Desire to bite and Courage to bite - Page 1

could someone please elaborate on this

regards

Is there really a difference? If a dog has the "courage", I would think of course they have the "desire", and vice versa.

Or is the question really about prey drive verses nerve?   You can have a ton of prey and the desire to bite any and everything and still lack the courage required to do bitework.  

At what extent or how can the helper put courage to the test in sport?
Is the courage test in sport different to say, civil/ protection training?

Hope this is relevant to the topic in question.
Thanks.

Wow, how did this one slip by?   I would imagine this thread can generate some good posts too.

Desire to bite: most dogs have this, IMO, to a greater or lesser degree. If you add in chasing, then the desire to chase and bite is prey drive which most examples of a predator have.

Courage to bite...what? A jute or any other kind of sleeve? An apparently unprotected human arm or leg? Of an attacker? Or another animal, prey or otherwise?

To me, courage is shown in the last blind.  The dog must continue to press and perform a convincing hold and bark, by himself,  until the handler is finally allowed to approach.  I think this demonstrates incredible courage.

Simply put, the desire to bite is "prey" drive - when the target is not showing aggression of any sort but is trying to flee. The courage to bite is what a dog demonstrates when it is threatened in some way like when the helper shows aggression in a frontal pose. The desire to bite is present in most young pups which chase and play in prey drive . The courage to bite only shows up on maturity, which can sometimes be as early as 10 months in GSDs with very good genes - even so, it has to be gradually developed thereafter to build confidence or can cause severe setbacks in training.  The courage to bite (Defense Drive or Fight Drive) is genetic and cannot be instilled in all dogs even with training. Many dogs will show good prey drive or a desire to bite as pups but may not have the courage to bite when  they mature and are taken up for training in defense.