The handler begins almost at square one in another location. He establishes a target spot there by doing quite a few short placed retrieves until he is absolutely sure that the dog knows exactly where it is going. Then he works his way back until the animal is running multiple placed retrieves at long distance in this new location.
Then the handler takes his dog to a third field and starts again. This time, however, he can work through the progression a little more quickly because the dog is becoming more sure of its work and more bound by habit.
By the time the handler has taught his dog four or five target spots in four or five different locations (parks and empty lots will do just fine, there is no need for five dog training fields), it will take him just one session to show the animal another target spot in a new location and get it running full-length multiple placed retrieves to it.
At this point, the handler tries something new. He goes back to a location where the dog has already learned the send away, to a target spot that the animal knows but has not visited in a while. He places several balls, but without letting the dog see him do it, and then sends it (completely “cold,” right out of the car) a rather long distance to the target spot. If the animal runs hard and true on the first retrieve (the first one is the hard one), then we are ready for the most difficult step yet.
The handler now takes his dog to a field where the animal has never worked before. He places several balls in a spot, but does not let the dog see him do it. He brings the animal out, gives it the line to the target spot with his hand, and sends it.
The handler can take two precautions in order to make sure that the dog will run straight and true to the line, and come down right on top of the target spot:
1. He runs a heeling pattern up and down the field on the same axis as the send away. Later this practice will stand him in good stead, because in a trial the send aways always run along the same axis as the heeling patterns. The dog will soon make this association and, in competition, the direction of the heeling pattern will help to give it the line.
2. He selects a perfectly flat, level and relatively narrow field, with parallel, fenced sides that will help to establish the line and guide the dog straight down to the target spot.
Now the dog goes any place that we send it, but we still do not have a complete send away exercise.
On trial day, there will be no balls lying on the field for the dog to find. We will send it out and then down it at sixty or seventy yards. At this distance, as excited as the animal is, and as accustomed as it is to running until it finds a ball, downing it is not simply a matter of giving it the command.
If our control of the dog is tremendous, we can undoubtedly get it to lie down by screaming the command repeatedly, but probably not before it has searched about the field enough to be convinced that there is no ball to be found. This is, of course, not acceptable. We need it to drop instantly on the run as though shot. If we try to use sheer force and muscle to do the trick, running up the field at the dog in order to give it “what for” when it downs slowly, we will soon create some major training problems. Instead, in another beautifully elegant solution (taught to the authors by Janet Birk), we manipulate the dog’s expectations in order to make it eager to down for us.
The handler takes the dog to an old target spot that the animal knows well, and runs a series of multiple placed retrieves at very short distance—say forty feet or so. The target spot should have sufficient ground cover that the dog can only see the balls—or, conversely, can only tell that there are no balls on the target spot—when it is very close to it.
The handler runs a number of retrieves so that, every once in a while, he sends the dog to the target spot when it is empty. (All the balls have already been retrieved and are in the handler’s pockets.) When the dog gets to the spot, the handler shouts “Down!” If his control of his animal is good, at such a short distance the command will drive the dog quickly to the ground. The instant that the dog downs, his handler throws the ball to it, slinging it over the dog’s head and past it up the field.
As time passes, and this sequence occurs more frequently, the animal will make a discrimination:
• If the handler does not give the “Down!” command, then there is a ball out in the field waiting for the dog to run down on top of it. All that it must do in order to have the prey object is to keep going in a straight line.
• If, on the other hand, the handler says “Down!” then there is no ball out in the field for the dog. The ball will come instead from the handler and in order to have it the animal must turn toward him and drop to the ground.
Great care must be taken to balance the dog’s anticipation of finding the ball out in the field against its anticipation of having it thrown by its handler. If the ball comes too many times from the handler, the dog’s preoccupation with thinking about and looking for the throw will interfere with the send away. The animal will tend to look back over its shoulder, curve or even stop and turn and lie down prematurely. If, on the other hand, the dog finds the ball on the target spot too often, it will be slow to lie down when commanded, because it is certain that the ball awaits it out in the field, and it wants to keep on going until the ball is found.
The balance is a delicate one, and difficult to maintain. Sooner or later with most dogs we must use some compulsion to polish the send away and make it absolutely reliable.
13
Protection: Requirements of the Trial
SCHUTZHUND I PROTECTION
Before the dog-handler team walks onto the field, the helper hides behind one of the blinds. On the judge’s command, the team heels to the midline between two blinds. On the judge’s signal, the handler removes the leash from the dog’s collar and then sends it to the blind. When the dog reaches the helper, it must harass him by staying close and barking powerfully and aggressively. The helper does not move or show aggression toward the dog in any way, and therefore it must not bite him. The dog will lose points for bumping or biting, not barking forcefully enough or being less than completely vigilant.
At the conclusion of the hold-and-bark exercise, the judge instructs the handler to go to his dog and, taking the animal’s collar, pull it away from the helper. The helper leaves the blind and, once he has vacated it, the handler and dog step into it. Meanwhile, with the dog’s vision of him obscured by the blind, the helper moves to a new blind. At the judge’s signal, the team heels on leash in the direction of the new hiding place. Still in motion, the handler removes the leash and continues heeling toward the blind. Suddenly the helper charges out of the blind, simulating an attack on the handler. Without command, the dog should immediately attack the helper and bite hard and full on the sleeve. During the fight the helper drives the dog and strikes the animal twice with a flexible reed stick. At the judge’s command the helper stops fighting and “freezes.” The handler commands his dog to “Out!” and the animal must release its bite. The dog will not be granted a Schutzhund degree if it does not out properly at least once during the routine. After the “Out!” command the dog should remain near the helper and guard him closely. The dog may bark or not, and it may sit, stand or lie down but must remain vigilant and concentrated upon the helper. At the judge’s signal, the handler advances and again takes his dog by the collar so that the helper can step away.