It seems that every generation of working dog trainers has an older generation behind it that is fond of telling how much harder the dogs of the old days were. We have heard these stories again and again. However, we are inclined to believe them, because we have seen how dogs were trained in the old days. They had to be hard.
For example, the old-time method of teaching the hold and bark involved standing a decoy thirty-one feet away, sending the dog at him and then correcting the animal very sharply with a long line when it hit thirty feet, six inches. This procedure is roughly analogous to knocking down in one instant a house that has been painstakingly constructed over a period of many months. All the dog’s life up to this moment, its trainers have urged it on in bite work, stoked the flames of its desire, never asking it to hold one bit of itself back. Now, in one instant, they change the rules, with rather unpleasant consequences for the animal.
However, this crude sort of method does work, if only in the sense that we can use it to easily teach the typical dog not to bite a person who is standing still. The shock and confusion produced by the unprecedented correction inhibit the animal, damping its excitement. The dog’s desire to bite brings it pain, so it powers down, resorting to other behavior. Because it feels unsure, it begins to bark, and the decoy rewards it for barking by moving and inducing the animal to bite. The lesson for the dog is clear: Cope with control and corrections by calming down, by stopping the flow of energy. Wait until conditions change, until control lifts, and then come into drive again.
We call this training for control by inhibition. It yields dogs that are one kind of animal when they are free to bite, and another, much lesser animal when they are restrained by control.
It is not difficult to train a dog this way. One needs only persistence and a heavy hand—and a hard dog. We can even produce a good dog by training with inhibition. But the difference between a good dog and a great dog is that a great dog is as calm, confident, aggressive and powerful when under control as when actually biting.
When a great dog is forbidden to bite, when commanded to “Out!” its drive does not diminish. It does not suddenly become less dog than it was a moment before. Instead, it energizes a new behavior, carrying all its energy intact as it outs and begins to bark powerfully.
We call this training for control by activation, and it depends upon making the animal understand perfectly what it is that it must do in order to get what it wants from us.
Nothing weakens the spirit like confusion, uncertainty and passive obedience to compulsion. The method of training for control by activation that we present here is designed to prevent both confusion and stress for the dog. By offering it clear, comprehensible alternatives that are both gratifying for it and also the result we desire, we avoid the necessity of using harsh compulsion to control the dog in bite work.
GOAL 1: The dog will hold and bark in front of a motionless agitator.
In Schutzhund bite work, there are really only four major skills that the dog must master: the hold and bark, the out, obedience on the protection field and the blind search. Of these four, the hold and bark and the out are by far the most important. Furthermore, the out is no more than an elaboration on the hold and bark—it follows quite naturally.
Therefore, we believe that the hold and bark is the fundamental concept of control in Schutzhund protection, and we teach it thoroughly before introducing any of the other skills.
How we teach the hold and bark is absolutely vital, because this exercise will constitute the dog’s first encounter with the issue of control. If the dog learns to channel its energy, to switch gears instantly from one behavior to another, carrying its drive intact, then it will gain the primary ability needed for championship-level protection. If, on the other hand, we inhibit the animal in order to control it, then we will sacrifice something in it that we may never regain.
In drive work, we have already taught the dog that it must bark in order to bite and that its bark has the power to move the decoy, to animate him so that he becomes prey. However, during drive work the animal was always restrained from biting by the leather collar, and barking was inseparably coupled to lunging and fighting the leash. Our problem now is how to uncouple barking from lunging, so that the dog chooses to hold and bark instead of biting when there is no leather collar holding it back.
For this we need a third person. In bite work there is so much to be done all at once and so quickly that the handler needs an assistant who handles the lines for him. The assistant makes corrections, and does much of the physical work of restraining the animal, leaving the handler free to give commands and to praise and support his dog. From now on, when we refer to an assistant, we speak of someone who helps the handler by taking over some of the duties of controlling the dog.
Important Concepts for Meeting the Goal
1. Uncoupling barking from lunging
2. Correcting “dirty” bites
3. Keeping the dog “clean” when sending it from a distance
4. Keeping the dog “clean” when rounding the blind
5. Keeping the dog “clean” off leash
6. Proofing the hold and bark
The assistant holds the dog on two leashes—one connected to an agitation collar, the other running to a correction collar.
As in all bite work up to this point, the dog is not under any obedience command and it is wild with excitement. The handler stands near and encourages the dog to bite the decoy, commanding “Get him!” The assistant restrains the animal with the wide leather agitation collar, letting the correction leash hang loose.
The exercise begins, as do all control exercises, with an excitation phase. Rather than soothe or calm the dog, we stimulate it. As if it were a turbine, we try to give the animal momentum by running it up as high as it will go. The helper therefore agitates the dog vigorously, moving in close to it and letting it try for the sleeve several times. After five or ten seconds of excitation, the agitator steps back a pace and “freezes.” An instant later, two things happen simultaneously.
• the handler commands his dog to “Search!”
• the assistant drops slack into the agitation collar leash and, before the dog can lunge forward and bite, checks it sharply with the correction collar
Each time the animal surges forward it is met with a jerk just strong enough to stop it. The assistant’s objective is to get the dog to stop lunging, stand back off the collar so that the leashes hang slack and bark. Furthermore, he must do this while inhibiting the dog as little as possible.
The dog is often very persistent about lunging and attempting to bite. As the animal fights the collar and the agitator stands still and the seconds tick by, the turbine winds down. As the animal calms, it gradually ceases lunging. Unfortunately, it often ceases barking as well, and only stares fixedly at the decoy.
It is the agitator’s job, when he sees this happening, to jump away (the dog loses its quarry when it does not bark!) and restimulate the dog. As he does so, two more events occur simultaneously:
• the handler exhorts the dog excitedly, commanding it again to “Get him!”
• the assistant snaps the slack out of the agitation collar leash, bringing it tight, and drops slack into the correction collar leash, so that the dog is free to lunge into the leather collar in pursuit of the helper