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September 22, 2025
FOND DU LAC – Police training in Fond du Lac has truly gone to the dogs.
Since taking over Steinig Tal K-9 Academy in January 2024, Kari Beckford said she relocated the operation from Campbellsport to her hobby farm “right outside of Fond du Lac,” at N5675 Grandview Road.
There, in and around a converted barn, Beckford said Steinig Tal is tasked with training police dogs and the officers who handle them.
And though the responsibilities are serious, she said the mood at the academy is warm and upbeat.
“It’s a fun group,” she said of Steinig Tal’s regular handlers and dogs. “We’re here to train and learn, so there’s a serious aspect to it, but we also want it to be fun. We want the guys walking away saying, ‘I learned something, it was fun, I had a great day.’ We want the dogs to have fun – the biggest part of it is the dogs can have fun and still learn.”
Beckford said the academy currently provides regular (once or twice monthly) training for 56 dog-handler teams from 39 police departments across Wisconsin.
She said Steinig Tal also buys dogs – typically German Shepherds or Belgian Malinois – from European breeders to house in the academy’s kennel as she trains them for police work, eventually selling them to stations looking to bolster their K-9 units or replace retiring dogs.
Some history on dogs in law enforcement
According to “Blue” magazine, which is owned and operated by active and retired law enforcement professionals, there’s evidence dogs were used in the military in ancient Egypt and were first used for police work – guarding naval installations – in France as early as the 14th century.
In the U.S., the magazine reports the use of police dogs came into favor sometime after the Civil War, with stray dogs commonly becoming station mascots, then learning to accompany officers on their patrols.
Formal records of early patrol dogs were not kept, but as “The Standard Union” reported in 1903, a Newfoundland called Major, with a police badge issued by Brooklyn’s Parkland station, was given a police burial with full honors that year.
“Blue” states that formal police dog training originated in Ghent, Belgium, in 1899, where the dedicated dog-handler system was pioneered.
As that system was adopted in the U.S., “The Citizen” reported that in 1907, the New York City Police Department established the country’s first canine corps.
Today, according to zippia.com, there are more than 200,000 active police dogs.
Steinig Tal
Beckford said the history of Steinig Tal – which translates to “stony valley” in German – began in the late ’70s with Founder Larry Filo and his wife, Sandy, and an original focus on Schutzhund – a type of competition for dogs (mainly German Shepherds) focused on obedience, tracking and protection.
In the early ’80s, Beckford said Filo veered into police dog training, while beginning to import European dogs well suited for the work.
Beckford – who worked in law enforcement for more than 13 years – said she and her husband, Charles – a police officer/K-9 handler for the Fond du Lac Police Department – got to know Filo during his nearly 45 years owning Steinig Tal.
Beckford said Charles had trained sport dogs “since he was about four years old” and developed a bond with Filo throughout his K-9 training.
“Larry was always telling Charlie, ‘I want to retire soon, and I want you guys to buy the business,’” she said.
Charles would decline such overtures, Beckford said, as he had seven years of police service to complete until he could retire.
Meanwhile, Beckford said she decided her own career in law enforcement had reached its conclusion and took time off to mull her options.
“I was down at the [Steinig Tal] kennel with my husband one day just to watch him train the dog… and Larry said, ‘I think this is a great time for you guys to buy the business and take over…,’” she said. “It was one of those things where it’s like, if not now, when?”
Beckford said she agreed to purchase and run the academy, with Charles planning to join the operation in earnest following his eventual retirement.
To prepare, Beckford said she spent about a year with Filo at the then-Campbellsport-based Steinig Tal, “learning from him, meeting the guys, figuring things out, seeing what it was all about.”
When Beckford assumed full ownership and moved the academy to Fond du Lac, she said Filo continued to work there, oversee operations and troubleshoot for six months, seeing several handlers/dogs through completion of certification and training he had started.
Beckford said she’s since continued Filo’s methods as well as his practice of importing dogs to suit police stations’ requests.
Established dogs/handlers, she said, who have already moved into a “maintenance” stage of training and certification have remained with Steinig Tal through the ownership change.
One of those handlers, Beckford said, is Charles – who, for her, personifies the importance of the K-9 training.
“I’m on both sides of it – I’ve worked out in the field, and now, being here, [and] still being a police wife at home, I know all of it – the whole pie,” she said. “The single biggest thing for me is I want to put out the very best product and the very best training that we can for these guys, because I want them to be safe.”
