Michele flanking a 4 month old pup in your arms or on the ground will teach the dog to out, no question, but that method might just have a few more unintended consequences. Like not trusting you or being suspicious of you when you try to hug or praise him by stoking his side or not trusting anyone that touches him on his side say like yours, or someone else's children or maybe the Vet. If your pup is not very confidant that method may cause him to be even less confidant and if he is very dominate might bring on later aggression. It is said that dogs when confused alway go back to there foundations of how they were taught. Do you want your dogs going back to this?
What if the dog as an adult was handler aggressive how do you think flanking him will help you establish trust with this type dog. Why take a chance with this method when there are so many other proved methods that work and have for many years. I never flanked puppies in my 30 years in schutzhund and my dogs, for the most part always outed. Mike Tyson had saying and it was, everybody's got a plan till get hit. What if flanking worked well the first time but he was stubborn or frightened so he shut down and stopped outing, do you pick him up and flank him again and again. How pray tell will that help you establishing a bond with this pup and later on teaching this dog. Moreover compulsion used to teach or to enforce will in time bleed over into other disciplines as there is no free ride with pressure. I suggest on such a young pup you try other methods in order to shape this behavior. JMO Norman

Hey Norman can you describe exactly what flanking is?

I'm going to reply because this is the Flinks method being discusses and some of the comments are not taking that into account.

First off, I'm with Norm here, I don't flank my dogs but flanking when done by someone with Bernhard's speed and expertise works well. Also, Bernhard is working with strong, stable dogs.

Bernhard's flanking is *so* fast that the dog literally doesn't know where it came from, most of us are just not fast enough to be able to master this move ( and I'm sure that fellow Flinks seminar attendee's can verify this ).

And Bernhard would not recommend this method with a weak, shy, or otherwise unstable dog - so the remarks about how a bad outcome might result down the line just isn't a factor when we're doing this at the seminars.
But doing this action on a dog that isn't really cut out for hard work to begin with, yes, you could make an already weak dog even worse, so you're better off with another method for a reliable "out".


Just posted so that ya'll see where Bernhard is coming from...

Steve, flanking is where when you are holding the dog in your arms with hand on the chest and one hand slowly stroking the back (dog has tug/ball on string/etc in mouth) you quickly reach back and grab the skin of the dogs flank and pinch/pull/twist etc to get the dog to out the item (they tend to then turn towards the hand, understandably) and you have to very quickly kick the item away as soon as it hits the ground to have the dog re-engage the item out of prey.

That is my really rough description of it

Edit: To respond to Will's post - absolutely right! Mr. Flinks is super fast and experienced with this and I don't slight him in using this method. I just think for the average Joe it isn't the best idea to do it on a young pup. Nothing against Mr. Flinks!!

Thanks Jennifer and thanks Will.

So, then, hold off on the flanking until an experienced trainer says the pup is stable enough to handle it?

Any recommendations on another method that doesn't cause chewy grips?

Isnt that covered in Training Drive & Focus?

 Quote: michele hinton

So, then, hold off on the flanking until an experienced trainer says the pup is stable enough to handle it?

Any recommendations on another method that doesn't cause chewy grips?

Yes - simply put the dog into movement, it's that easy. If the dog is chewing, you're not running him in a circle fast enough.
"Speed clears the mind" - we hear that a lot at seminars.

And if the dog is chewy while in your arms, there is some conflict brewing, as the dog usually thinks that you'll be taking the item from him, hence the chewing as a stress relief.