Derek,
Regarding your comments about how your Czech bloodline dogs do real manwork and that you raise them from birth to shape the behavior you desire-Could you discuss your methods of laying the foundation for bitework with your dogs? For example, what age do you start bitework? Do you start at 12 weeks and introduce the pup to a rag/sack and then move on to a tug, or do you wait until they mature more and have them focus more on the man? How much sleeve work do you do vs. hidden sleeve and suit? Do you title your dogs in sport as well as focus on manwork? Thanks.

Chip-I could talk forever on this but I'll keep it brief and try to hit on all of your questions. As soon as the puppies are able to move around and are interested in moving things and fighting with each other etc. I will introduce toys into the mix-old rags, old stuffed animals anything. I give Mom some breaks alone and I put put myself in with the pups to play tug of war of have them run after the object I throw. I then try and do what I think all dog owners should do regardless of breed and that is to get the dogs as much exposure to people, places, things as I can. I want the pups to be confident and never afraid. I try to never; take away a dogs enthusiam, take away a dogs natural curiosity; take away their genetic instincts of survival and mostly never take away their dignity. I'm by no means anybody's genius I wish I could say my dogs are all man hunters at 6 months but most are not. I try to always put them in a situation of winning and confidence building. Every game played with puppies I try to have a training phase involved in it. I like all the pups to start on a puppy sleeve which just takes the "toy" theory one step further. But before a "formal sleeve" is used I progress up from puppy tugs to holding the puppy sleeve on each end and giving them a bite. But when they are ready to see the decoy as a bad guy and face him with excitement and courage....not fear. I go the hidden sleeve route...most dogs of mine aren't ready to face the bad guy one on one until??????? 14 months average? I know alot of people start alot earlier I guess I am just afraid I will screw up the dog and not be good enough to get him fixed. I spend to much time building them up and letting their courage grow to have me screw it up by rushing them. But when my dogs aren't getting a real early start in "combat" work they are learning other things like climbing obstacles going over fences and jumping into car windows etc. All confidence builders. As for working titles-I have put working titles on dogs and I sought out some advice from a boardmember here a couple weeks back. I have a 7 year old male SVV1 at 18 months and a Certified Police dog. Super tracker and great SAR dog. I am thinking about trying to take him to SCH III, I've never taken a dog "backwards" before-normally titles if they are going to happen come early then its all police/military type work. Well his tracking is nothing like the precise footstep tracking used in SCH. SCH tracking won't catch a badguy if he just keeps walking he'll beat the dog but that running tracking style won't get you a passing score either. So I was wondering if anybody had a dog who could do both without losing the other. Does anyone have a dog that get a 99 in tracking and then goes out and does SAR or man tracking equally as well? Again I don't want my own lack of genius to screw up a good dog. I should also add I am very impressed by the people who have real world class sport dogs that they work with as patrol dogs they are a rarity for sure. I do agree with Ed Frawley that 99% of the time you can only have one or the other if you really want to excel in either area. Thus the admiration for those few who have the dogs and training ability to get it done. Derek

Thanks Derek,
Could you clarify something? Are you saying you do all the rag work, tug work and puppy sleeve work yourself until the dog is about a year old, and then you introduce the dog to the decoy, with no other exposure to a decoy before then?
I am interested in this approach because I wonder if the traditional schutzhund approach of introducing pups and young dogs to a decoy early, with the decoy being someone who plays a game with the pup, imprints a less serious mindset in the pup/young dog because the early exposure to the decoy is a game of prey. I know early bitework with a decoy can teach a pup early on to bark and come into drive for the sleeve, build a strong grip, teach the pup to target, carry and hold the prey with a calm grip, but is the downside that the bitework is imprinted as a game? I realize the genetics of the dog come into play and that you can stress the dog in the bitework with maturity to bring out aggression.
What is the skill level of the decoys you have access to? Thanks.

Chris-sorry I missed that one. Anything that is a "game" is done with me. I do alot of work with my young dogs tied out and I have 3 super strong 48 inch bungee cords at the end of a cable. This way it reduces shock of course but its enough pulling power that if young dogs try and regrip to much by letting go all the way they are pulled in reverse. I use the post to agitate the young dogs and teach them to bark inorder to get a bite. It teaches them to pull into their collar(I use a 2 inch wide leather collar versus a harness) and I teach them that good full mouth bites get the reward. Having other people or helpers play games with dog defeats my purpose. Most of the dogs I sell or train which is a small operation I am the only employee are mainly for police/military and personal protection family dogs. All of my dogs are friendly and well socialized and play with my kids age 3 and 6 but they know work from games. I had a dog that got so bent out of shape he used to bark so hard he would break the small vessels in his eyes. Again I owe alot/majority to good genetics but I think I give them a good start. To finish answering your question I go to a decoy with the dog tied on a post and me yelling at the decoy to go away and then placing the puppy sleeve on top off the decoys arm then letting the puppy hopefull miss with the help of the decoy and getting the arm and hidden sleeve. When that happens I go nuts with praise and have the decoy run away. I live in an area of alot good SCH folks and decoys but for me I just need someone to act out what I tell them to. I can have any friend do it if they follow instructions well. Plus in what I am looking for I don't always want the "classic" catch delivered everytime by these top decoys. I want the dogs to work through adversity. I had a good trainer and a good dog to start with in 1992 so from there I was able to form some of my own ideas and run with it. But I learned with that first dog of mine with the trainer never ever touching the dog. Once I bought the dog he trained me how to handle and train the dog. I sucked as much of this guys knowledge as I could. He had 30 years experience, sold tons of police dogs and I think over 300 of his puppies he bred have gotten SCH tiles. Now I admit when it comes to super precise movements like in SCH I sometimes seek out help..and advice. Alot of people want a title on a dog just because. I admire top SCH competitors because for me its easier to teach a dog to search buildings looking for a guy then to do a blind search which in alot dogs is running a pattern. I've always found it easier to do the real thing like searching building, cars, jumping fences etc then to do the sport version. When I train I try to look at it from the dogs point of view or even how I myself would like to be taught something. A dogs curiosity will send him eagerly into a building but what sends the dog into a blind he knows is empty because if he can't smell a guy in there or not from 30 feet away its a problem. ITs amazing though to me the natural place for a dog to bite...any dog is in its own home in defense of its family. Untrained poodles, labs, terriers you name it we have all heard stories in the news. (I love everyone of them to). But when friends of mine with really nice SCH III dogs want to try there first hidden sleeve bite I recommend in their home. Many of these dogs fail to bite. The attacker is to aggressive, their owner/handler looks surprised or scared and there is no sleeve. They often look to the owner for instruction while barking-many have that scared sounding bark kind of adolesent like and some nip and just let go and nip again. However alot of them do dig in and fight for their family like they were bred to. Also alot of dogs don't live in the home so its a small disadvantage. I train my dogs a little differently than alot of people even the ones who I plan on titling first. I start with natural obstacles first and then go on to "manmade" scenarios. Hope this answered it for you. Derek