Drive work has three basic objectives:
1. To establish in the animal boldness, commitment and power by creating an intense desire for combat with the agitator
2. To strike in the dog the best possible balance between defense- and prey-motivated aggression
3. To teach the dog to bite with a full, hard mouth
During the second phase of training, field work, we teach the dog control, harnessing its power to the exercises of the Schutzhund I, II and III protection routine. We cannot proceed to field work until we have fully accomplished the three basic objectives.
In drive work we lay the dog’s foundation. If the dog is not solid, steady of nerve and passionate in desire, then it will not weather the inevitable discouragements of field work. Each correction that the dog receives will diminish its quality and, in the end, we will all wonder why such a good-looking young dog did not turn out as well as we thought it would.
A fundamental difference between the two phases of protection training is that in drive work we physically restrain the animal, while in field work we begin to teach it to restrain itself.
In drive work all control of the dog is physical. We don’t command it—we hold it back. There is no obedience in drive work, because obedience kills drive. There is no punishment, no correction. The dog is manhandled from one place to another, free to strain and fight the collar to its heart’s content. Not only do we allow the animal to struggle against its handler in order to get at the helper, we encourage it. Being physically held back creates the frustration that builds drive.
It is extremely important to understand that protection training is utterly different from obedience. This applies especially to those who, although novices in Schutzhund, are experienced in obedience training and already have their own way of doing things. We do not compel or command the dog to bite, we allow it to. The dog does it on its own and there is little that we can do to help if its nerve fails, especially when it is defending us from someone we are afraid of. It is entirely the dog’s endeavor, and it needs both spirit and a sense of independence to accomplish it. The animal must develop an initiative and a will apart from ours, and obedience training (especially heavy-handed obedience) has just the opposite effect. Slaves make poor bodyguards.
To put it another way: We don’t need brakes until we have some horsepower.
GOAL 1: The puppy will bite the sack.
Important Concepts for Meeting the Goal
1. Playing with the sack
2. Working on the agitator
3. Making prey over the sack
4. Beginning runaway bites
Ideally, drive work begins in puppyhood. But, because puppies are neither physically nor psychologically fully developed and are consequently more fragile than adults, the vast majority of puppy work is based on prey.
The first step is simply to play with the puppy and establish a biting response to the burlap sack. This response will be automatic and very strong in some puppies. With others the desire must be awakened and the mechanics of the bite itself worked upon (puppies are clumsy!).
It is not necessary to use an agitator in this initial stage. The handler can accomplish a great deal by playing with the puppy himself. There are two important points to remember. First, the puppy must always be the victor and win the rag from its handler, so that it does not learn the habit of giving up. Second, we must never play the game until the puppy grows tired or bored with it. In fact, throughout training, no matter what the age or level of the dog, the fundamental rule of agitation is: Never allow the animal as many bites as it wants.
Once the puppy displays a strong biting response to the burlap rag, and once it is accustomed to the leash and collar, it is ready for formal agitation. This may be as early as ten or twelve weeks of age.
Very confident, driven puppies can work all by themselves, one on one with the training decoy. Less confident puppies will profit from being agitated in groups that include older, more experienced animals that pursue the helper hotly, so that the youngsters can learn by watching them. If a puppy is too interested in pursuing the other dogs instead, and ignores the decoy, then wait a few sessions to see if it begins to transfer its interest to the decoy. If not, begin agitating the puppy by itself.
The best group agitation method is line agitation. The dogs and handlers are arrayed in a line at evenly spaced intervals. The decoys run up and down the line, zigzagging, jinking and waving sacks, and hiding in blinds when they need rest. Movement is continuous, fast and very exciting, and the decoys take care never to run directly at any of the younger puppies. For the first few sessions, the completely naive animals are placed at the ends of the line and ignored by the helpers until they are accustomed to the situation. If they show no fear of the decoys or the other dogs, and if they pursue the sack, then they are gradually included in the activities of line agitation.
Once the puppy is comfortable in the line, and once its desire for the sack is intense, the helper begins allowing it bites. At first, he just lets the pup snatch the rag out of his hand as he passes by. Later, he keeps hold of the rag for a moment or two after the puppy seizes it, and tugs lightly. If the youngster bites impetuously and with a big mouth on the sack, and holds fast to it, the helper begins progressively to make it fight harder and harder in order to win the prey.
While struggling over the rag, the agitator must be active and vigorous with the puppy without either intimidating it or being physically punishing with the youngster. The trick is to appear violent but to be gentle.
Once the decoy allows the puppy to take the rag away from him, he waits quietly while the handler praises the animal and then gently forces the puppy to give it up and drop it on the ground. Then the decoy moves in toward the grounded sack—the puppy’s prey. The decoy should act submissive and fearful as he approaches. He directs his attention always toward the rag, not the puppy, reaching tentatively for the burlap and then skittering back. Furthermore, he makes no attempt to threaten or stimulate defensive behavior. However, if the pup suddenly becomes a little aggressive toward him, he must react, retreating in order to reward the animal’s attempts to guard its prey.
As the helper reaches for the sack, the puppy will normally strive to repossess it, straining toward it and trying to bite it. The helper should encourage this prey-guarding impulse by grabbing the sack as if to steal it and then flicking it, in the same motion, up into the youngster’s jaws.
Eventually, the agitator steals the prey, snatching it away with a motion that causes it to flare out, bringing it alive again so that the pup is stimulated to pursue it once more.