NEED A LITTLE BITE WORK ADVICE - Page 1

My young dog at a earlier age was not fully committing to the bite and aiming for my hand. Now he has got out of that his drives have intensified and now he is hitting like a ton of bricks! But now he is hitting closer to my elbow than the center of my arm. And that is what i need advice on or could it be my positioning that could be causing it? \
 
                                              THANKS CLINT 
                                              VON ALLE GELANDE K9  

Alle, How young are you talking about? Also are you using a sleeve with a bite bar, if so is he avoiding biting in the hard part of the sleeve?                                                                                             Michael

Could be both and some more. Sometimes the sleeve cover puffs up a bit just close to the elbow, especially in softer ones. From the dogs perspective coming from down below looking upwards it presents a bigger target. How high and at what angle you present it plays also a role. The other part is your dog could have trouble with targeting correctly. I just experienced this with my own pup as well. It had been recommended to me to go back to a bite wedge or pillow for a while (slightly different reason regards to the targeting). This made sense to me as both offer a smaller target the dog is able to bite in. So far it helps. There are also covers you can put over the sleeve in the undesired areas to prevent the dog from biting there.

There is a good video from leerburg on playing with TUG and shows the different presentation of tug to dog and the right way to teach the dog to target  ,there is one for sale on ebay also .Also start using smaller sleeve specially made for this that both ends are slanted in so target area is right in the middle  and only about 10 to 12 inches plus right hand sleeve can help also ,But most of all make sure your dog is not avoiding sleeve or the helper. A good helper can solve all this problem

He is 9 months old and we is biting the bite suit and some hidden sleeve. Here is the scenario i meet my wife in the middle in non threatening manner and the dog is on the lead beside her then as we meet a act like i am going to steal the purse on the opposite side from the dog to run past her and as soon as i make the fast movement he hits close to my elbow more towards the arm not the shoulder and he is now doing it on the long bite. 
                 thanks 
 

Clint,
Is this occurring on a sleeve, hidden sleeve or bite suit?  Are you working your own dog?   Do you work your own dog on a hidden sleeve?  I'm a little confused.

From what I understand from the scenario that you described, the dog has to come around your wife and target you.  If you started a young dog, or in your case a puppy on a bite suit and have progressed to a hidden sleeve targeting the elbow is common.  Especially, when doing bite suit work many dogs will target the elbow.  You may be progressing too quickly to scenarios and not concentrating on the foundation work, which is targeting and full hard grips.  Dogs should take what ever they can get on a bite suit.  Ideally, we teach high on the back for a fleeing suspect initially.  But we also work leg bites and frontals.  If your dog is accustomed to sleeve work either hidden sleeve or SchH style as a the beginning of bite work training he will favor the arm, even in a suit.  

It is also possibly your presentation in the suit.  We try not to present the arm, but shoot the arm and give the back or arm pit or a frontal bite depending on the situation.  But dogs like water follow the path of least resistance and will gravitate to what's easy to get.  The other issue can be the hidden sleeve work.  Many decoys will often tend to "feed the arm"  when using a hidden sleeve to assure the dog bites the arm.  This also causes the dog to seek the arm and can cause problems as well.     With the information provided I would think that there is a problem with the presentation and progressing to quickly in the foundation training.  Although, for a dog trained on a suit, I don't see a problem with elbow bites, they really hurt.  

What are your plans with this dog?  What are you training the dog for?

Jim 

If the dog is 9 months old, he's teaching him to be a psycho

You are moving to fast, not enough foundation work, and get someone else to do this work with your dog beside yourself...JMO

again this is not my dog i don't own him feed him i don't handle him