After five to ten more seconds of excitation, the decoy freezes again, the handler commands the restimulated dog to “Search!” and the assistant changes over once more to the correction collar.
The perceptive reader will see that there are two phases to the procedure: a drive phase, in which the dog is free to strive against the collar, to bite the agitator if it can; and a control phase, in which the dog cannot strive, and must restrain itself instead.
We cycle repeatedly from one to the other, using the drive phase to stimulate the animal and then dropping it unexpectedly into the control phase, where it has nothing to do with its energy but bark. The more suddenly we make this conversion, the more drive the dog will carry into the control phase and express by barking.
If, after two or three cycles, we are not successful in uncoupling barking from lunging at the agitator—so that the dog does not do the former without the latter, but simply wears itself down into panting silence instead—then the decoy runs away, agitating furiously, and hides. Loss of the opportunity to bite will frustrate the animal and make it more likely to hold and bark next time.
Eventually when, due to chance or to frustration and perplexity on the dog’s part, it finds the solution to the puzzle by rocking back off the collar and ripping out a bark or two, we reward it instantly. The agitator leaps backward, yelling, and the assistant drops the leashes so that the dog can surge forward and bite. The handler comes up and praises his dog extravagantly, patting and encouraging it while it bites.
Then, before the dog has enough of biting, the agitator slips the sleeve, the handler breaks the dog loose from it, the assistant takes up his lines and the cycle is quickly repeated while the memory of what it did to achieve gratification is still fresh in the dog’s mind.
With this system we present to the dog some basic rules that will hold true throughout training. We also present it with a problem and let it learn actively and powerfully by waiting until it stumbles onto the solution itself. The sequence goes like this:
if we physically hold you back…
if the decoy is in motion…
if we command you “Get him!”…
…then go for broke, strive, get him if you can!
However:
if we stop restraining you physically…
if the decoy is motionless…
if we command you “Search!”…
…then you are responsible for holding yourself back.
But what do you do with your energy?
Channel it to another behavior…
BARK!
…and you will be rewarded!
If the procedure is executed perfectly, the dog will never have the chance to take a dirty bite when the agitator is standing still. The animal will attain its goal and relieve its frustration only by channeling to barking and thereby winning the opportunity to bite. As a result, it will soon lock in to the hold and bark. This is the way that dogs become clean for life in the blind.
However, in dog training very little works perfectly, and when we least expect it, an aroused dog will steal six extra inches of slack from us and grab the sleeve. What do we do?
The traditional method is to punish, to take vengeance, to physically correct so severely that the animal never forgets the retribution and pain associated with a dirty bite. The problem is that this treatment will inhibit the low- to medium-powerful dog, and it will enrage the very powerful dog, so that it bites twice as hard next time around.
There is another way. The object is not to take vengeance upon the animal when it makes a mistake; the object is to cheat it of its aim unless it does the job our way. What is the dog’s aim? Not just to bite, but to spend drive, to make combat. That takes two. In order for a bite to be gratifying, the decoy has to fight back.
Accordingly, if the dog takes a dirty bite, the decoy simply stands absolutely still. The handler steps up, tells the dog quietly “No!” and breaks it off the sleeve very quickly. The exercise is immediately repeated. There is no yelling, no emotion, no excitement. The error is “glossed over” as though it never happened. The excitement and emotion will come next time when the dog does a fine hold and bark. The decoy will give it a wonderful, vigorous fight for the sleeve, and the handler will exclaim his pleasure and praise of the dog.
Thus far, the dog has remained stationary and the decoy has come to it for the hold and bark. Now we are ready for the animal to advance and the agitator to stand still. We must be prudent because, when the dog takes a run at a person, it has not only physical momentum but psychological momentum as well, and is very likely to forget itself and bite.
Therefore, in the beginning, the assistant carefully walks the dog up to the decoy on the leather collar, and then checks the animal with the correction command if necessary. As the dog becomes more and more reliable, the assistant will move it faster and faster and over progressively longer distances in order to reach the agitator, until he is finally running as fast as he can in his efforts to keep up with the dog.
During this procedure, the handler should vary his position about the field, giving his commands from different distances and directions. If the dog is absolutely clean, so that it stops short and begins to bark all on its own with no correction or cue necessary, then we are ready for the next step.
We must now let the dog run free to the decoy—without the assistant at its heels. We keep the animal clean by sending it on a long line.
Beforehand, the assistant measures the line out on the ground and marks the spots where he will stand and where the decoy will stand. This way he knows just how much line he has to work with, and he can check the animal at exactly the right moment, if necessary. However, if its schooling is proceeding correctly, the dog is already much bound by habit, and the line should be almost superfluous.
If it is necessary to correct the animal again and again with the line, then the dog is not yet ready to progress to this stage of training.
So far, we have performed all our work on the hold and bark in the open field. We have not yet tried the exercise in a blind. The blinds can present us with two difficulties:
• Some animals are a little shy of the blind, so that they are not quite as powerful when they are required to enter this more enclosed space in order to bark. This is normally easily remedied with just a bit of work in and around the blinds.