This is not aimed at any one please; it is just some insight into the methodology used here to train Boerboel with.

The biggest mistake we have found that are made with Boerboel training is inconsistency in the rearing of the animal, with impatient ness and or inconsistency in behaviour by the handler, owner. They mostly start out in the house and then go on and progress, to on the bed, and even in the bed, and as they grow bigger, the novelty fades, the bond disappears, and they get screamed at and then thrown out side and get board and frustrated with the owner, or some people even crate these big dogs, once they become too big for the house, or give you the ugly eye, people get afraid of them, when they start to demand attention, or want to make play, and intemperate it as aggression. I can site many examples of poor upbringing. The point is, if you want him to be a good protector, you have to start him from the word go, with firm discipline and rituals, if he jumps up to make play, he must get an instant correction. They need wide open spaces, never crate them for the night; this dog wants to be close to the owner.

Is it Nerves or emotions (the character traits of the breed) that we are seeing when gauging the dog’s maturity to work – this dog is mostly submissive to the owner and family it is in their nature, regardless of its size. With fear or aggression- either genetically inherited or emotional imprinted or even learned and lastly through their diet – yes studies have shown that young large breed dogs deprived of protein or with protein deficient diets become emotionally unstable and nervous with over excitable personalities – we give them special diets, high on protein, like goats milk and pap ( a maize porridge) .

So selection of a Boerboel on face value for PPD dog training on first interaction is just not the way to do it. You have to get to know the dog and get the dog to get to know you. All dogs are trainable to some degree in my book, even if they bite out of fear, it is only natural for any dog to bite, you just have to find the trigger, dogs with seemingly weak nerves can also be trained in obedience and the nerved dog tends to become relaxed through all the interaction. So don’t punish the breed punish the deeds of the trainer if you don’t get results with this breed. I have found many dogs that get thrown into training without being socialized first, or even being comfortable with a chocker and lead around the neck, this is a required part of strengthening of the handler/dog social bond, having the dog settled in first with being outside his natural environment and on lead, and then progressing to agitation after several weeks of obedience is a good way to get the Boerboel under the skin to show his true full potential.

We do not use food rewards here with this breed, we mix it up. Now some may ask where is the reward or how do you reward them, it’s simple – we give what could be termed a Hidden reward- with loving and kind attention from he owner if the dog obeys or behaves in a certain way, then through early learning and imprinting by playing games with the pup, tug, and ball, it teaches a dog for life what is excepted and what not. Just with voice commands, gestures and a lead and chocker will the dog be trained. With young and old Boerboel expect a lot of comfort seeking behaviour, any Boerboel would melt if you just apply pressure to training out of nowhere, just like with humans they need to know they belong and exactly where is it that they belong, and what part they have to play in this game – with this said the first step is to establish a training foundation with the dog, to solidify a bond and dominance over the dog that is in balance, this will be your safety catch, once the dog is fully trained.

It is also important to understand that a dog trained in this fashion has two sides to his emotional state; the other side is excitement that comes from the praise or agitated ness that comes from the pressure, or stressors like an assailant that impede his training if you are not tuned into the dogs cycles of maturity, it will ruin the dog for sure.

Sometimes the young Boerboel are seemingly a little too "man-oriented", they just won’t fight, or bite no matter what you try, mostly from introducing to much pressure to early on without having done any prepping towards attack work, or bite work is not good. As the dog and handler gain experience in obedience training we introduce tugs, and whips, we begin to go to different places with them, and make it a game.

The common phenomena in dogs, that of backing away under “survival stress” results from their visual systems deterioration, that of the peripheral field to attain more information regarding the threat stimulus. Since the brain is demanding more information to deal with the threat, so when the environment is known and everything in it as well, only then you won’t see this, no flooding of information will take place, by yielding to this principle we do everything incrementally. Before we start man work we first get the dogs fit, use to the training area, the lead and the handler giving commands.

Again, any knowledgeable and experienced helper can fairly easily run the vast majority of younger and or sport trained only dogs completely off the field if he so desires, but what does that "prove"? Almost any dog can be put into avoidance, not just the Boerboel, if that is what you wish to do... a friend of mine has a good example of what this implies; you would be amazed at what a pair of swim fins, a cape and a gas mask will do to even the toughest old street dog's nerve the very first time he sees them being worn by a strange helper in a new place! Even squirting water from your mouth into the dog's face will do it for many sport trained or "green" dogs. If the dog hesitates because I squirted water in his face for the first time, does this mean his temperament is "weak"? Answer...no, not based on that fact alone. He must learn he can overcome such things and win, but this takes time, and trainable moments in training will give the opportunities to training. After two or three times, water or swim fins will be "no problem man" and the bite will be back where it was before, or will be forth coming. I use a whip, only as an audible device that moves and makes noise to up the pressure with.


