When the young dog bites with energy and also some force, and shows an intense prey urge to possess and guard the sack (sometimes as early as twelve to fourteen weeks of age), it is time to begin teaching it to pursue the decoy.
At a moment during agitation when the puppy is especially aroused, the helper passes by the puppy quickly, letting it try for but not reach the rag, and keeps going a few steps. The handler lets the puppy run a short way against the resistance of the collar (running with it but holding it back in order to inspire it) and carefully allows the puppy to overtake the decoy and bite the sack. Gradually, these pursuits become longer and longer until finally the handler just drops the leash and allows the puppy to run free.
These fledgling runaways are the young working dog’s first taste of the heady excitement of the chase. If its heart is brave, runaway bites will begin to build in it a warlike passion for the driving sprint and crashing impact of the courage test.
GOAL 2: The puppy will bite the sleeve.
When the puppy begins to teethe at around four months of age, do not discontinue agitation. Simply allow it very few bites, and be sure to be very gentle with its mouth. If the desire to bite has already been well awakened, then several weeks of vigorous, frustrating agitation with very few bites will do the young dog nothing but good.
In general, it is best to wait until the dog is ten to twelve months old before introducing it to the sleeve, even if it has a great deal of quality and is more than willing to bite the sleeve at five to six months, as some puppies are.
Important Concepts for Meeting the Goal
1. Using drive to bring the puppy onto the sleeve
2. Repeating the progression
Do not introduce the youngster to the sleeve carefully, by agitating slowly and then gently offering it to the dog. This method gives the dog too much time to recognize that the sleeve is something different, something it hasn’t seen before, and to hesitate. It is virtually the worst possible way to approach the animal. Always remember that it is the puppy’s drive that gives it power, and that drive arises from intense agitation. We must use the animal’s drive to make it impetuous, so that it dives into new situations without hesitating.
In order to prepare the puppy for its first sleeve bite, it is best to run it through several frustration sessions in which it is agitated but not allowed to bite, so that it is aroused and completely in spirit.
We always “fool” the puppy into biting the sleeve the first few times. The agitator wears a sleeve on his left arm and carries a rag in his right hand. He agitates very energetically for a few moments, running past the puppy and letting it try for the sack, and then, when the animal is quite beside itself with excitement, he steps away. Very quickly, before the moment passes, he wraps the sack loosely about the sleeve and, giving the puppy no time to reconsider, steps in and lets it bite the sack and the sleeve under it.
It is important to drop the sleeve the instant the youngster grabs it. Let the animal win the sleeve before its new weight and texture cause the puppy to have second thoughts. The handler should allow it to maul the sleeve for a moment and then break the puppy loose from it and move the animal back, so that the decoy can snatch the sleeve away and begin to agitate again.
The agitator “fools” the puppy into biting the sleeve for the first time by stimulating the animal with a sack, and then wrapping the sack around the sleeve. (“Blitz”)
As training progresses, the sleeve bites become progressively longer in duration and more challenging. However, we proceed very cautiously. Because the sleeve seems at first to be part of the helper’s body (while the rag is obviously not), biting the sleeve is much more demanding of the puppy’s nerve. For example, we do not assume that just because the young dog does a good, fast runaway bite on the sack that it will automatically do the same on the sleeve. Instead, we repeat the same careful progression we employed on the sack:
• obtain a good, hard bite on the sleeve
• introduce short pursuits on leash
• progress to long pursuits on leash
• introduce short runaways off leash
• progress to long runaways off leash
GOAL 3: The dog will perform committed runaway bites.
By the time that the dog is one year of age it should be biting hard with a crushing, full-mouth grip on the sleeve. If it does not shift its grip while biting, show any sensitivity to the agitator or growl on the sleeve (growling is profoundly defensive, and thus the product of unsureness), then we can begin letting it run free to the bite. The quality of the bite (and of the dog) is seen not only in what the dog does while on the sleeve, but also in how it gets to it. The bite is not just a grip, it is also a strike. When the dog is powerful, when its desire is so overwhelming that it leaves no room in its heart for fear or hesitation, then the dog hurls itself at the agitator.
We first look for commitment in the young or novice dog during the runaway bites. This will be the first time we will have the chance to see the dog bite without the support of a tight leash connecting it closely to its handler.
Important Concept for Meeting the Goal
Once the young dog drives hard into the collar and chases spiritedly in the on-leash pursuits (see Goal 1, Concept 4), it is ready to go off leash. The first runaways should be very short, perhaps ten to thirty feet. If the dog throws itself into the sleeve and bites convincingly, we can gradually make the runaways longer and longer.
Runaway bites are the decoy’s job. How well he catches will determine how hard the dog hits. He must be smooth and well timed so that the young dog does not pay a price in pain for a good, hard impact.
First, he must not run too fast, as a fast pace demands too much calculation on the dog’s part and will slow it as it tries to match its stride to the decoy’s. The trick is to run quite slowly while still giving the impression that one is desperately fleeing. The dog should overtake the agitator like a bolt of lightning!
The decoy must not be unsteady or unpredictable. He must not swerve! He should make a good, reliable target for the animal. There will be plenty of time later on to teach the dog to catch people that try not to be caught. For now, the person should be a sitting duck.
Last, and most important, the agitator must absorb the dog’s momentum effectively. The agitator must pivot smoothly with the animal as it enters the bite, minimizing the impact on neck and jaws. We must not make a good young dog suffer for its courage.
The courageous, spirited animal will thrive on runaway bites, and we will soon begin to use them to reward it when it has done fine work.