When I'm doing bite work/play with my 9 mo old GSD in our yard, I'm now working with a rag or tug attached to rope which is attached to a rod, which keeps him from targeting me which he's done a few times. But sometimes I just want to work him with a tug or ball-on-a-string in my hand. It can be risky. Yesterday he actually went for my arm (versus my hands in the past). He released almost right away.

Do I discourage that or ignore it? Since it's what we want him to do with a helper shortly, I'm concerned about discouraging or correcting it, if correcting it would create a hesitancy or reluctance in biting the helper.

If I should correct that, how it is suggested to do that. I'm just wondering if discouraging that while he's in the beginning of his formal bite training is a wise thing to do, even though I don't want to get bit. But he is just starting to work with a decoy, today is his 3rd session.

hi Sandy.
what you decribed is prety common with high drive puppys.

ithink that in 9 months old you can acspect adog that whould know the defrence between his handler and adecoy especelly if you allready started to work with adecoy.
and between atoy and ahand and if he dont its agreat time to start...

you should take it under two issues:

1): the dog should gain the abiellity to aim at the toy and should know the border lines of the toy and your hand.
that means you dont want to corect the dog before you teached him how he should take the toy.
you can combine it with your obdience training like pot the dog in to sit than get to him and pot the toy infront of him in the hight of hes face, let him focus on it abit (acording to his ob level) and realese than get the distance and the hight of the toy bigger gradually (you didnt said it was on hight or movment but ifigguer it is) than get back to the dog head hight and add abit of movment, than realese the dog than add abit speed gradually than add hight and movments gradually.

2): in that satge when you know the dog can easelly aim to the toy rather than you hand you can and should add corection when the dog bite you.
that should be done according to the dog hardness/ softness and trainabiellity: with some dogs you only need to let him know it hearts you (by voice) and stop the game, some need only stoping the game and remove the toy some need voice corection and some need colar corection from flat to prong it all depends on how hard is your dog and how good is his drive either way in most cases you should stop the game for awhile after the bite and remove the toy.

and the most importent rule: never let the bite of your arm lead to the dog getting his toy.

hope ihelpet

sefi

Thank you Sefi for your advice. I've been doing what you said in #1 paragraph above and it's working. No need for any corrections yet. I am reluctant to give any corrections since he's just beginning bite training in earnest with a professional trainer. But I think if he did go for my arm again, not giving the toy would be the thing to do, so thanks for mentioning that. Fortunately he doesn't target me often.

Lear has had 3 training sessions with the decoy and he already loves seeing the trainer get out of his truck with his gear. He starts barking and tugging on his harness before the guy even gets ready. He's used the rag, tug, sleeve and bite suit pant leg on the end of his pole. I think Lear will love it when he actually gets to target the guy . He almost went for the guy once during the 1st session. My adult son is doing the handling now during bite training, I'm doing the obedience portion. I can't hold him back well enough.

im glad icould help
and im glad to hear you start bite work with him and that you have found agood trainer.

lear looks great (and big) how much does he whight by now?

sefi

I tried to measure him a week ago. Allowing for some movement on his part, and not being able to get him close enough to a wall, an estimate was 25 inches, another was 26, another 27 inches. When he stands in his crate, his withers come to the 2nd bar from the top which is 27 inches. So I'll pick middle of the road and say he's about 26 inches. Which is big for an almost 10 mo old pup.

I don't know his weight, he was a little overweight in that pic of him laying down but I've managed to slim him down a little (was still feeding puppy percentage portions and I think he's more into adult percentage portions now). I haven't weighed him for a long time cause haven't had need for a vet since he was 3 months old. If I had to guess, maybe 65 pounds??? Maybe more??? Not a good guesser at weight

He does look great, doesn't he (I'm bragging) :laugh: . But seriously, he's a good German Shepherd, all those wonderful traits right on the forefront.

so he is going to abig boy good for you!!!

you sure got what to be bragg about hes agreat looking.

 Quote: Sandy Moore

When I'm doing bite work/play with my 9 mo old GSD in our yard, I'm now working with a rag or tug attached to rope which is attached to a rod, which keeps him from targeting me which he's done a few times. But sometimes I just want to work him with a tug or ball-on-a-string in my hand. It can be risky. Yesterday he actually went for my arm (versus my hands in the past). He released almost right away.

I've had this happen when I first started when my dog was a pup. If he's got a ton of drive, he's going to go for whatever moves or whatever peaks his interest the most. With that said, you may be moving your body too much and the toy not enough. You want to make the ball the most interesting thing in the world, while keeping as much of your body as motionless as possible. Get some slack on the string so your hands aren't in the way, and so the ball can move more freely.

If using a tug, I'd just make sure it's long enough to where you can hold it with one hand on each end and still have plenty of bite surface in the middle, keeps your hands from getting bitten.

Thanks Mike. I've tried to figure out what I'm doing wrong and the first thing I checked is my body movement. I make it a point to stay stationary, and hardly even pivot, the only thing moving is my arm and/or hand.

When Sefi said the pup should know the difference between a hand and a toy, it made me think that the sometimes targeting of my hand (and in one case my arm) may be a throw-back to the days when my hands were his favorite prey item. I've been doing what Sefi suggested and think that will solidify in the pup's mind the prey versus my hand and hopefully get that left-over puppy behavior gone for good . After I do that for another week or so, we'll see what he does when I start flicking the tug around. Meanwhile I'll just use the pole with the target several feet away from me.