May 19, 2011
I was told not to start my obedience training on my pups until they were 1 year old. Is that true?
Full Question:
I have 2 male GSD's that I am training for SchH. I am fairly new to the sport but am an experienced dog handler. Both are 5 months old, from different litters. One is DDR/Czech working lines, red sable, the other german working/show, red/black. Both are big healthy boys with what seems to be high drive and good confidence, for their age.For SchH I was told not to do much obedience, if any, on my pups until they are about 1 year old. I was told that during the first year I should be building their prey drive, allowing their confidence cup to overflow, so to speak. Then when they are very confident, high drive, then start controlling that through obedience.
Is this correct? I don't want to get started off on the wrong foot and end up with two out-of-control maniacs at 1 year when I should have been doing something different. I also don't want to be behind in their training because of incorrect advice.
Appreciate your comment.
Thanks,
Sue
Ed's Answer:
The advice you got on obedience is OLD SCHOOL – like 20 years OLD SCHOOL. It is also 100% wrong.
Yes you should be working in prey to build drive. I will talk about that below but you also need to be starting obedience training IN DRIVE. The only way obedience training can effect confidence is if there is a lot of force in the training. Training a pup in drive hurts nothing.
There are 2 training videos I recommend people get to start the protection training process:
Training Drive Focus and Grip
Preparing Your Dog for the Helper
I produced both tapes based on the training of Bernhard Flinks. He is a German police K-9 handler and top Schutzhund competitor.
The beauty of this training program is the handler does all of the foundation work in protection training himself. With young dogs this can start at 8 weeks and go to about 12 to 13 months of age. Older dogs receive the exact same training as young dogs they just proceed through the program a quicker. These videos teach handlers how to do prey drive work with their own dog through drive exercises. Dogs learn the foundation of the exercises that they will need to know when they meet the helper for the first time. I compare this to a father teaching a child karate. He is not really fighting with his children, he is teaching them the moves to use in a fight.
I recommend starting with "Training DRIVE, FOCUS, and GRIP." It is one of my best training videos. It's the first is a series of tapes done with Bernhard Flinks.
It is the foundation of Bernhard's training program. It teaches handlers how to build a relationship of trust and understanding with the dog. Bernhard is the only instructor I have ever seen that places so much emphasis on building a bond between the handler and dog.
The Drive and Focus video teaches you how to build drive in your dog. Every dog inherits a genetic level of drive, this varies from dog to dog. The training in this tape shows how to bring your dog up to its own genetic level of drive. The tape then teaches the dog to show self control while in drive. If you think of it when a dog shows self control when he is in drive this is in effect working under extreme distraction and that's the foundation of obedience training.
Every dog MUST learn to control it's drive if it is to become a competitive Schutzhund dog or a Police Service dog or a Personal Protection dog or a Competition Obedience dog. The later videos in this series will train the dog that heeling, sit, down, and come are drive commands and not compulsion commands.
Through this training we show how to work at building a calm solid grip from day one. A solid grip shows a clear mind. We teach the dog to be comfortable in maintaining the calm grip in the presence of the handler. If a dog can't have a solid grip in the presence of his handler he has a problem with the handler. We show how to address this issue. We also teach the dog in the first steps of the OUT command.
It takes 3 to 5 weeks to work through the training in this video. When the dog has finished this work he is ready to move into the training in the second video. (Preparing Your Dog for the Helper).
There will be a continuing series of about 10 tapes with Bernhard - they will walk you through the process. These videos have all been filmed its just a matter of getting them edited. The next release will take up where these videos leave off.
The announcement of new videos being released is always done on the Table of Contents of my web site.
Yes you should be working in prey to build drive. I will talk about that below but you also need to be starting obedience training IN DRIVE. The only way obedience training can effect confidence is if there is a lot of force in the training. Training a pup in drive hurts nothing.
There are 2 training videos I recommend people get to start the protection training process:
Training Drive Focus and Grip
Preparing Your Dog for the Helper
I produced both tapes based on the training of Bernhard Flinks. He is a German police K-9 handler and top Schutzhund competitor.
The beauty of this training program is the handler does all of the foundation work in protection training himself. With young dogs this can start at 8 weeks and go to about 12 to 13 months of age. Older dogs receive the exact same training as young dogs they just proceed through the program a quicker. These videos teach handlers how to do prey drive work with their own dog through drive exercises. Dogs learn the foundation of the exercises that they will need to know when they meet the helper for the first time. I compare this to a father teaching a child karate. He is not really fighting with his children, he is teaching them the moves to use in a fight.
I recommend starting with "Training DRIVE, FOCUS, and GRIP." It is one of my best training videos. It's the first is a series of tapes done with Bernhard Flinks.
It is the foundation of Bernhard's training program. It teaches handlers how to build a relationship of trust and understanding with the dog. Bernhard is the only instructor I have ever seen that places so much emphasis on building a bond between the handler and dog.
The Drive and Focus video teaches you how to build drive in your dog. Every dog inherits a genetic level of drive, this varies from dog to dog. The training in this tape shows how to bring your dog up to its own genetic level of drive. The tape then teaches the dog to show self control while in drive. If you think of it when a dog shows self control when he is in drive this is in effect working under extreme distraction and that's the foundation of obedience training.
Every dog MUST learn to control it's drive if it is to become a competitive Schutzhund dog or a Police Service dog or a Personal Protection dog or a Competition Obedience dog. The later videos in this series will train the dog that heeling, sit, down, and come are drive commands and not compulsion commands.
Through this training we show how to work at building a calm solid grip from day one. A solid grip shows a clear mind. We teach the dog to be comfortable in maintaining the calm grip in the presence of the handler. If a dog can't have a solid grip in the presence of his handler he has a problem with the handler. We show how to address this issue. We also teach the dog in the first steps of the OUT command.
It takes 3 to 5 weeks to work through the training in this video. When the dog has finished this work he is ready to move into the training in the second video. (Preparing Your Dog for the Helper).
There will be a continuing series of about 10 tapes with Bernhard - they will walk you through the process. These videos have all been filmed its just a matter of getting them edited. The next release will take up where these videos leave off.
The announcement of new videos being released is always done on the Table of Contents of my web site.
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