Can anyone tell me if there is a typical age for a puppy to graduate from a tug to a puppy sleeve? We have an experienced helper (the club meets twice a week) who has offered the sleeve to her twice and she hits it with her mouth shut and trys to paw at it.

She's a 10-month-old pitbull and LOVES to bite the puppy tug when she's given a chance. Another question is: There are a number of dogs (both puppies and adult dogs) in the group, the puppies are worked last. The first few weeks she would watch everything intently and get very excited for the full session. Now, she would rather sniff around and be social until it's her turn. She just doesn't go bonkers for the whole two hours at the park like some of the dogs.

She's obedience trained (e-collar) and very sweet to people and other dogs. We (my wife and I) agitate her almost every night. We have the "The First Steps of Bite Training". Should we be doing this? We watch for signs of boredom but she just keeps coming for more.

Thanks for any help or advice. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Sounds to me like she is acting a bit defensive towards the pup sleeve, maybe it is that fact that your helper has it on his body now, or maybe for some other reason. But, generaly when a dog does something like this it is because the dog is feeling a bit defensive about what is going on. She may just have a low threshold for defense? Could be any number of things, hard to say without seeing first hand. The tug is a lot easier to mover around and stimulate prey drive, the sleeve is a little harder to do this with.

Their is no age that says, OK now it is time to mover on. If you have an experienced helper he should be able to read it in the dog. The dog will let you know if it is being pushed to hard and when it is time to move on to bigger things.

If you are keeping her back tied through a 2 hr. bite session? This is way to much. If you want her to watch a little, do that and get her worked up and then put her away till it is her turn. Letting any dog back tied for this amount of time is a waist of there drive.

Also, if you are working her every night yourself in my opinion this is also way to much. If you have an experienced helper let him work her, at this age you as the handler should not work her at all anymore. Unless you have experience doing bite work with dogs, then you should be able to tell for yourself if what you, as the helper are doing is working against you or not. Just my opinion.....

There is no typical age. Every dog is different. The dog is reacting this way for two possible reasons. One is that he does not view the sleeve as a prey item yet. There are many techniques to solve this like attaching the sleeve on a leash and using it the same way as a tug. Remember whenever you run into difficulty in training you always take a step back and work your way back up. The second reason for this is the dog is avoiding the sleeve. This means that either the dog is not ready for this step or the sleeve is being presented incorrectly. Either way you should rethink your approach. And lastly in my opinion the biggest pain in the ass in training SchH is to keep your dog quit and rested until it is his turn to work. So count your blessings!

Thanks for your input. She was obedience trained not to bite from a very young age. Now we want to bring it out.

I don't think she was in defense when the sleeve was offered to her, her tail was wagging, her hackles weren't up, she wanted to pursue and her bark was normal. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said she didn't consider the sleeve a prey item. Good idea about dragging the sleeve in front of her. We're going to start tonight to get her used to it.

Are we ruining her by doing this too much? Is this still supposed to be a game with her or should she be getting serious. She seems to have very steady nerves. She seems to love the game and never gets bored when she's getting action. We have some friends who are willing to help agitate her. I can guarantee she will not go into defense until the club thinks she should. We also don't allow her to get a shallow bite (always full) or she won't get movement. We spend a couple of hours every day on her other training (obedience, physical fitness, agility), and she's doing great, but bite training is the most tricky.

Please point out our mistakes! We want the best for her and you guys are so generous with your advice. Thanks! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />