My Schutzhund 3 male is 5 years and will not out in trials. In training we work with electric collars but the dog is trial wise and will not out in a competition. What can we do?

Bernard Flinks (one of the best trainers in Germany) came up with a pretty goofy trick that works. During training, every time you take the dog out to put the collar on you should wet the dogs neck down. Get it good and wet. Then on trial day you do the same thing. You wet the dogs neck, only obviously the collar does not go on. 99% of the dogs out there will Out in a trial.

A friend of mine has a dog from my breeding. I will not mention his name, but he has a tough dog that he was going to retire for this very reason. This little trick has worked miracles for him. He is still competing with the dog and the dog is Outing during trial.

Another methods that works is to put a little mustard on the dog every time you put the e-collar on. Then on the day of the trial take a little mustard and make a big deal of putting a collar on the dog just before going in for the protection work. This triggers an involuntary response in the dog and they will OUT.

This method is not one that should be considered for a police service dog or a personal protection dog. Police officers cannot always wet a dog’s neck down before the dog is deployed. In addition, a service dog can (and in my opinion should) wear an electric collar when it is worked on the street.

Similar issues go with personal protection dogs. The fact is that the OUT is not that important with personal protection dogs. If the decision is made to deploy a personal protection dog and it actually bites someone, it may be wiser to leave the dog on the suspect until the police arrive. Then the dog can be lifted off the bite.