Dog Sports Q&As

Ok, this might sound bad, but I'm going to become Homeless this year and I'm a Girl. So I, want to get a dog to protect me. So I want it to be aggressive toward people. I know its a liablity and dangerous but I don't have $$ for protection training. Is there certain thing or things I can do to making him this way. And is there a test I can do on him to see if he can be aggressive? I'm think of getting a German Shepherd or American Pitbull Terrier. 6-10 months old. Also I would be very car...

Cindy, We have a very small female puppy (~12 lbs @10 weeks) and are working with her to encourage prey drive as a start for protection. She seems to have good prey drive for moving objects (compared to my last dog and my friend's GSDs) and is crazy for the leather bite rag. I want to take it slow with her development since my last dog was damaged by a well respected trainer starting defense work too early (this is just my opinion and suggestions from other working breeders of this type of...

I recently joined a Schutzhund club with my dog. Although I love the sport, some members have recently suggested withholding food from him except for out of my hand and he works for it. They feel he needs work on his focus. My concern is that he's a 90-lb. dog, and the most I've been able to hand feed him doesn't even come close to what he eats a day. One of the other members has a dog he's been doing this with for about 2 months and the dog looks like a Holocaust victim. I'm not finding ...

I want to train my new puppy in Schutzhund (would rather to Mondio but can't find any help locally). I have started with bite work on my own and the basic obedience. Last Saturday, we went to a Schutzhund club for evaluation and instructions. I was told I should not be doing any obedience training whatsoever, just work on tugging and getting him to hold the bite. I was told to just let him be a puppy and let him be with no corrections, letting him be the boss of the house, and let him think h...

My working dog has started to typewrite on the arm, and has since develop dirty biting techniques because of previous poorly trained agitators. As a result of this, I cannot trust my dog off lead. Any suggestions on how to re-train her to bite the sleeve correctly and hold. Thank-you.

I've watched many of your vids on youtube. I thought about protection training and decided I was afraid that my dog maybe a liability. Recent events: my ex, a recent former pack member, broke into my residence in a violent way. My 7 month old german shepherd did not react like she does with a stranger. She is very high drive and intimidating by barking and lunging at doors and windows. He beat me for a long period until the police arrested him. I know she was confused but she did not ba...

Hi Cindy, Hope you are well. Just wanted to run 2 questions by you and Michael. 1. Deep Bark - in prey drive? I train Sch and would like to do as much as possible with my young dog in prey drive only. He has fantastic drives and a lovely friendly temper and I would like to keep it that way and continue training in prey drive only. This is why I like Michael's system so much. My only concern is the barking at the blind - at high level competitions it is desired that the dog shows what pe...

My GSD is 7 months and I am starting protection training. Is it a hindrance to the dog to have on a agitation collar vs agitation harness? I just want to get the best out of my dog when he is doing bite work. Thanks

Hi Cindy, I tried to look for precise answers on your website, but I couldn't find them. My trainer says I should always have my GSD in a crate when he's in my SUV and we're on the road. Then, he tells me about the ins and outs of car jacking training. Would you please tell me catagorically, if possible, whether a dog should ALWAYS be in a crate while I'm driving, or is it acceptable to let him loose but put him in a "down" in the rear portion of the vehicle. After all, how the hell ...

Hi Cindy, I train my dog with German commands. I use platz for down in training. If I am at home and just want to call my dog over to come and lay down by my side, what German words should I use? It seems platz should only be used in SCH training. Thanks.

Hi Cindy, I need help with the send out. I bought the Ellis video. My dog used to have a great send out, and will do it in training, but refused to go out in my last 3 trials. I thought I had it fixed before this last weekend. He did practice send out fine, then would not go in the trial. Any ideas? Mike

Ed, I don't know how many experienced handlers start with a puppy vs. buying a started dog for Schutzhund. Personally, I rarely have the patients to raise a puppy in the hopes that I picked the right dog, and don't have any prohibitive health issues. I have bought and studied all the dvds through retrieve training, and feel like these are great DVDs, but are basically geared to people raising pups. I was wondering if you and Michael couldn't devote an entire DVD to converting adult dogs co...

I have watched Teaching Protection Skills without a Decoy and it is very impressive, but I have a question. Does all that training train into aggression when being an adult? I mean, does the dog learn with the target for personal protection as a threat not just a sleeve overtime? I'm a big fan :)

Interesting that the AKC has developed a working dog title. Didn't they previously have a policy that they would not permit any dog sport that 'allowed a dog to bite a human being'? I'm paraphrasing of course. I'm all for working dog titles and as soon as my breeder in Canada can produce a good working Black Russian Terrier male, I will be starting my dog down the Schutzhund trail. I might even take a look at AKC working title. Just finished your video on pups 8 weeks to 8 mon...

Hi Ed, Please help me with a problem with my 14 month old GSD. You have kindly responded to my e-mails in the past and through your DVDS and articles I have gathered a wealth of information. I compete in working trials and part of the nose work test is for the dog to locate and retrieve small articles hidden in a 25 yard square. This test may be performed directly after a 1,000 yard track on stubble, grass or plough on which the dog must indicate a further three articles. Therefore this...

Hi Ed, Hope all is well in your New Year. First of all, I'm happy to see you have quite a few selections out on DVD . Rats, to bad I hadn't checked before XMAS but my birthday is in March, I'll start dropping the hints and if that doesn't work I'll just drop my own credit card. Ah, one of the perks of age, independent spending. Next, my dog is best described as a pet. A great one at that, very middle of the road. He is neither submissive or dominant, he's not hard or soft, doesn't displ...

How do you train the 90 degree corner in sport tracking?

Hi Ed, I have a 9 month old puppy. She doesn't naturally have a high food drive, so my trainer says we will need to build it. When line tracking, if she is not REALLY, REALLY hungry, sometimes she may not care to do the exercise. (We do not feed her before training exercises.) We have backed off on obedience training at this point since she is young, and also because she didn't really show a high interest in the food reward. Do you have a video that would help me to build this kind of d...

Hi Mr. Frawley, I know I have sent this to you already and I understand that you are probably very busy. I apologize for being so persistent and this probably sounds like such a stupid question, however I would appreciate any advice or reference to articles on your web page that could shed some light regarding this issue. As I previously mentioned it's regarding a two and a half year old GSD bitch training towards IPO 1. We are having problems with her bite. She keeps biting on her front t...

I live in an area that is overrun with bugs (ants). When I put food on the ground, by the time the track ages and my dog tracks to the food - it?s covered with hundreds of bugs. What can I do?