I am just curious. We do not have a schutzhund club or anything even close up here and this is just for my own curiosity. My dog when he bites the tug (which I use for play with him), he has never had a full mouthed grip and he does a lot of chewing while he is gripping. He only bites with his front teeth. I have read some of Ed's articles that this is genetics. Is there a way to overcome that though through training? My cocker has a better grip than he does!

I am currently editing a tape on Building Drive, Focus and Grip with bernard Flinks. This tape will cover this issue in great detail. In my opinion Bernard is the master of this work. When the tape is finished it will be announced on the table of contents of my web site.

Just as an aside are you facing him full in the face when he chews and loosens up, or especially staring at him. If you are you may be frightening him a bit, try to turn sidways to him and glance out of the corner of your eye when tugging with him, see if that doen't tighten it up.

No, he has always done this even as a puppy. I do think its genetic, but I was wondering if good training can overcome this, but given what I have read it doesn't appear so. He is calm though, never growls or head shakes, he just doesn't grip well. I am not into schutzhund but mainly wanted to know for my own education. I had used Ed's tape on bite imprinting for puppies and even noticed back then he never fully bit the rag.

If you don't mind me asking, what are you going to use your dog for if not Schutzhund? Thanks.

Well actually, initially, I had high hopes of a club getting started up here. When I bought him as a pup there was a small group of people up here who wanted to do schutzhund. What bothered me was that the person they were going to use as a decoy had absolutely no experience and I didn't want someone like that training my dog. Plus after a couple of months it all fell apart anyway. I have not furthered any of his bite work nor do I plan to. Although I have a friend who used to do schutzhund in her younger days says he probably should be trained as he doesn't like all men and I've had a couple of incidents where I thought he would bite. He is intimidated by some men, not all. She thinks by him being fully trained he would know the difference of when he is threatened or not. I disagree. To me he lacks the nerves capable of doing this kind of sport. At this point, it is a moot point. He will be 4 this year and there are no training clubs anyway. Like I said I was just curious if training can overcome this. Trust me, not like I plan on doing this with him. He is from showlines, verbally very soft, and definitely lacks fight and civil drive. Not the kind of dog you want to teach to bite.