I have a gsd who was doing just fine in bite work good strong full bites. with in the last two weeks he seems to have just quit. he will bite only if iam in the picture i mean standing right beside him guess he fills like he has to protect me. before this he would attack on command,even on a send out or up close i could even send up stairs to the decoy done good all of a sudden he just quit like hay iam not doing this could he possible be sick. at home he acts like he is full energy and jumps around like hes really happy. plays with the tug great. does great on his obediance commands. thank you for any ideas

One thing to consider: have you checked his teeth?

Dogs put a tremendous amount of pressure on their teeth when they bite in drive. There is always a chance that he has broken or cracked a tooth, and while he may still go into drive, when he bites, it may cause some pain.

Sorry to say, but unless a break or crack is obvious, it may take an xray to find out....

You may have been putting to much pressure on your dog. It sounds like avoidance to me, which relates to fear. He feels secure that his packleader will protect him, and his packdrive is kicking in and he feels the biting is then a team effort. A confident dog will not need you in the picture to do what he is suppose to do. Please, don't take this bad, it's just an analogy, but you know how young punks and thugs feel like big men when they are with their buddies, but get them alone and they back down, that is because they don't feel secure. I feel if it were his teeth then he wouldn't re-bite just because you came into the picture. If it were my dog, I'd go back and do some confidence training. THIS IS MY **OPINION**.
~CHRIS DUHON

Chris
Could you explain "confidence training" What types of things do you mean.
Thanks

If my dog started doing that, I would go back to basics and recock. Of course, I am not there to see the dog, but I would, start from the ground up and rebuild my dog. I'd go all the way back to tug work. It is my feeling that this dog will eventually start to loose that bite, and he may start chewing, or biting with the front teeth ( IMO that is to distance himself as much as possible from the decoy, I relate biting with the front teeth to fear, especially if the dog once had a good bite). I would work my dog my self, doing bite work with a tug, or a pillow, or even a sleeve, that is not put on the arm, just held horizontally as a tug. Even though his bite is still good now I would re-enforce his bite training, because like I said my guess is his bite will be the next thing to go. Once he is biting solid without coming off, I would then backtie him on a bungee, and make it all fun, just a game between you and the dog all over again. Keep as much stress off the dog as possible, all prey work. Once my dog was playing tug, and doing short "attacks" on the tug, I would then re-introduce him to a helper. (All this I would take my time with, probably speaking, months like 3-6 and longer if needed)
I would then use Ed's technique that he has in introducing your dog to the helper, as this is probably where the seed of your problem was planted. For one the helper should just work your dog in prey mode at first, and make it a game between the dog and the helper, the aggression and defense can should come much later. Let the dog build his confidence by playing with a helper that is not pressuring him. I would have the helper play with him exactly as I played with him, all the while making sure he is winning. Then when his working great that way, then I would get Ed's other video "Introducing your dog to defense, or it may be first steps of defense". It's one of those titles. I also believe this was the second course in the begining of your troubles. I am no expert, and I hope others will join in to give their opinions, but this is just what I believe and what I would do if it were my dog. Bottom line he needs to be re-trained. I hope you find success.
~CHRIS DUHON

Don't forget ear infections can put the stoppers on biting as well. Yeow!