Pet Dog Training

My name is Andy Jimenez and I started Falco K9 Academy when I was a handler and the in House K9 trainer for Anaheim Police Department in California. At the time I was trained to use mostly harsh training techniques to teach and maintain behaviors in our dogs. I saw that most of the police dogs were working out of fear most of the time. I felt strongly at the time there had to be a better way. When I was asked to be the trainer for the unit I was determined to change the way we trained our K9 partners.


I immediately began using mostly motivational forms of training and very quickly saw a change in the dogs AND the handlers. Everyone was enjoying training so much more.

The dogs were working with more gusto and purpose and the handlers were having fun. Because of this we were able to be more creative in our training by putting in more tactical situations and real life scenarios.

The most important part of this for you is I was able to develop a training system for pet dog owner’s that was just as motivational and even more fun! This holds true from basic obedience students to the home protection team.

One of the best parts about our training is that we don’t use just one type of tool to train your dog. I realized long ago that every dog and human are unique and not one tool works for every one.

Obedience... The Falco Way

The corner stone of our training is basic obedience. Before you can get started in any training discipline, the human and the dog must first have a firm understanding of what basic obedience is. Essentially our philosophy of obedience is the following:

• The human must know how to communicate with the dog.
• The dog must understand the human.
• The dog must respect the handler.
• The dog must be in control when in public.
• The dog cannot be obnoxious.
• The dog must work through distractions.

Now you all thought I would say the dog has to sit, down, heel and so on when commanded to do so. Although that is what is taught in class and what is required to pass the class, those things are not the ultimate goal at Falco K9 Academy. The goal must be the bulleted items for a truly happy and long lasting relationship with your dog. In other words, your dog will not sit on command unless he understands what you are asking of him. Your dog will not come to you when a child is bouncing a ball unless the dog has been trained to work through distractions.

It is Falco’s philosophy that dogs learn more through motivational and reward-based training. Although a dog should understand when he is doing something wrong, it is more important for the dog to know when he is doing something right. We will train the handler how to motivate the dog with a healthy balance of training techniques.