May 20, 2011
I have a question about training my working puppy to bark. What command should I use? I want to train him for protection work.
Full Question:
Cindy,My husband and I are working with our GSD who is still just a young puppy on things like beginning bite work, basic obedience etc. We intend to work with a professional in the future on protection work. However, right now I have one question as I am not new to training but new to protection work. We are using English words for come, down, sit, and stay. We plan to use german commands for bite, watch/guard, etc.
My question then is that I am not sure if the speak command is later incorporated into when the dogs bark at a helper/suspect or if "barking" and "watching" are two totally different things. Basically I want to start getting him to bark now and need to know if we will later use that same command to "shape" the behavior of barking at another person. If this is so than I guess we should be using a german word for that as well. I hope I am writing this so that you understand my concern. I just don't want to teach him with the word speak and later when we get help/direction on where to go next... I don't want to be told that we have to either use the word speak now when getting him to guard OR have to change the word on the dog who is ready to learn the right way now.
If this is confusing give me a call. I am just laying the foundational work now and doing what I know and can do for this puppy. I feel we are doing a great job as novice's but need some advice. Thank you for your time. You website and products are wonderful.
Carly
Cindy's Answer:
You can use whatever word you like to teach your puppy to “speak” because barking/guarding in protection work is completely different than learning to bark as an obedience command.
Sometimes in the early stages of bite training, if the dog is really focused on the prey he won’t want to bark in which case the handler can “help” the dog by saying speak or bark or whatever the dog’s word is. This may help the dog connect the dots faster but getting the dog to bark in protection work is usually left to the helper/decoy and is brought out through defense much later in the dog’s training.
Even if you want to use another bark command later it’s no big deal to add another word to your dog’s vocabulary.
I hope this helps.
Cindy
Sometimes in the early stages of bite training, if the dog is really focused on the prey he won’t want to bark in which case the handler can “help” the dog by saying speak or bark or whatever the dog’s word is. This may help the dog connect the dots faster but getting the dog to bark in protection work is usually left to the helper/decoy and is brought out through defense much later in the dog’s training.
Even if you want to use another bark command later it’s no big deal to add another word to your dog’s vocabulary.
I hope this helps.
Cindy
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