The attraction for defense is threat. Dogs have many ways of conveying threat to each other, and the agitator must understand them all. Dogs communicate with gestures, postures and movements. Human beings also use this nonverbal or body language. A good decoy is in touch with body language. He grasps how people use movements and postures to communicate, and he understands how human body language must be subtly altered in order to convey his intent to the dog.
First and foremost, for a dog, and throughout much of the animal kingdom, threat is made through eye contact. For example, baboons have bright patches on their eyelids that emphasize their eyes and the threat that they represent; some butterflies have great dark spots on their wings that frighten predators because they mimic eyes; and human prizefighters stare impassively into each other’s eyes before a bout.
Another canine threat is immobility, stillness. Who has not seen how slowly dogs move when they confront one another and how perfectly still they stand, staring fixedly at each other? Thus, the more still the decoy remains as he stares, the more threatening he will seem.
Animals also threaten through inflation of body size. When they feel endangered, owls extend their wings and flare their feathers; some species of lizards gape their mouths and extend great shields of skin around their heads and shoulders; and cats and dogs pilo erect (raise the fur on their backs). A gifted decoy can achieve the same effect by expanding his chest and lungs, drawing himself erect and letting his elbows rotate out from his sides.
The decoy uses a combination of these elements of threat, as well as movement directly toward the animal, to alarm the dog and attract defensive behavior. A truly gifted decoy can sense just what combination to use with each dog at the right moment to make it “come out.”
However, the helper does not merely pressure the dog. He must also encourage it. By rewarding the animal’s efforts, he can intensify drive and induce the dog to become more and more confident about behaving aggressively.
The agitator rewards prey behavior with movement and by allowing the dog to bite. He starts the dog with a little motion, and then moves more and more quickly and erratically in response to the dog’s pursuit. As the animal begins to become excited, the decoy feeds on this energy, becoming more and more frenetic and intensifying still further the animal’s desire to catch him. At a peak moment, when the aroused dog is putting out an intense effort, the decoy rewards it by allowing a quick bite on a rag or sleeve.
The decoy rewards defensive behavior with retreat, by yielding to the dog’s counterthreat. He first incites the animal by threatening it. Then the dog, alarmed, threatens back and the agitator rewards its attempt to defend itself by running away. The dog learns that it can shatter the decoy’s threat by threatening back.
When the decoy returns, he threatens a little more strongly and the dog, emboldened by its recent success, will lash out at him more intensely. Progressively, we teach the animal to withstand a greater and greater threat.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED FOR PROTECTION
The leash is perhaps the single weakest link in the system of safeguards that preserves the agitator’s skin. In most training situations, the helper takes care of himself by staying alert and reacting quickly and effectively to emergencies that arise. Because he carries a rag or a sleeve much of the time, he is normally in little danger from a dog that breaks loose on the field. However, when he is working close to an animal, especially over a grounded rag or sleeve, only the reliability of the leash and snap protect him from a nasty bite wound.
A heavy-duty, one-inch-wide leash with stitching and riveting at both snap end and wrist loop is strongly recommended. The snap should be of a size, strength and quality corresponding to the leash. Brass snaps, although not as strong as steel, will not corrode and are often better made. Well-sewn nylon leashes are stronger than leather, but they tend to be very hard on the hands.
Normally, the line used in tracking training is not strong enough to provide perfect safety in bite work, especially because we often use the long lines not just as corrective devices but also as tie-out lines to secure the dogs to posts or trees for agitation. The best lines are thirty feet in length, and made of one-inch tubular nylon webbing. The flat, nontubular webbing long lines sold by most vendors are more than strong enough, but they are extremely punishing to the hands. We often find it necessary to make our own lines, and we buy the nylon at a mountaineering shop.
The first function of the agitation collar is to restrain the animal without any possibility of failure. The second function, just as important, is to allow the dog, even encourage it, to use itself physically as hard as it can against the collar.
The agitation collar should therefore be double layered, at least one inch wide so that it will not choke the dog, and fashioned of leather that is soft enough so that the edges of the collar will not bite into the animal’s neck when it throws its weight into the collar. Hardware and rivets should be extremely strong.
In the initial stages of training, the dog is taught spirit, not control. This means that, if it breaks loose suddenly during agitation, the handler may not be able to control it by voice, even if there is time to give commands before the dog reaches the decoy.
Agitation collars are seldom broken. However, among groups of novice trainers they are frequently slipped, meaning that the dogs spin and, in so doing, back their heads out of their heavy leather collars. This is especially a problem with smaller-headed breeds like Doberman Pinschers and Belgian Malinois. This cannot be prevented by tightening the agitation collar without defeating its purpose: With the collar cinched down tight upon its throat the dog cannot strain with all of its power against the leash without choking itself. Therefore, in normal practice the agitation collar should be left relatively loose so that it rides down around the massive muscles of the animal’s neck. Insurance against the dog slipping the collar is provided by the trainer’s skill in handling and also by a safety collar.
The best type of collar for this purpose is a thin nylon choker collar (really just a cord connecting two steel rings) sized much too large for the dog so that it encircles its neck leaving six or eight inches to spare. The safety collar is placed lower on the dog’s neck than the agitation collar, and the live ring is snapped into the leash along with the D ring of the agitation collar. Very often, even if the animal manages to slip its leather collar, the safety collar will stay on and draw tight as it backs out of the leather one.
In order to control the dog, to teach it when it should and should not bite and to pay attention to commands even when it is extremely aroused, a correction collar is needed. With many dogs, especially top-quality working-breed animals that are both physically and psychologically “hard,” a normal chain choke collar will not be sufficient. Therefore, we use a pinch or prong collar.