Dogs’ days
Beckford said Steinig Tal’s dog training includes narcotics work, patrol work or a combination of the two, known as “dual-purpose” training, in addition to relevant obedience training.
“Narcotics is pretty self-explanatory,” she said. “Those are the dogs you would typically see out on traffic stops with the handlers doing a search pattern around a vehicle, and those dogs are attempting to locate the presence of the odor of narcotics.”
The dogs, Beckford said, are trained using odor “prints” that teach them the scents of specific narcotics per a station’s request.
Once this “prep work” – lasting four to six weeks, depending on a dog’s prior training – is complete, she said handlers are introduced to their dogs.
“They meet the dog, then they start doing a little bit of training here and there with the dog,” she said. “Then, they’ll take the dog home for a couple of weeks, where they can bond with the dog. The dog will get acclimated to the handler and that environment at the handler’s home.”
Beckford said “everybody’s a little different” in this step, as some handlers choose to have the dogs stay within their home, while others create separate arrangements, as Charles has.
“We have a separate building that has heat and air and electricity, and that is where [Charles] keeps his working dog, because at the end of the day, the municipality, whether it’s a city or a county – they own the dog,” she said, adding that the relationship is therefore different than having a straightforward pet.
Regardless of a handler’s personal preference, Beckford said the next step is for dogs to begin riding along in their handlers’ squad cars – not for deployment, but for acclimation.
“Then, after a couple of weeks, they come back to our facility, Monday through Friday, with the handler for five weeks, where they complete the handler course,” she said. “That is pretty much teaching the handler how to ‘read’ the dog.”
For narcotics training, Beckford said the academy emulates numerous environments for searches, including vehicles, offices, hotels, apartments, lockers and stairways, as the handler gets to know and guide the dog’s unique behaviors.
Patrol work, she said, is, figuratively, a whole other animal.
“Patrol work is searching for people, whether it’s a person hiding in a building or a missing person,” she said. “Or, if there is a fight taking place between law enforcement and a criminal, [handlers] may use the dog for apprehension work.”
Beckford said Steinig Tal employs a person wearing a protective suit to serve as a “decoy,” who the dogs are trained to attack.
As part of the initial handler course, she said a number of general scenarios are enacted to train the dogs and handlers.
Upon completion, Beckford said handlers and their dogs will book one or two days a month for required maintenance sessions, wherein she helps handlers reenact specific scenarios to improve the dogs’ performance and confidence.
“Sometimes they’re trying to get the dog to repeat a behavior it had done in the past, because the scenario unfolded and the handler liked the way that the dog reacted to it,” she said, “or we try to manipulate the scenario a little bit to get the dog to react a different way, because we want to try to get a different outcome.”
With handlers from different stations all attending Steinig Tal as their schedules permit, Beckford said each day and group at the academy is different.
However, she said, all attendees work together to brainstorm solutions and give each other tips – all sharing a singular, desired outcome for the game-like trainings.
“At the end of the day, we want the dog to win,” she said.
Beckford said all those wagging tails show how strong the bond is between working dogs and their handlers.
“These guys love these dogs,” she said. “These guys know at the end of the day, these dogs may save one of these handlers’ lives.”
Puppy love, police duty
As heartwarming and fun as the sessions can be, Beckford said her focus never wavers.
“My biggest challenge is the anxiety of wanting to make sure that what we’re offering and the products we’re putting out there are top notch,” she said, “because I want the dogs to be able to perform, so the dogs and the handlers can go home to their loved ones at the end of their shift, every shift.”
The success stories of dogs she’s trained, Beckford said, are endlessly rewarding, whether it’s a dog successfully locating a targeted narcotic or a barricaded perpetrator surrendering, without incident, at the sound of a dog’s bark.
Another form of success, she said, is when a dog safely completes its career – typically eight to 10 years – and retires to a life of well-earned leisure.
“For the most part, in Wisconsin… once the canine retires, they retire with the handler,” she said. “So, my husband, for example, has [a dog] right now that’s working as his second police canine… His first police canine, when he retired, stayed with us – so he then became our house dog.”
In addition to enjoying the work itself, Beckford said she’s presently pleased with Steinig Tal as it is, and has no plans to expand or change the business model.
“I know it’s been a year and a half, but I still feel so very new to it,” she said. “If I can just keep things going in the direction we’re going… I am totally happy with it, because we’re having so much fun with the group we have.”
