Greetings Folks,

Question:
What can I do to make my dog bite the young dog (aka. puppy)sleeve that is thicker than his medium size tug (purchased from Leerburg)?

Some Background:
I have a 7 month old German Shepherd (working German bloodlines) and have been training him with a private trainer for just over two months (about 10 training sessions total). We train on our own about four to five days in addition to the session with our trainer. He has had great focus on the tug and barks at it very excited, bites it, and carries the tug in his mouth very firmly. I have been very pleased with his performance with the tug.

However, last Saturday during our training session our trainer took out a young dog sleeve and teased Dieter up with it pretty well. Dieter was following the sleeve with his eyes and was pretty playful, but he did not bite the sleeve. Dieter seemed like he didn't know what to make of it and just really sniffed it. I was greatly disappointed.

The sleeve is much larger and thicker than the tug he is used to. Could it be that he needs something to transition to before the sleeve? Will it just take more experience with the sleeve? Would it help if he had his own sleeve? Is there anything I can do without an experienced helper to help bridge the gap?

HELP!

You might try putting him on a back tie & transitioning to a bite pillow before going to the sleeve. If he doesn't seem interested put it on a rope or buggy whip or a fishing pole & swing it by him just out of his reach to tease him & make him drivy for it....then hold it & kinda do the same thing a couple of time & then let him get a bite as you swing it by him. By making it a prey item it may increase his interest. You can eventually do the same with the sleeve when transitioning to it also, if you want. You dog should be worked on a back tie with a pillow for a while, in some cases months before going to a sleeve. Get Ed's dev on preparing you dog for the helper (I think that is the one after the drive, focus & grip one) It will show you how to do this & move your dog along in training.

I forgot to add that although my dogs are both on the sleeve & bite suits...I still work them on a back tie, myself, with a bite pillow occasionally.

Thanks for you great advice Anne!

I was thinking the same thing, but since I'm new I wanted to hear it from someone else. I'm going to go ahead and get him a bite pillow and do the string on a stick thing to tease him up with it.

The tug he uses is made from synthetic material, would it be better to stick with synthetic bite pillows and sleeves or start using products made of jute? Does it make a difference whether it is jute or synthetic to the dog?

I can't really answer that question intellegently, because I don't really know if there is a specific purpose for the diff types of material or just a matter of preferance. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> I have a jute pillow, jute & suit material tugs & a jute young dog sleeve. All of which my dogs are worked on. They are also worked on a hard & softer jute sleeve by the decoy as well as a body bite suit. So I guess I would say that it is good to train on all of the different fabrics & size tugs & sleeves etc, so that your dog will engage no matter what the material is. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> JMO though. Maybe Will or one of the other more knowledgable people here will have more to add on this

Go with whatever your dog bites best on. I currently use a sleeve made of bite suit material before transitioning my dog to the suit, but started him on a cotton tug, then onto a jute sleeve, then a thicker jute sleeve, now the very soft synthetic sleeve.

In my experience it is the dog first doesnt understand the sleeve is a prey item; they think it is an extension of the man/decoy. Big step to go from playing tug with someone to biting them and getting much closer to something much larger . <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> At our club we tie the puppy sleeve on a long leash and let the dog bite it; the helper walks him self towards the dog and trys to insert his arm into the sleeve while the dog still has a hold of it. The helper is looking away slightly moving away from dog ( prey always moves away from the dog ) tussel with the dog a bit while the dog is on a leash held by handler. Reward . Usually after several sessions of this the dog gets the idea and we begin simple flee bites, of course depending on the dogs, age and temperment

7 months old is pretty young. There is nothing wrong with just putting him on the pole, frustrating him with runs bys until his is ready to commit tot he sleeve. Just have your helper tease the crap out of him for the next 6 weeks. When he starts clacking his teeth trying to get it with all of his ability then let him get a grip.