Actually she won't be three until February, but that will be when we actually start doing it most likely.


As most of you know, I've been working with a trainer with my dog's advanced obedience and dog "aggression" (which is really just dominance). She's coming along extremely well in both respects. She can now:

* Heel and do sits and downs in motion (even around other dogs)
* Come-fore and drop while coming (haven't proofed around other dogs yet)
* Return to heel from any position (also haven't proofed with other dogs yet)
* Go nose-to-nose with other dogs through the fence at the dog park with no aggression or dominance displays - she doesn't even hackle most of the time. She actually ended up playing with one off-leash dog that approached her last Saturday


We're still not even halfway through her training. We have 7 or 8 more weeks to go, so it will be at least that long before any other kind of training will kick in. I just have a few questions.


I'm wanting to do some personal protection work with her. At this point I'm not sure if she's cut out for actual bitework, because ever since she was a puppy she was discouraged from using her mouth on people. She will bite at your arm if you offer it while playing, but I rarely do it because she's used to biting at my husband and he can take a harder bite than I can. What is ok for him really hurts me, so I just don't encourage her to bite me when I play with her - I use a toy.

Anyway, the trainer said that what I could be doing to prepare her would be to get something that we can play tug-of-war with (something that I've never done with her) and do it as often as I can/want. And to always let her win (another thing I've never done), to build up her confidence. My questions would be as follows:

1) What type of toy would you recommend for this? I can't afford expensive things. I was thinking along the lines of those rope toys that pet stores sell, or something like that.

2) When she wins, do I wait for her to bring the toy back to me or do I go after it? Remember, this isn't going to be schutzhund - it's personal protection work, so she won't be taking the sleeve and going in a circle and coming back to me or whatever schutzhund dogs have to do.

3) How can I encourage her to actually want to tug and pull, since I've never encouraged it in the past? She does tug a little, but not nearly as hard as I know she can. Do I just let her have the toy at the slightest tug on her part, at this point?

4) She's also very mouthy. Rather than holding on to the toy, she bites and chews at it. Is that a problem at this stage of the game?

5) Is there anything else I could be/should be doing?


Thanks for your input.

Kristen

Maybe I can help you now?

I remember reading somewhere that a cheap and effective chew/tug toy could be a towel, rolled over and duct-taped...can't remember where I read it, may have even been here.

Maybe someone with some more experience can approve this...certainly cheap <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I would get the Drive, Focus and Grip DVD from
Leerburg. After that. If you want to continue get the preparing your dog for the helper. I have both of these and found them valuable. You want to see if your dog has the drive to do protection work. The first video will let you know.

Forgot to mention. Your dog should never be allowed to bite you or your husband. Stop that now. I know you said you couldn't afford much money and the videos seem expensive but they are much cheaper than a trainer. Protection training at the stage of using a helper is not cheap. The video may save you money in the long run. Protection is an ongoing process that needs to be continually updated and worked on. You may want to evaluate the cost and see if you really want to do this. If you do, my dog and I find it alot of fun and great bonding experience but it is expensive hobby. Good Luck

The trainer that I'm now working with would be the trainer that would be doing the protection training also. The difference in his protection training vs. his regular obedience training is that rather than being a program that lasts "x" amount of weeks, he does the protection stuff on a lesson by lesson basis. He said he would charge $60-$65 a lesson for protection training once we finished the advanced obedience (which is an approximately 12 week program - we're on week 5 now).

I really have no idea how many lessons we'll need, but if I can start preparing her now, then that'll cut out at least some of them, right?

I'll look into getting the Drive, Focus, and Grip DVD. I had thought about it, but hadn't decided yet. I'll also have to remind my husband when he gets home next week NOT to let her bite at him.

Kristen,

Also by getting the DVD "Drive, Focus, and Grip" and "Preparing Your Dog For The Helper", is you can do a lot of the foundational Drive and Grip training yourself.......which will take many weeks, so the DVDs will save you money in the long run.

One other point that I would like to mention, and that is when doing the foundational bitework yourself, you will learn a lot about what is going on and what to expect from your dog before your dog is ready to meet a training decoy.

One thing I was told by my trainer and was referenced on the DVD was that a dog can have too much obedience training prior to starting protection work and this may adversely effect the training. Any expert advice on this for Kristen?

It's ok to do *MOTIVATIONAL* obedience, like teaching the sit, the down, and the stand. I personally would not give hard corrections, but would try and teach these things with food or use the dog's tug.

She already knows all the basic commands like sit, down, no, off, out, wait, place, and (most recently) heel.

Like I said, now we're doing more advanced stuff, like returning to heel, sits and downs while heeling, and downs while coming. I haven't been giving hard corrections at all, with the exception of when she shows aggression/dominance towards other dogs. That's the ONLY time she gets a level 10 correction. Every other time it's more like a level 2 or 3 - just enough to keep her focused.

We're just starting the actual off leash stuff next week, but I don't think there will be a problem with that.

On another board, someone said "Whenever you start to teach the dog "tug of war", the dog needs to be physically restrained. The best way to do this is to attach her to a line about 10-12 feet long that is fixed to a tree (or something similar)."

He then went on to explain how I should be 'agitating' her with the toy, etc. Why was that not mentioned here? Is there a reason for/against doing it this way?