thanks. I have done tracking work, so I know that you need to vary the locations or the dogs catch on and get bored. I understand about keeping the "hides" varied to keep it more realistic. Thanks. Brenda

Comment by S. Marshall on December 1, 2008 at 9:55am: You should also have enough area for variable surface work, or have areas in mind that you can transport the dogs to for your tracking. Keep in mind that you should and will need to change the areas that you are using for detector work up. Having an area for the basics is great, but you want to keep things as realistic as possible. There's two reasons for this, 1) so the dogs don't become complacent and 2) it keeps the work realistic and fun for the dogs. I can tell you that when our guys train their dogs, they are always going to new places or finding new "hides" to keep the dogs on their toes. Hope this helps.

Comment by Brenda Day on November 28, 2008 at 8:41am: Torsten, I understand, writing in a forgein language gives one a headache.

Comment by Torsten on November 28, 2008 at 8:30am: i also would like to help u more but i think i can explane better in language than in writing it is too much to write everithing down but i will help u as much i can reguards torsten

Comment by Brenda Day on November 28, 2008 at 8:18am: Sounds like I need to go to school. Yes, I have contacted our local Small Business Administration and have a meeting to begin the business plan process next Monday. Do you know anything about K9 Global Training Academy in Texas?

Comment by Maximum K9 on November 28, 2008 at 8:03am: In the USA, for a civilian you need to be licensed by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for possessing narcotics for K9 training and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tabacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to possess any explosives for training. Like Torsten said, you need a special safe outside to store the explosives. The narcotics can be stored inside but also need to be in a secured location. You might think its extremely tough to get these licenses....it is and for very good reasons. But if you have everything out in the open and pass the background investigations, this really shouldn't be a huge hurdle for you. Have you looked for assistance from the Small Business Administration? They were a huge help for me and all of the assistance is free! As far as you plans, don't forget the equipment room and depending on the weather where you are at, you might want to consider an indoor training area. It doesn't have to be huge but if its a blizzard outside, you are still going to train nyway so maybe a small area that can used for some bitework and detection work. Also a common problem we get with imported dogs are slick floor issues. I don't know why but some act like they have never seen a tile floor before and for all I know they haven't. We can work through this sometimes, other times it becomes too much of an issue for our time.

Comment by Brenda Day on November 28, 2008 at 7:19am: Yes, I tried to send a reply, it must not have gone through. I have read the pdf file on military working dog. Amazing! I am checking with the Federal Drug Administration on the requirements for narcotics/EDD work. That would be a very new and big step for me.

Comment by Torsten on November 28, 2008 at 12:38am: i think for the bite suits. for mussels and equipment for dry food wet food cans and so on. medical equipment. did u get my e mail

Comment by Brenda Day on November 27, 2008 at 5:07pm: Give me more specifics on the store room please.

Comment by Torsten on November 27, 2008 at 10:37am: a quarantaene room , food room, room to prepair food. speacial store room for explosives proberbly outside with a safe. save room for drugs.an obstikal course outsite with steps and tunnels and jump hurdels???? hope i can help u with thatStore room for equipment. i have some experience with that i was working with the us army in germany together also i was working in bahrain and i was resposible for the kenneling too.