Your thoughts and foundations on protection work. - Page 2

RS,
The dog has to be able to handle the pressure and have a good strong foundation.  Some dogs maybe ready at 8 or 9 months to increase the pressure, some may not be ready until 12 or 15 months.  It depends on the temperament and maturity level of the dog.  It also depends on how hard you are going to push the dog.  I will push a police dog a lot harder than a SchH dog in bite work.  I will also work them differently.  I will let a police K9 know quickly that I am a bad guy and not to be taken lightly, and the dog should think he is in a "real" fight. 

There are some drawbacks to this for a sport dog, the grip may become shallower or not as full.  For Police K9's we usually don't worry about a full grip; we want a hard grip.  For sport dogs to get high points you have to have a "full," calm grip, not necessarily a "hard grip".  Obviously, a full hard, crushing grip is ideal in both situations.  But a full, hard grip has a big genetic component to it.  Without the right genetics, IMHO, you just won't get that full, hard, crushing, calm grip.  Training can make grips better when done correctly or worse when done poorly.  I am fortunate that my dog has genetic full, hard, crushing. calm grips.  He would be an excellent sport dog, but those grips are nice on a bad guys too.  The fight is over pretty quickly. 

I do motivational obedience separate from protection work at a young age.  I gloss over mistakes and reward when the dog is correct.  Enforcing the correct or desired behavior.  There are many schools of thought of when to add OB into bite work.  I have my own thoughts and I'm not saying I'm correct.  This has worked for me and there are other ways which might work better for someone else.  I teach the "out" separately from protection work.  I teach the "fuss" or recall out of the blind separately from protection work with toys.  My dog understands the heel command away from protection.  I start to add OB into bite work in SchH when I start to teach the dog to run the blinds.  The hold and bark has already been taught and there is obviously control work there.  Up until the point of the hold and bark, I do very little OB in my protection work.  With that said, the exercises are taught separately.  You can teach a platz and throw a ball, the dog remains down until you release it.  Very similar to the escape exercise.  If you teach the call out of the blind exercise separately and the correct "fuss" position it is easy to add into the protection routine. 

The transport is the only OB exercise that you need a decoy to help teach.  I can't think of any other right now.  So the transport is something the dog learns on the field.  But the dog already has a clear understanding of heeling.  So. it's not a big deal. 

Klaus, I agree.  I think young dogs or puppies need to be puppies and enjoy themselves.  I try to make training fun and my dogs want to work.  Even my police dog gets plenty of dog time.  Every day we work I stop and just throw a ball to him for 10 or 15 minutes.  We also stop and do some OB at different times, which is fun for him.  Dogs get stressed out too.  I go to most calls lights and sirens and I see him standing up in the back of the car as I'm driving code and think he's not having fun right now, but we're making great time. 

JMO,

Jim