this is bad - Page 1

Ouch, that had to hurt.  That is not that uncommon in that scenario, I know it can happen.  I've seen it several times.

Jim

Hey Jim
Do you think that the handler traind his dog protection work as him being the decoy?
thats what it looks like to me.

shouldn;t the'' helper' have gone over there and tried to redirect the dog to ''help'' the handler out? this is my favorite bite video www.youtube.com/watch they know a lot about training dogs in Israel

I had a friend roughly translate what they were saying to each other in the viedo and the deocy was like - "don't worry, I'll protect you then there was a lot of laughing....." Yikes

Yes Lief , I enjoy wathing the iraeldogs videos too.

Troublelinx,
No I don't think the handler worked his own dog in protection work.  I think the dogs go after the most vulnerable person and have tunnel vision at that point.  The first few times you do a scenario like this the dog will go after the guy getting pushed or the guy on the ground.  I can't tell you the reason, perhaps the dog is picking the easier target, perhaps the dog is always used to seeing the handler on top and being the aggressor pushing the decoy. 

We actually trained deploying our dogs by hitting the remote door popper when the handler was fighting on the ground.  Every dog which was muzzled engaged the handler when he was on the bottom.  I raised my K9 from a 7 week old pup and he really let me have it until I was able to redirect him onto the decoy which was standing.  we had to repeat the scenario several times to be able to redirect the dogs quickly.  I learned one thing, if I get into a fight on a traffic stop the dog comes out before it goes to the ground.  GARD mentioned this to me some time ago on this forum and we recreated it during training. 

Yes, the decoy should have redirected the dog but once the dog is locked on it's hard sometimes.  The only thing that would have helped would have been more distance and the decoy doing more agitation from the beginning.  And of course training that scenario multiple times and being able to redirect the dog before it engages the handler.  I'm sure the handler did not expect this to happen and that is when these things normally when things go wrong.  I can think of 2 Police demos where the dog mistakenly targeted the handler initially.  It is embarrassing for the handler and gives us lots of material to joke the handlers for years to come.  But stuff happens when working with dogs.

JMO,

Jim 

It's a pack mentality kind of thing.  Watch wolves sometime.  The pack nails whoever shows weakness in order to reestablish the pecking order.  If the alpha falters, it's dog pile on the alpha.  I hope that makes sense. 

if you get bitten by your own dog surely  there is some handler error somewhere! or manufacturer defect !  at the very least the handler should wear some distinctive clothing that just screams you don't bite the person wearing this to the dog!!

Lief,
I wouldn't have believed it until I saw it with several dogs in my K9 unit.  I can assure you that my dog has no defects and we have a super bond and working relationship, there was no handler error and my dog has no handler aggression. 

As far as specialized clothing, dogs don't see color as we do.  Furthermore, there is no more specialized clothing that screams "bite me" to a dog than a bite suit.  The decoy was wearing the bite suit.  If you don't think this could happen to you, muzzle your dog and try it.  Get a second person to knock you down and stand over you, have some one else release your dog.  I guarantee the first time your dog hits you if it actually engages with any intensity.  

I know some people won't believe me, their dog will never bite them.  Try it, you will see.  Trust me.   

Debisue,
I think you are correct or at least that is one explanation. 

Jim