We spend hours and hours getting our dogs to bite hard and to hold on no matter what. (Ignoring for a moment the training of bite transfers.) Some spend months getting the hardest bite that they can. And then they try to get the dog to stop biting. Some do that by slamming the dog with higher and higher levels of correction. Some go from choke chains to pinch collars to Ecollars to cattle prods. All in the hope of getting the dog to stop doing what they spent months trying to get him to do. Not infrequently handlers are bitten by their own dogs who are protesting very high levels of correction. I know of one handler who received a career ending injury as a result of this kind of training. All in the name of the out.

Does this make sense to anyone? Not to me. Yet this is what I see over and over again.

Some people train a "self out" where the dog bites so long that his jaws begin to hurt or even cramp up. Finally after 15-20 minutes or longer sometimes, the dog releases the bite because it hurts so much. The dog is then rewarded. This is repeated over and over until the dog learns that if he stop biting he gets a reward. But do you think it's a good idea to train your dog that biting can be uncomfortable or even painful? I think it will weaken the bite and that's what I've seen occur with that style of training.

How about those who use two decoys and teach the dog that releasing a bite on a passive decoy brings a bite on a moving decoy? This is called the "Two Decoy Reward System." It often leads the dog to out from a real suspect who's gone passive and for him to go looking for the next decoy. This could be a citizen or another officer who's approaching.

How about those who use a toy to teach the dog that if he releases the bite he gets to play with his favorite toy. Those dogs come out of combat drive and go into play drive. If the suspect becomes combative again the dog isn't prepared for it because he's ready to play, not fight.

How about if you trained the dog that "releasing the bite" was actually "part of the bite?" He'd stay in combat drive and he'd be ready for anything that you wanted him to do; whether that was to search for another suspect, bite someone else, or do some OB to go back to the car or to another location.

This is easily done, avoids any conflict that sometimes gets handlers bitten by their own dogs and keeps the dog in a combat drive! I teach the dog to recall with an Ecollar. Then I use multiple decoys, four works best but it can be done with two.

If you're fortunate enough to have four decoys arrange them in a circle about 60' across and with them at the four points of the compass. Walk the dog, at heel, around inside the circle of decoys so that he sees that there are four of them. He'll have one that he wants to bite over the others. When you do send him, do so at any of the others "except" his favorite. During this exercise you won't have him bite that one at all.

If you only have two decoys, in a fashion similar to the two decoy reward system, have one decoy tone down his fight and then recall the dog. Have the handler stand between the two decoys and soon as the K-9 gets to the handler he turns and sends the dog to the new decoy who begins to agitate. The handler directs the dog to bite the new decoy as soon as the dog is on the new decoy, the handler moves to a new location. After a short fight this is repeated. It's kept up until the dog automatically begins to head towards the new decoy as soon as he releases the old one. Then the handler calls the dog to a heel and does some OB with him. He walks close by the decoys and if the dog starts to head for them, he turns and heads the other way, giving a heel command and pressing the button on the transmitter. When the dog is calm again and doing good OB the handler again sends him to bite one of the decoys. At some point another decoy is hidden upwind of the dog and when the handler recalls him, instead of sending him for a bite on the other decoy he sends him into the scent cone to do a search. The dog will immediately get the scent of the hidden decoy and will go bite him.

The handler stays where he is and recalls the dog. A few run throughs of this and the dog is staying in combat drive when he releases and he's LOOKING FOR HIS NEXT ASSIGNMENT. That could be a search, another bite, some OB or whatever the handler chooses.

There's no conflict that other styles of getting the out brings which keeps a good working relationship between the K-9 and the handler.

It's essential that the handler move to a new spot immediately after he sends the dog to bite the decoy. This means that when the K-9 comes off the bite, since he's been given a recall command he has to start looking for the handler who's in a different place than when he left him. This means that his brain has to stay engaged. He can't focus totally on either decoy. It's also important that the handler not remain in a standing position all the time. This helps condition the dog for what a police officer does in the street. The handler should take a knee on one recall. On the next one he should be lying down on his chest. Next time he should be hiding behind a tree so the dog has to search for him. Give a second recall command as soon as he's off the bite to help him locate the handler.

Of course this is just the start of the training and there's more to it than just this; but this is a fairly complete overview. At the end of this training you can recall the dog from a bite even when the suspect continues to fight. Only very rarely does a suspect or the victim of a bad bite stop moving. Even if they're not fighting the dog, being bitten hurts so they're not going to stand perfectly still. You don't have to recall the dog at the end of this training. You can sit or down him or anything else that you want to do.

Copyright (C) 2004 Louis Castle