I seem to have come upon a problem with my training drive and grip. I have a 17 week old female GSD I've been training since she was about 8 weeks. She has good drive but she seems to be disciminating what triggers her drive. I made a DIY tug with felt inner and burlap outer wrap. She will grip on this but she prefers the handles. I also purchased a gappee leather roll that is used in Ivan balabanov's dvd's. She simply refuses to bite down on the leather. She would put in her mouth but she wont chomp down. Again she likes the handles. So in order to build her drive I have been using a lunge whip with a piece of shreaded felt on the end. She goes nuts for this. Very good drive, but I cant continue using this because she just uses her front teeth once she gets it. Im trying to get her to go to the leather roll. Has anyone incountered this problem and if so how did you overcome it. I am aware she is teething but that doesnt seem to bother her. She has most of her front teeth but her back and canines are still puppy teeth. Do you guys think she will eventually outgrow this lack of grip. And what can I do to encourage her to bite down on the leather. I need her to do this to train her in THE GAME as explained in Ivan's DVD's Clear Communication.

I would not do any kind of work like that while she is teething. Why take a chance?

I have a similiar problem with my 2 Y.O. GSD. I know she is a weak dog. I did not get her for protection, only as a running partner and maybe SAR. That does not keep me from trying to get her to bite a pillow.

Like your dog, she goes for the handles and trys to use just her front teeth. I can open her mouth, place the pillow deep inside and get her to hold the pillow for a moment, but that's it.

When I have a dog that has a problem biting certain material, I introduce it a little at a time. How do you introduce a leather tug a little at a time? Wrap it with your dogs' favorite material of course. Slowly take away some of the favorite material and expose a little of the non-favorite material at a time. Don't rush.

Why is it so important for her to bite the leather? Focus your energy where it will do the most good. Use something she likes.

Howard

As said before, don't do tugging while teething but you can do prey work for chasing but as soon as she gets it let go.

Also, I would not worry about where she bites in the beginning, it will all work out. I have a dobe that would only bite the string on the ball and never the ball. I was just glad she was biting and she preferred the ball over the string when she matured a bit. Once her grip firmed she wasn't as particular about the texture.

Give your girl a chance to grow into bite work and go with the flow of the strap biting for a while :-)

I agree with Howard. What ever you do with the dog make sure it is interesting; especially at that age because you are building their desire to work as much as anything else and your relational foundation is being built still. If it's not fun for the dog find something else.
Your dog may be to frustrated by to many misses before a reward bite and therefore grabs at anything.
Another thing, it's best to always perfect every step of the exercise and not get sloppy.

What helped me alot, was the in my arms technique. My GSD is "nasty" when we do decoy work, this could be good or bad. He has been biting with a better grip and not going for the rope or handle of the toys/tugs. My GSD just likes different prey items on different days! :O)


Sgt Matt

I don’t know anything about Ivan’s Video, and may be off base, but common sense tells me to go back a step.

When my Rott was teething, he went backwards, and then did not want to go back to the tugs! He played much better with a rag of some sort. I bought a few shammies for car detailing. They were soft on his teeth (although we did not do much pulling while teething ), durable, and easy to get. As I could see that his teeth were bothering him less and less, I would make them in to mini tugs. Not with precise folds, but kinda bunchy and loose. As he progressed further would readjust them and make them firmer until I, like Howard mentioned, could wrap it around a typical puppy tug with out him really noticing it at all. Again, like Howard said, cut more and more away until… he is playing with only the normal tug!

I did pretty much the same thing with burlap and plain old towels to keep him used to many different materials from the beginning. As a matter of fact, for focus training and quick rewards to this day I use balls, mini tugs, washcloths, and 6” x 8” shammie pieces. The washcloths (which don’t last long ) and shammie strips (that do ) fit easily in my pocket for quick and easy mini training sessions when out and about.