When is a dog "Balanced?" - Page 1

For my own education in working dogs, since i am still new, i am hoping to get some insight from those much further along than I. 

When working dogs how do you know when one type of aggression has been balanced with the others.  If a dog has too much fear aggression and i use prey with them, how do i know when the prey has increased enough to balance the fear. 

If the fight drive (aggression) is high, is the dog balanced in all three now (prey, fear and fight)??

For my own dog he had more defense so we used more prey, but i really don't know how to tell if he has balanced out yet.  I know i might be using different vocab than what others might use so i hope you can all figure it out and know what i am talking about. 

You should buy the new tri-tronics collar. It straps to the dogs head. When balanced, the light will be green. If the dog is totally in prey, the light turns yellow. In defense, it turns red. This will help your helper, training director and club members read your dog. Seriously? I don't refer to a balanced dog through training. Take your dog, for example. You state he is more defensive than prey driven. Not balanced. Probably never will be. You can build prey and it will help. You said he is being worked only in prey, and that is probably good if young. You can work the dog in prey the rest of his life, but when the pressure gets put on, where will he go? "Back to reality". Trust in who you train with. They see the dog everyday. If you don't trust them, move on. Don't trust morons like myself. Internet training is fun to read, but dangerous if you don't know more than the moron typing.

Chaz is right. A dog can only be what he is 

You will spend your entire competitive 'career' trying
to keep him 'even', and if he is more defensive, then
prey prey prey. But like Chaz said, when the shit hit's
the fan, or when he is feeling 'unsure' about anything
he will go back to his natural state. This type of dog
can be tricky to trial, depending on how defensive he is.
Any real pressure he feels will be met with defense, 
nature will over-ride all. The growling that usually 
comes hand in hand with this type of dog is always
a different type than you will hear from a dog that
is loaded with true fight. 

Just keep the pressure off, increase pressure as he
shows you he is ready to take more. Don't rush him,
that's about the worst you can do with a dog that's 
defensive. Work with his mental maturity.

And make sure all four legs are the same length, then
and only then you will know he is perfectly balanced 

Good post Chris.
Nadeem, A dog is a combination of gentics and training. Good training will not compensate for poor genetics and poor training can mess up good genetics. Educate yourself on how to judge if your TD and helper know what they are doing and then trust them to help you learn who your dog is. There are many bad TDs and helpers out there who can damage your dog.

Nadeem asked how you know when working a dog....

Sent too soon. When I say "balanced" I don't mean anything to do with training at all- I'm talking about a natural temperamental balance, purely genetic. I'm curious to see what others mean by the word. 

Hi, When someone says "balanced" dog I make sure we first have the same definition. Balanced = prey/ defense ratio is around the same. Unbalanced = prey/defense is leaning way more in one direction than the other. If you have a puppy then you may have a chance (at increasing prey drive/developing it more) if you are trying to balance the dogs prey/defense ratio. How much can you increase it? Maybe a little. As others said, your trying to change genetics and you have your work cut out for you. I would be more concerned with the dogs nerves and its ability to handle the training & everyday life. I'd rather have a dog that is "unbalanced" (meaning prey/defense ratio) and has rock solid nerves than a "balanced" dog with bad nerves. Unbalanced isn't a bad thing, lack of nerves coupled with it IS a bad thing. Trust your trainer and their methods. If you're not sure, seek out additional eyes on the dog. Accept the dog for what he/she is and with snd not against.

Yes Jenni has it correct.  I am not too concerned about my own dog.  We have a great TD whom i respect very much and he is doing super with my dog.  I just used my own dog as an example.

This is just for me when i work the dogs and help train them (under guidance of our TD) when i do the Helper work.  I dont mean genitically, i am wanting to know training wise.  Just looking to educate myself when working OTHER peoples dogs.  Thanks for the replies so far, they were educating to read anyway.

And for the person who pm'd here is the pedigree of mine.


http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/dog.html?id=703762

Well, if you're just talking working dogs, I don't know how to answer you. You apply pressure when tge dog is ready. You know when he is ready because you can read a dog. You also know when to step it down. Keep working dogs and pay attention on tge sidelines. If you're not clueless, you'll pick up body language, etc. easily.

"The growling that usually
comes hand in hand with this type of dog is always
a different type than you will hear from a dog that
is loaded with true fight.  "

How is it different?