Product Description

This is the second soft arm to use with your puppy. The idea behind using a Puppy Soft Sleeve with your young pup is to do imprint training to build a strong foundation in your dog. It helps to build confidence and to develop a full grip as well as exposing your dog to different surfaces/textures in bite work.

The name for this sleeve can be misleading. This sleeve is made from very durable synthetic material (the same as the material used in body bite suits). In fact, it is similar in design to a sleeve off of a body bite suit. This sleeve is ambidextrous and can be used on either the right or left arm. This Puppy Soft Sleeve is only designed to cover and protect the forearm. There is no handle inside for grip as there is in the larger soft sleeves.

The foundation to bite training is done is small incremental steps. Young pups start bite work on a soft Leather Bite Rag and then graduate to a short puppy tug or Puppy Soft Sleeve, from there the dogs are moved on to a Young Dog Sleeve, then to the Intermediate Soft Sleeve, then to an Advanced Soft Sleeve or a Body Bite Suit, and finally a Hidden Sleeve or muzzle.

The step from the Puppy Soft Sleeve to the Young Dog Soft Sleeve is made when the young dogs mouth and jaw structure is big enough to grab and hold the sleeve. This is usually around 6 months of age. The transition to the intermediate soft arm is then done between 7-12 months of age, depending on the dogs skill level. If you have any questions about this see my DVD titled The First Steps of Bite Training.

The fact that a soft sleeve allows the dog to feel movement inside the sleeve as the helper vocalizes during the bite is often seen as an advantage to a dog that is being trained for personal protection and police work. Often times, dogs that are only trained on hard sleeves have a problem when they first grip a suspect because they have never bit into something soft that moves. The use of soft sleeves can help get you over this hurdle.

These sleeves come from Europe in different colors. We do not order specific colors. We can only sell the colors they send us. Sometimes the sleeves are red, blue, black or a tan color. We have no control over the color.