Navy SEAL K9 Assignment - Meeting Mickey with Chris Cappa | Mike Drop Clips - Ep. #173

About this video

Chris Cappa, a former Navy SEAL dog handler, recounts meeting his military working dog Mickey during handler training. Cappa describes initially feeling disappointed when assigned what appeared to be the smallest, least impressive dog of his class, while his peers received larger, more capable-looking animals. Despite Mickey’s early challenges, including being mentally immature and refusing to release his ball during training, Cappa worked extensively with him and they became the only handler-dog pair from that class to actually deploy.

Key takeaways

• Cappa relates that Mickey was the only dog from his training class to successfully deploy, while the other two dogs had to be retired due to medical issues and behavioral problems with gunfire
• Cappa explains that he and Mickey achieved full mission capability at around week 30 of training through consistent routine and structure, completing the 18-week NSW MPC course (the second longest in Naval Special Warfare) plus additional training
• Cappa describes Mickey’s persistent issue with refusing to release his ball reward, which he managed through workarounds including choking the dog off the ball and using an e-collar, noting that Mickey will release the ball for his wife but not for him

Episode details: published February 6, 2024 · 15.6K views · 7:49 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Stories told by Mike Ritland’s podcast guests are the guests’ own accounts, attributed to them — not independently verified. Commentary is Ritland’s, presented as his analysis.

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