Again, I know without seeing my dog work, it is hard to evaluate her. But I need another opinion on todays training session. She is 10 months, spayed female out of Arek v Stoffelblick line breeding with some other very good dogs in both sides. She barked the helper out of the blind, stopping when he stopped and getting him to move again with barking. Somewhat tentative IMO. She back up slightly. After several good bites and running with tug, she gets distracted by a newspaper blowing in the wind and stops barking. This is not the first distraction issue. I wanted to just have someone remove the paper, which we did. My helper was not very happy with me and thought we should just make her work thru the distraction. My feeling was she is young and just move to the other direction. After the distraction was removed she was very assertive in barking and lunging at the end of the line, bit very hard and full and we carried from the field. Was I wrong in just wanting to turn our backs to the distraction and wait until she matures to force the issue? I am going to Roland Seibel's seminar, Flinks was too far away. This is my 2nd dog. First very easy and to a SchIII, half American junk. Sorry so long, but I don't want to ruin what I have in this dog.

I think you need to ask yourself some questions: was the dog barking in prey or barking in defense. From the sound of it, the bitch was barking in defense.

You need to ask yourself if the bitches distraction to the paper was really displaying avoidence to the stress of defense.

If she was in avoidence was the best solution to add more stress to put her higher in defense or would it have been better to have been working her in prey from the beginning.

I am not a fan of working young dogs(especially bitches) in defense - you have the rest of her life - why rush it?

Thank you for your reply. I would say she is barking in prey, front end sometimes down and really goes crazy when helper throws the tug. She has also stopped and watched planes, birds and sprinklers. She does this when playing with the dog outside. She doesn't miss anything flying. I don't want to rush her training, and just think thats what was going to happen. She loves to bite, tug and bark at the helper, just is very easlily distracted. I hope she outgrows this. If not, she tracks great and could do agility. I just didn't think I was wrong in wanting to the way we were facing or to remove the distraction. When she is older and can handle pressure, then I can see pushing her. Thanks again.

If this is true and while barking in prey she is easily distracted then either the helper is not stimulating her prey drive properly or the bitch's prey drive is too low. In that case you must wait until maturity and use defense to show the dog that if she turns her back on the helper stress will be applied.

I'm hoping it's no too low prey drive. How do I tell? She loved to chase the rag when we used it, but does like a very active game. At home play, she likes to tug hard and with alot of movement. The helper is only taking 2-3 steps each time she barks, pauses and waits until she barks again. When he threw the tug in the air to get her attention, she went really crazy for it. Is it all bad that she likes things active? I don't mind putting her up in the protection work until she matures. She is the only dog I have to work, and am in no hurry. You all have been very helpful considering you haven't seen my dog work. I am anxious to go to a seminar and get someones opinion that have worked lower drive dogs. All the helpers dogs are very high drive and that's what he's used to. He is sometimes not very open to other ideas, and this is another reason I won't mind not doing much with her until I get to that seminar in May. He cracks the whip when working her. Is that stimulating defense and she gets confused or stressed? She doesn't mind if I get rough when we play. Sorry so long, but I think she is at an age where we could cause some real problems. Thanks

Without seeing the helper work her it is difficult to give more than general things to look for to see if the dog is being worked in prey or not. There are so many subtle actions or postures that may be giving your dog stress. Your best bet would be to have someone else work your dog and to see what they think.

Thanks for all the info, and I plan to have another helper work her. Just not too many choices locally. Thanks again.