My 1.5 year old Dobermann has a tendancy to not lock down his bite when something about the object he is biting changes no matter how high we get his prey drive. For example, if we change to a different sleeve he has never bitten before, he may blast in with full mouth, but as soon as he grips it and realizes it is a different size, material, or texture, he lets go. We have no problem training him to become accustomed to each type of sleeve or jacket, but we can't seem to get him to take a good bite the first time he is introduced to something new. Obviously, if it was a real life self-defense situation, I would not want him to make contact with human flesh and then let go because he has never punctured real skin before. Even if we agitate with no bite for several sessions and load up his urge to bite, he doesn't change.

Anyone have any suggestions? Or is this a genetic thing that cannot be be fixed?

I have a suggestion, get a German Shepherd. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />


No really, just keep working on putting all different types of things in his mouth. Really work on grip foundation as well, don't move to another type of prey object till the grip is as good as it is going to get on the first one.

Good luck.

I've seen something similar happen a while back. Just as soon as the hard sleeve was introduced, the dog would become a little preoccupied after getting a grip on it. But after just a few seconds, he would calm down and everything was fine. The problem here was that this dog had a negative experience with a bite surface when he was a little younger. The surface was much too hard for him, and it hurt his teeth.

When the dog was approx 12 months old, the hard sleeve was introduced a second time. He never knew the change of surface until he had it in his mouth so he unknowingly took off after it as if it was the same sleeve he was use to biting, and as soon as he bit down on it, he loosened his grip. A second later, he regripped, realizing the surface was ok for him. Now that the dog was older, the hard surface was a much better fit for him, but it still had him preoccupied for a second because the surface was very different.

I don't know how this compares to your dog, but this problem was fixed by introducing as many bite surfaces as possible. Everything was introduced from soft sleeves, to hard sleeves, and even hidden sleeves.

I would go in the opposite direction from ya, VC, sorry. I would change bite objects at least 3-4 times in every session. Everything from sleeves, rags, small jute tugs, large puppy tugs, gappay bite bars, etc etc. Just as soon as he decides this surface is acceptable and bites hard, he wins, and when he drops it, kick it away and the helper agitates with a new item. Flood him with changes until he expects a change and doesn't get upset with it.

He is young. For most Dobermans this is normal. I have seen this time and time again. It must be genetic. I would go with some of the suggestions you read here. If you keep with it, when he is three or so, they normally settle down. I suspect it is a bit of a nerve issue with them. I also find that the longer you put them up, they kinda forget or go back to the old behavior of not gripping of maintaining the grip.

Thanks for all the advice guys!

I have a female Dobbie who is 6 months that is awesome and does not have the same problem. She blasts in hard and bites anything that is in front of her. She is very easy to train. But the male is an definitely an difficult one.

We have been mixing several different sleeves in the training. There is one sleeve that my dog seems to be less comfortable biting on. When he bites it, he will have a weak grip and just let go. When he lets go, should we re-agitate and keep using that sleeve or switch to one that the dog likes better?