John Surowiec is a dedicated family man who has been in law enforcement for over 30 years. Over the span of his career, he has been involved in many aspects of law enforcement. He served as a patrol sergeant, field training officer, SWAT officer, and a K-9 handler. During that time, he trained numerous law enforcement professionals, but never dreamed that he would be fortunate enough to train and work with a police K-9.
As a K-9 handler, he spent many hours training with his unit as well as training with fellow handlers in the Atlanta metro area. The training involved basic obedience, K-9 apprehension, area/control, and decoy work. In addition, he trained in scent work which included tracking for criminals, missing children, vulnerable adults, area, building, article, and narcotic searches. Emory Griffith, who was a seasoned handler and trainer in his unit, became a friend and mentor to John. "Through Emory, I was given a beautiful and extremely intelligent animal, a German Shepherd named Beny or "Mr. B,” as we liked to call him. Through countless hours of training with successes and failures, we became a successful K-9 team. Emory instilled in me the importance of understanding the animal. He showed me the right way to motivate and correct behaviors. Emory would say, "Every handler has a dog he deserves." This was the motivation that drove me to work hard, and I learned that patience, attitude, work and support was the recipe for success.”
PATIENCE, ATTITUDE, WORK, AND SUPPORT are the basic fundamentals to becoming a good handler or dog owner. Working and training with your pet requires ALL of these principals and are easily adapted by anyone at any skill level. Our goal is to help you adopt these fundamentals, and make the experience and relationship you have with your pet a more pleasurable one.
John received additional K-9 certifications through NAPWDA (North American Police Work Dog Association) and Southern Police K-9 in North Carolina.
