i have a 10 month old male mal. who is doing great in his bite work i just am a little confused about one thing when going to the training field to do bite work he barks and carries on like he wants to kill everyone now should i allow this or try to stop this and just make him aware of his surrowndings and be quiet until i alert him ??

Start working on control now, you're sure going to need it.

DFrost

Does the dog listen to your commands?

Sit, down, stay, heel, quite, out...ect...

If not then yes its a problem that needs to be fixed.

yes he does listen to my commands the little shit outs better than most adult dogs he is just so driven he is like let me go let me go i want to kill him. one trainer says let him be crazy he is in drive the other trainer says don't let him waste the energy until told to?

Hey Jason, I don't have any qualifications as far as training a police dog, but in training my dog for sport I fall on the don't waste the energy side. His work improved quite a bit when I started leaving him crated until the other dog leaves the field. Then a little calm heeling on the field. He's still plenty aggressive but is able to work a lot longer.

Well how exactly is he waisting energy if he listens to you?

Coming on the field he should be in the heel position the entire time.

It may not even apply here Michael, I'm not sure. But what I meant was my dog would get so worked up and frustrated watching the other dog work that he was out of gas a lot sooner. By leaving him crated until it was him time to enter the field he is focused and, not relaxed but ready. Like I said this could very well have nothing to do with your type of training or police dogs. But I thought I would see what Jason thought.

 Quote: jason berounsky

yes he does listen to my commands the little shit outs better than most adult dogs he is just so driven he is like let me go let me go i want to kill him. one trainer says let him be crazy he is in drive the other trainer says don't let him waste the energy until told to?

You are lucky to have such a driven pup. My experience is it is easier to control a fire when it comes to drive with a dog than to try to start that fire. Most handlers and trainers don't have that luxury of time to spend on it. That's why we see sports and PSD washouts all the time. It is all about channeling your pups drive into something positive and using that high level of drive to your advantage, without killing it. That will pay off for you in the future IMHO.

I am working in sport so my bitework training is geared for that, so I don't know how different the protection component for building bite foundation for a prospect PSD pup. For a green dog (pup) (in sport) IMHO you are on the right track by lessening his OB and making things more fun for him. A 10 month old pup may look like a adult dog so you have to take that into consideration, that it is still a pup. In my opinion that is the only way to NOT kill a pup's natural prey drive, is by keeping it fun for him.

I was worried like hell seeing Sasha my Malinois in bitework at first. I didn't start her until she was almost a year old. Anything I had done with her before was 1/2 arsed farting around with toy tugs. Once we were working with a decoy I kept thinking I had to control her and be hard on her. As like your pup she wanted to do the work bad, she would carry on barking and lunging to the point of embarrassment!

My training director and the decoys basically said let her do what she does and it was almost 6 months before we started to put any OB on her at all .. even "outs" We just let her have at the tug and the decoy and let her keep winning.

Really at this point you need to make your pup crazy to play with bitework. Keep setting your pup up for success. I think the most important thing is that he becomes uber confident (bullish/pushy even) and then he will become more and more comfortable with the work. I wouldn't put pressure on him or mess with him too much or lose patience with him. If you or the TD lose patience with him put him away ... let that fire burn!

Your pup will show you how and when he is comfortable, that will give you a better idea of how to customize your pup's training. IMHO for the moment all bite work should be fun and easy. There will be lots of time for you to tighten up the screws on his obedience as he gets older and more mature. Keep building on that trust between you two, it sounds like you are going to have a wonderful street partner when you are done!

Hi Steve,

I had to cover every window in the car and turn the stereo up to keep the dog calm when around others doing bite work. He used to blow his wad(figuratively) in the car before hitting the field. I always had him under control when entering the field and never allowed him to be out of control until commanded. Makes for a more intense session when all that energy is placed where you want it.

Howard

Hi Howard. I didnt mean to hijack Jasons thread. I'm not having any problems with control. When we first started I would keep Andy off to the side while another dog was working, and just like you're saying a lot was left right there. That was only in the very beginning. Andy is almost 5 and didnt even start this until he was over 4 so obedience and control were there before any bite work. I'm just not sure if Jason is training a police dog or a dog for sport so thats why I posted like I did, just trying to make the same point you did. An intense but well directed session that was easier because the dog didnt exhaust himself "prematurely"