Can anyone describe the method that they use to train their dog to protect the handler from more than 1 attacker?

Thank You-
Ted

Ted wrote: Can anyone describe the method that they use to train their dog to protect the handler from more than 1 attacker?

***** As I’ve written before, you folks are going to get sick of me saying this. I teach the out and call off (to a dog that already knows how to bite) with an Ecollar. Part of that is using multiple decoys to keep the dog’s brain engaged and to keep him from loading up.

***** Probably the hardest part of this for conventional (non-Ecollar) trainers is getting the dog to out in the first place. For those in some sports it’s often difficult to get the dog to return to the handler after outing from the bite.

***** But using my method both are a snap!!! I teach the out with a recall so it’s natural and easy for the dog to return to the handler. As soon as he sees that the handler is engaged with another decoy, his training takes over and he bites THAT decoy. Of course, if the handler doesn’t want the dog to return, if he wants him to sit or down at the decoy or anywhere in between, he can give that command.

Thank you for the reply, Mr. Castle.
I am not using the Ecollar as yet, because I don't think that I am trained well enough to do so.
However, I am learning as much as possible, and keeping an open mind. I don't there is only one right way to train. Hope to attend one of your seminars in the future.
Regards-
Ted

Training the call off (calling a dog back after you send him after a helper) is one of the hardest things to train. After all we spend so much time building up his drive to bite now we expect him to turn this off on command. One of the more popular ways is to allow the dog to be send out for another bite after a quich return. But some beleve that having a second helper behind the handler gives the dog more motivation to return quickly because he knows that he will get a bite on return. I don't much care for it because once you take away the second helper the drive diminishes. But hey who am I.

With regard to the difficulty in recalling, my thinking is that long before someone thinks about training their dog on a send out, the dog's obedience would be sufficiently advanced so that the dog would immediately come back to the handler under any situation. However I can understand that the dog would be excited and may want to remain and continue to bite the helper. But this seems like an obedience issue to me.

Lou, if I may, if you couldn't use an electronic collar, what other method would you utilize to get the dog to out? Thanks.

Patrick asked: Lou, if I may, if you couldn't use an electronic collar, what other method would you utilize to get the dog to out?

Before I used Ecollars I got the out from OB. When starting a new dog I teach the out before I teach the bite. Lots of people don’t like doing this because they feel it inhibits the bite. I’ve never had that problem.

I like to start the out with a recall to the handler and then if I want the dog to sit, down or do something else I give that command.

With a sport dog that I’m converting to police work, the most common mode, I’ll reinforce the recall with leash corrections, play and anything else that will bring the dog back to me quickly.

But now that I’m using Ecollars, I’ll never go back.

Patrick:

You are absolutely right. But remember Ed’s three rule approach to obedience. Teaching, learning and proofing. Distraction is what is used for proofing. As training progresses the distraction level increases. Some dogs are so high in drive that they forget their name in the presence of a sleeve. So this becomes the highest level of distraction. You can’t appreciate the difficulty of this until you experience it first hand.