May 17, 2011

I signed up for a protection dog class and I feel that I have been scammed. Can I do the helper work on our own dog?

Full Question:
I've been doing agitation work, and training my dog for the past 6 months now. To better my knowledge as an agitator, and trainer I've recently purchased a couple of your training tapes, and numerous books on the subject. I've come to the conclusion that I've been caught up in a bit of a scam. It's a combination obedience-protection class. One Hour of obedience (mostly healing) immediately followed by bite work. The class contains approximately 15 dogs.

All dogs are present during the bite work. The advanced dogs would all fall in to the category of extreme prey drive with no defense training. I love working with the dogs and wanted to continue towards Schutzhund competition. My girlfriend is also in the class, due to her need of a protection dog. Would my working our dogs myself cause problems? Could she pose as the handler, and myself as the agitator, or would this open up problems in the advanced stages? Your tapes talk of the handler working the dog in prey drive early in the training, but I'm unsure to what degree of isolation between the dog and agitator should be used in the defense stages to prevent problems. We both have quality bloodline Shepherds and want to continue in our training. I've been unable to locate any kind of club or training in this area that's of any quality. Can I continue to train our dogs or have we been left up creek so to speak?

Keith
Ed
Ed Ed's Answer:
While it’s always better to have experienced strangers do helper work this is not always possible. You can do a lot of the prey work and bite development yourself.

You can not do defensive or aggression work yourself. At that point you are going to have to find another person to help you.

A lot of dogs are trained in sport work 100% in prey. This happens when people do not understand bite work or when an individual can not handle a dog in defense/aggression so its better to work the dog in prey.

I would recommend my video The First Steps of Defense.

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Expert Dog Trainer Cindy Rhodes
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