To deliberately try and make heavy stress during protection work initiation as a routine thing for a dog is just to far too often disastrous; it results with a bag of nerves with a hair trigger in every situation...not my idea of a good PSD, PP or Sport dog training program. There are much better ways to accomplish the same thing...assuming the dog does not have a weak temperament.

If the goal is for the dog to take a lot of punishment and continue the fight, then the way to do this is the same as with all other training...incrementally. A really good helper can give more stress with his eye contact and body language, by stroking a dog on the bite, than many can with a whip or stick. (Begin at low level(s), stress the dog very...VERY...briefly, and bring him right back to prey and he wins.

We build the pray drive up and work on that on a daily basis, I am not going to go into it in detail, but by ball play, tug, and soft arm, we get the dog to bite as a form of play. Whilst bringing in the command and the praise.

Most of what I have written here is not rocket science or new, the thing is we don’t scrap dogs until they have been through a good foundation training cycle of 16 weeks to prepare the dogs for man work, its our attitude, or methodology that differs with this breed, and this is why we have success with them. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

REINIER,
I guess we're just going to have to agree to disagree here.

When I run across a Boerboel that could survive what I'd call just normal, everyday training, I'll certainly post about it ( notice that I've posted threads when the CC's got a SchH title to prove myself wrong ) but until that day my opinion about the Boerboel's use as a working dog remains the same.

I still disagree with about 90% of what you're saying based on my first hand experiences with the breed but if your experiences are so different than all the other Boerboel owners in this country, so be it.

REINIER,

About half of what you wrote could apply to any breed in any type of training.

All of the other stuff confirms to me that the vast majority of Boerboel are unsuitable for protection work or any other type of job...as it sems they have to be handled like a Faberge Egg as not to damage their delicate psyche....

In my less than expert knowledge of the breed, the Boerboel is a big, scary dog that has been used historically to guard things and protect people/livestock. If the boerboel today cannot do these things, we need to ask ourselves WHY...and I'm pretty certain the answer has nothing to do with some perceived emotional connection that this dog has to have to function...or that they have to wear a flat collar vs a pinch...or that the planets must be properly aligned.

If people spent half as much time thinking about their breeding goals, being honest about their dogs and the expectation of the work....as they do trying coax and finesse their 'working dog' to do the work (and not just their dog, but the breed as a whole) - the entire working dog community would be much better off.

Sorry for the rant...This is not an attack on Reinier, but a general rant about what I and many others see all too often with many breeds and breed fanciers.

Can a truly good dog be ruined? If a dog can get ruined, was it any good to begin with? Honest question.

YES. It all depends on your definition of ruined. But the simple answer is yes. However, just because they are "ruined" for one thing doesn't mean they can't have value doing something else.

Can someone define what everyone means when they say "ruined." My picture of that word is a shaking nerve bag who can't/won't protect.

That hurt John!....Now just because my dog rides the "short bus" no need to point fingers!...lol <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

When it comes to a finished dog I am always somewhat amused when I hear things like "you needa be careful who you let decoy for your dog because they can ruin your dog".... OK so lets pretend you're a cop n you're doing a suspect apprehension --- "excuse me, could you catch my dog like this.. no no.. not like that, I mean like this, n don't kick him or anything because you might ruin him".... oh please. A pup maybe... but not a TRULY GOOD finished dog.

Barb,
I'd say yes, a good dog could be ruined by bad or incorrect training happening at too young of an age before the dog had the maturity to handle something like defense, which should only be introduced when a dog is of an adequate maturity level.

I remember some of the things that I saw in the early days of SchH ( puppies tied to the back of a truck bumper with a helper pushing the poor dogs into defense at an age that they couldn't possibly deal with it <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> ) and it was no wonder that the club that I visited had such a low number of dogs being titled.

Isn't the bottom line this: if boerboel's were good working dogs the police and military etc.. would be useing them, right ? Please someone save us from another boerboel/mastiff protection thread, lol