Jennifer,
I think we got a bit off track....

I was doing some work with LE dogs hiding in a chainlink cage so that the dogs could not get the bite when they found me......all but 1 dog came over the rise, through the grass and then "DUH, WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?" looks came over their faces. None but the one dog would bark at me no matter what I did....shake the cage, holler bang on the cage ect....

Now, with this said....I am sure I would have been bitten had I tried to crawl out.

It was a good laugh, that is for sure as when the handlers approached they had about the same look on their face as the dog.

The question "How long has he been standing there staring at you?" came up quite a few times.

By the end of the 5 day training, all dogs were performing normally with me in the cage.

Not the same as bite work, I realize that. Just thought I would share that.

Can't really tell you with 100% firm decision, but most of these handlers had wives and children, most of the dogs were fairly friendly when not working, so we think it was just the shock "Holy Crap, Your a GIRL!!! NOT supposed to bite THOSE!!!!"

That's an interesting experience .

I haven't seen that myself . I've taught Police K9 classes and the dogs didn't behave any different in alerting to females .

I was also judging at a Police certification where they were using females hidding in a box for the suspect search portion of the test . I guess word was getting around during the cert. because many hadn't used females in training or encountered any for real on the street and their fear was they wouldn't alert . Out of 70 some dogs none seemed to have a problem in alerting on them .

IMO strength is the biggest area women have problems with when decoying . That and size when being hit by a fast moving dog .

For the record , I'm 5'9" , 185 and I have problems taking hits from fast movers . I've become an expert at wiping out without falling or hurting the dog . Not alot of fun for me but the dogs seem to like it .

 Quote: Jim Nash

That's an interesting experience .

I have to agree, it was really bizarre. Funny though, to see the scratching of heads and WTF? looks.

Along this vein of discussion...

While my dog is quite young, I've been training to become a helper in my Schutzhund club. I have previous experience decoying MWDs, and as our club grows, we need more helpers, so it was only natural to volunteer.
Anyway, this weekend the feedback I got from the other helpers and trainer on my decoying, was essentially that my decoying tends to be more defense, than prey.
I imagine that a large portion of that is because of my MWD experience.

Either way, I just found it interesting that basically the official ruling right now is, I can't decoy the young dogs, only the more experienced dogs, because of my tendancy to push dogs into defense with my approach.

So, that should say something about whether or not dogs perceive female helpers differently.