Alpha Dogs
- 2013
- 1 Season
-
7.8 (45)
Alpha Dogs is a weekly half-hour reality series on Nat Geo Wild that focuses on the work of the dog trainers at Vohne Liche Kennels. Vohne Liche is owned and operated by Ken Licklider, a Senior Master Sergeant in the United States Air Force. Licklider founded the company in 1993, and it has grown to employ 18 trainers working on-site, and six additional trainers who work off-site. Non-employee experts also periodically contribute to Vohne Liche training programs. All of the trainers have military and/or law enforcement experience, and the focus of the training is to provide dogs to military and law enforcement K-9 teams. The training facility itself is located in Denver, Indiana, and boasts hundreds of acres of property, including dorm facilities for students, a store that sells training-related equipment, and a variety of school, warehouse, and other buildings. The team often travels across the United States and internationally to train dogs on-site for police departments, branches of the military, federal agencies, private security companies, and other clients. The pilot episode, which aired on February 8, 2013, finds trainer Bobby Roettger under pressure to ensure that the current crop of canine and human students are ready to graduate and join Special Forces K-9 teams. In addition to Lidlicker and Roettger, trainers Luther McDonald and Danny Parker also make early appearances in the series. Over the course of the season, dogs are trained to sniff out illegal drugs, IEDs and other explosive devices, attack and neutralize armed assailants, recover missing persons living and dead, and even fly in and rappel out of helicopters. Alpha Dogs is produced by Schweet Entertainment, which is run by Jack Osbourne and Robb Worsoff, who serve as Executive Producers of the show. Osbourne has said that he was not a dog person before working on the show, but he has come to be amazed at what the animals are capable of.
