In the beginning, the decoy keeps his distance from the dog on the two false starts; he stops well short to avoid intimidating the animal. And when he does close with the dog for the bite, he is not terribly forceful.
Later in training, he becomes progressively more unyielding and aggressive. He stops his charge only inches short on the false starts, and when he comes to the dog for the bite he will give the impression, until the last instant, that he is going to crash head-on into the animal. Here, where conditions are ideal for the dog because it is held on a tight leash and closely supported by its handler, we show the animal the hardest, most intimidating courage tests that it will ever experience, so that it will be absolutely accustomed to the worst a decoy can ever do. The helper must show no give to the dog. He must charge down at the animal as though he had no intention of slowing down. However, he must also be extremely adept at braking himself at the last instant and then slipping to the side so that the dog experiences only the very slightest collision as it bites.
Any satisfactorily prepared dog of fair character can be made to bite like a lion in this static courage test. The problem will be to get it to bite just as powerfully at a distance and unrestrained by the leash. We accomplish this by performing a careful transition composed of several intermediate steps.
First, we set up the static courage test exercise again, with one difference. On the third pass, instead of remaining stationary and waiting for the decoy to arrive, the handler runs the dog forward to meet him. Now the dog actually has the experience of charging at an onrushing agitator, but it is supported and inspired by the leash that tightly restrains it to half speed.
Second, on the final pass of the static courage test the handler drops the leash, allowing the dog to rocket forward across the last few yards still separating it from the charging agitator and crash into the sleeve. The effect of releasing the pent-up, frustrated animal at such a moment is much like loosing an arrow from a tightly drawn bow.
Next, we forego the initial two passes. The dog is released on the helper’s first charge, when the helper is still fifty or sixty feet out.
Next, we send the dog at long distance, with the agitator seventy-five to 100 yards away. Agitator and dog rush toward each other at full speed. The decoy yells and brandishes the stick menacingly. When they are still forty or fifty feet apart, he suddenly stops short and reverses direction. At the moment when the dog arrives, the decoy is in retreat, backpedaling as fast as he can.
Finally, we perform a full courage test at seventy-five to 100 yards. The decoy does not reverse, but instead bores all the way in. The dog is so inspired that neither fear nor hesitation exist for it, and it goes into the decoy with all its strength and spirit.
Thus, by approximating the courage test in several different ways and depending upon the animal’s blind eagerness to carry it into the sleeve, we bring the dog to the point that it will perform a brilliant, spectacular courage test the first time that we give it the opportunity.
At this point, everything depends upon the helper. He must rush the dog in such a fashion that the dog is fairly challenged, but he must also, at all costs, avoid a head-on collision with the animal. A good decoy does this by, at the last instant, slipping his body mass—his center of gravity—out from behind the sleeve and allowing the dog’s inertia to pivot him. The maneuver requires considerable experience and athletic ability and, if badly done, it can be dangerous for the animal. Therefore, with a good dog that bites bravely, one must be extremely cautious about sending it on courage tests.
However, at the same time, there is no need to practice the courage test frequently. Quite to the contrary, the fewer the full courage tests the dog performs, and the fewer impacts it experiences, the more impressive it will be on trial day.
The only problem we have encountered in using this method is that sometimes the dogs become too brave, too committed to the bite. In the case of a dog that is too fast in the courage test for its own safety (or the agitator’s, for that matter) we simply practice the courage test repetitively. We use an expert helper, keep the distances short in order to keep the dog safe, and after repeated impacts the animal normally becomes more prudent.
SUMMARY
Depending upon the dog and the trainers, the drive-work phase of protection training may last anywhere from two to eighteen months. The time interval is not important. The task is accomplished and the dog is ready to progress only when it bites with a reasonably full mouth and great power, is reasonably well-balanced between prey and defense, has absolutely no fear of being driven and stick-hit and performs the most impressive courage test of which it is capable.
However, do not think that drive work is ever entirely finished. Throughout the dog’s working career, we will concern ourselves constantly with maintaining (and intensifying, if possible) our dog’s desire to bite. This task was vital early in its training, as we sought to establish its power. It may be even more important in field work, when we will begin, for the first time, to harness and control that power.
16
Protection: The Hold and Bark and the Out
A few years ago, while discussing the nature of control with a fellow trainer, we heard a story that illustrates the central problem of field work.
“I once had a wonderful young dog that bit like a lion. One day, very proudly, I showed him to an old-time German dog trainer, and asked this man if my youngster was not truly a good dog. The old man said, ‘Show him to me again when he has three years and a clean bark and a clean out and still he bites like that, and then I will say that he is a good dog.’”
What the old man meant was simply this: A dog that bites with fire and bravery is not so rare. What is rare is an animal that has the strength to be strongly controlled by its handler, and still bite with fire and bravery.
Our German friend put his finger on an idea that we have since learned to be indisputably true. The acid test of a biting dog’s quality comes when, for the first time, it is forced to restrain itself during agitation. Many animals simply cannot support being controlled and corrected in bite work instead of being constantly encouraged. When the only load on their nerves comes from the person in front of them, they shine. But when pressure comes from behind, from their handlers (and some very hard-looking dogs can be extraordinarily sensitive to pressure from this direction), they crumble. Where before they were sure under the stick, now they flinch. Where before they invariably bit with full mouths, now they chew and back off, rolling their eyes behind them and worrying about the out that they know is coming.