What do you think?
Have a male Rottweiler 3 months shy of 3 years which I am doing Schutzhund with. My dog is very obedient until he sees the sleeve and helper ( working for schutzhund 1) then the obedience goes out the window and my control is lost. I only have an experience helper once every couple of weeks.
Facts about my dog, loves the bite, loves the fight, not scared of the stick. Dose this makes sense?
Have the helper/friend at a good distance where I can still maintain good control, maybe put the dog in a sit stay for a minute then heel a bit closer until I can eventually have him right nest to helper. {may take a few weeks}
Also if my dog knows the watch me command and he ignores me to look at the helper would this be the time to nick him with a slightly higher stimulation level with the e collar.

Edited by Connie Sutherland (10/13/2013 09:47 AM)
Edit reason: fix broken post

my post vanished

 Quote: Brent McGarva

What do you think?
Have a male Rottweiler 3 months shy of 3 years which I am doing Schutzhund with. My dog is very obedient until he sees the sleeve and helper (working for schutzhund 1) then the obedience goes out the window and my control is lost. I only have an experience helper once every couple of weeks.
Facts about my dog, loves the bite, loves the fight, not scared of the stick. Dose this makes sense?
Have the helper/friend at a good distance where I can still maintain good control, maybe put the dog in a sit stay for a minute then heel a bit closer until I can eventually have him right nest to helper. (may take a few weeks)
Also if my dog knows the watch me command and he ignores me to look at the helper would this be the time to nick him with a slightly higher stimulation level with the e collar.

Not sure why it won't display but here it is.

Your post disappeared because you used brackets where you wanted parentheses.

Asking for a good "watch me" with a decoy present may be asking a lot of your dog, especially if you haven't installed any obedience in your protection work. I wouldn't corrrect for that. JMO, I wouldn't bring the dog to the helper, or try to teach the dog to walk up to the helper.

We stick to easy commands in the beginning. We bring the helper in from a distance, and over time we close that distance.

Ex; Put your dog in a sit. Have the helper approach from in front of the dog. As the dog becomes focused on the decoy, calm and reassure him. If the dog breaks the sit, tell him to sit again. If he refuses, have the helper back off. Note the distance, as this is the threshhold that you need to work on lowering.
Repeat this and work on lowering that threshhold. Don't get in too much of a hurry. When you are able to work close enough, reward obedience with bites.

ETA: IMHO, part of the control issue is that you did a lot of agitation before you taught the dog to work calmly. I would put the stick away until you teach the dog some self-control.

Cheers Duane.
If my dog is in a sit stay and starts barking strongly but dog has not broken stay do I reward or do I try and cap the barking?
Or maybe increase distance and as you say take my time.

"Marker training". My SchIII GSD knew the only way to a bite was through obedience and focus on me. His training, Schutzhund, AKC OB, AKC herding, etc was ALL done with markers.

I would think that you need to defer to your training director for help with the bark. You would prefer to have the dog remain calm and quiet until you command him to revier, but you want the dog to be in drive and ready to fire.

IMHO, I would have the helper freeze and wait until the barking died, then advance again when the dog waited. When the helper can get close enough for the dog to stay calm until commanded to bark and hold, reward good barking with a bite and make a big deal out of it.

JMO. Others may have some input, as well.