This video is taken directly out of our online course, The Foundation of Puppy Bitework.

Can the handler help the dog’s protection work? We tend to look at play with the handler and bite work as different activities. As the dog develops those things diverge into 2 different worlds. But when we’re working with puppies (pre-teething and very early adolescence) there are a lot of things we do with the handler that have parallels in bite work.

When we play with our puppies, one of the things we’re teaching them is to like to play and use their mouth. But we’re also teaching them to hit a certain (varying) target. We’re also teaching them to ‘out’, to let go. Teaching the dog to ‘out’ in play is a very critical step to teach before moving to protection work.