hi

i have a question for the forum if i may , i have watched both building drive grip and focus and also preparing dog for the helper quite a few times, my question is it says if dog is chewing try to snatch tug from dog to start exercise again , but then on second dvd he says never start playing while dog is still chewing and shows bernard holding the dogs jaws together to teach it to hold ,can someone please explain where i am getting confused
cheers john

I think you might be a little confused. When the dog is chewing you should snatch the toy away, not play. Taking the toy away teaches the dog to calmly hold onto it with a full grip because if he doesn't, the toy is taken away. Once the grip is where you want it then you can play.

Howard

Howard has it right

cheers howard and ed for the reply that makes it much clearer for me , but finally can i ask at what point do you teach the dog to stop chewing by holding jaws together as seen in the dvd as aposed to snatching ball away ? or can both these excersises run together

cheers again john

Each dog has a different learning curve. If the regular training drills aren't working then I think that would be a good time to try the snout clamp. You got to give the dog time to figure it out. Some pick it up fast, others..not so fast. Some never get it because the drive isn't there.

Howard

cheers howard


john

Understanding what's behind the exercise helps also. Most dogs look at the tugging as "the game", so what you're doing is rewarding the dog for behavior you don't want when you play tug with the toy while the're munching on it. Snatching the toy away is the result of displaying the behavior you don't want. This creates some frustration, and frustraition helps build drive.

John,

Snatching the toy away during a chewing grip is not meant to be a game of tug for the dog. Snatching the toy is to teach the dog that if it does not maintain a firm grip it will lose the toy. If you watch the "Handler Errors" section of the first dvd again, one of the first things it shows is a handler reaching over her dog's head to snatch a tug toy away. What this does is let the dog know to clamp down at that moment to avoid losing the tug. When you snatch the toy away for a poor grip the dog should not know before it's too late and has to now go back into drive.

Your question was one I had too when I watched the second dvd, so I compared the comments from video to video. A couple things you notice is at the point when Bernhard uses his hands to hold the dog's mouth closed, the dog is already coming into his arms and holding the toy properly for a run. Not to mention the second video opens with a comment from Ed that the material in the first video should have already been studied and well applied before moving on to the second. So, by the time Bernhard actually uses this technique, the dog he is working with already has an understanding of what it is supposed to be doing. I beleive it was mentioned that the dog featured in that portion of the dvd was taught to come into its own handler's arms but got a little nervy with the new handler (Bernhard).

What I got from the tape was that Bernhard then "reached into his toolbox" and used a method to show the dog the proper technique. But don't expect it to work on every dog all the time. It worked with mine, but only after she was fairly comfortable with "into my arms". Patience is a key component for the work shown in those tapes; don't try to advance too far too fast.

hi michael and brad

thanks for your helpfull reply to my question and making things much clearer for me , but if i can ask just 1 more question please ,i understand if the dog is holding a good grip we then go back into drive building with the tug etc , and i also understand that if he is chewing we snatch it away to build frustration , but what do we do if the dog is chewing and we go the snatch the tug away but the dog manages to hold onto the tug even though it is still chewy ? do we carry on drive building the dog or perhaps we run the dog around and start again ?


many thanks again john

If the dog stops munching and clamps down on the tug then you have succeeded. You can do one of two things now.
1. run with the dog again.
2. play tug.
Either of these in my opinion is correct.