Whether they’re rappelling from helicopters, parachuting from planes or pursuing America’s most wanted terrorists, military working dogs have been putting their paws on the frontline for over 80 years. As a salute to their service, we’ve given fur missiles full command of the latest cover of Skillset Magazine. Military working dogs are truly man’s best friend — both on and off the battlefield. But we decided to take things a step further for the latest issue, and took part in some K9 training of our own.

K9 Training With Jason and Ben

The fall 2020 issue of Skillset is available now at OutdoorGroupStore.com. We think you’ll enjoy our cover story on the “Dogs of War,” and everything else in the issue. But like we said, we decided to take things a step further. We teamed up with our friends at K9 Defense in Phoenix, Ariz., to see what K9 training is really like.

George Daniolos is the founder of K9 Defense. They train dogs for military, law enforcement, personal protection, and private security applications. Daniolos took the time to speak with us about what the training process is like. There is a lot of patience and consistency involved in the training process. But at the end of the day, K9 Defense gets the most possible out of each dog.

However, it’s one thing to hear about the training and it’s another thing actually participating in it—which is exactly what skillset editors Jason Swarr and Ben Tirpak did. They put on the bite suits and “took on” the K9s in a variety of scenarios; none of which worked out well for them.

Watch the full video above. Also, be sure to check out K9 Defense at k9Defense.com. Want to read more about about the history of military and police K9s? Grab the fall 2020 issue of Skillset Magazine — available now at OutdoorGroupStore.com.