How long should my pup be trained in 'Prey Bite Work' before we start 'Obedience'?

Question

Hi Ed,You were right about trying to work prey drive after a dog has had defense work at too young an age is truly hard. (an editors note here : see the article I wrote titled Training Defense Before Prey is STUPID!!!).I also found a local training place that has your philosophy in mind while training dogs. But since I have made so many mistakes with my 4 year old Root I feel that I need to start over with a puppy. This fact was sadly made evident to me today. They invited me to their facility today. My dog ranked advanced in obedience, and worked off lead well, but when he was faced with the sleeve he gave a defense bark and approach, but when presented with the sleeve he did not hit it at all. He did not see this situation as a threat enough to bit, My dog was used to my old defensive catcher (helper). He knew that if he did not do his job that he would be flanked or grabbed. The new catcher said that he needs more prey work and confidence. In short, my dog was introduced to defense too early, and never learned to bite and release stress at all because at the time I did not even know what prey drive was. The money that it would take to get him to my liking I can plan for another puppy, and enter competitions with.He is a really good dog, but from my lack of knowledge at the time of his early development I impeded his potential. I need to start over with a puppy. My family is looking forward to another pup and so am I.

    I know that it varies from pup to pup, but typically how long should a pup be worked in prey before obedience training should start, so that you do not kill drive?

Accepted Answer

It is not uncommon for inexperienced trainers to initially work defense in young dogs. This situation was not helped when Godfried Dildhie produced a training video recommending this work which only added confusion to the mess. I get more e-mails than I care to think about from people who have had their young dogs screwed up because of this defensive work being done before the dog is ready. The question on obedience is an excellent question. Many schutzhund clubs promote "no obedience" until the prey work is done. That's because this is what the GERMANS that come over for seminars have always told them. I am not a fan of this concept. We Americans need to recognize the fact that everything that comes out of Germany in regard to dog training is not gospel. In my opinion the way to raise a pup is with motivation. This means motivation in prey bite development and motivation for obedience and tracking. There are a million things that can be taught to a puppy through motivational training. All dog training (no matter what you want to train) involves three phases:

        Teaching the exercise motivationally
Take the dog through a correctional phase
Introducing distractions to the exercise

    Puppies that are introduced to the correction phase too soon can be damaged. Just like young dogs that are introduced to defensive bite training too soon are damaged. But if a pup is worked motivationally - no damage can be done to his drive level. If anything the work is embedded into his personality quicker and becomes second nature to him. The challenge to the trainer is to think up motivational ways to stimulate a puppy through what the handler perceives as a problem. It's easy to grab a leash and crank on a dog to correct him for not doing something you think he knows how to do. Its a totally different thing to try and think up what you can do to make the dog want to do what you are asking him to do. A good example of this is teaching a puppy to retrieve a toy (or small dumb bell). We make a game out of it. If its necessary to build drive put the dumb bell on a string (like a tennis ball on a string.) To get the pup to retrieve have a second ball or dumb bell. When the pup charges out for the first toy, show him the second toy after he grabs the first. He will charge back to you with the first toy if you put enough emotion into teasing him with the second. The same goes with teaching a pup to hold something (ie a small toy dumb bell) in his mouth. Why not teach him to hold it and when you take the toy away he gets a small piece of hot dog.

    These are just 2 ideas, there are unlimited options open to trainers to motivationally train pups and none should reduce drive. The big thing new trainers need to understand is that you do not work a pup for 15 minutes. You work him for 2, 3, 4 or 5 minutes. Wait 45 minutes and then do it again, Make it part of your daily walks. The key is to make a training session not seem like a training session. I hope this puts this issue into perspective.