RE... Bringing It/Taking It - Page 1

I didn't want to hijack the Sport Test thread, so I started a new one... but it is related to the stick hits and pressure put on a dog by the helper and the dog "taking it" ...but the dog being 100% opposite at home.

At Home:
I truly thought my 3 year old male was a wuss or had confidence issues because he reacts so strongly to me at home if he gets corrected for anything.
If I grab his collar he hollers/cowers like I'm killing him and about to beat him. If I accidentally step on his toes, oh my God, it's the end of the world and he screams bloody murder.
Hell, I can say "HEY!" and glare at him, say for sniffing a little to close to the trash can,  and he ducks his head and mopes away,  then I feel guilty.
If we are getting ready to go for a walk I have been making him sit by the door and wait for me to actually get the door all the way open before he bolts out, practically knocking me over. I correct him mildly and he screams.
He can even try to bolt and I just stand there and let him correct himself and he screams....Once we get out walking, if I give him even a mild correction with the prong he screams and I have to make sure no neighbors are looking out their windows.
The Training Field:
On the field he is completely the opposite. I correct him and he balks. The people I train with say he is a prey monster.
The more pressure and stick hits he gets the harder he fights. One particular hit made ME flinch and I thought "FOR SURE he's coming coming off!" He closed his eyes and held on harder, and started really fighting. I couldn't believe it.


Anyway, I have asked a few different people their opinions and was given different answers as to why he acts so different at home.  For the longest time I thought he was afraid of me, but when I asked my new helper recently he laughed and said the dog isn't afraid of anything.
I was told that he looks at me like I am the alpha, BUT I was also told by someone else that he's "playing" me because I used to give in all the time, or lighten up when he cried or yelped. Now I try my hardest to ignore it and make it impersonal.
(I am new to Schutzhund so for the first two years of his life he hardly ever got in trouble for anything because I knew I wanted to do SchH  with him eventually, but was afraid anything negative I did would ruin him forever)
So  the answers I've received seem like opposites to me. 

Could it just be he is in a different frame of mind on the field? It's taken me months to get the little bit of control over him that I have gained training, but at home he is just so different... Is this bad? Is there anything I can do to get my dog to stop screaming at the slightest correction at home? 
Thanks for any insight,
Stacy

Thanks Bob for posting.
I guess I am over thinking it, and I definitely have been fretting over this behavior for the last three years. Normal dog behavior...sigh  LOL And I thought it would be some deep answer..

It does make sense and even being new to SchH, I can occasionally see mistakes other people are making, even while I am having a hard time correcting certain problems I'm having.
I appreciate your post, even though I feel kinda foolish now for it being something so simple :-)

Stacy

Sometimes the simple things are the hardest things to detect and correct...Usually in dog training the things you need to do to correct a problem your having are so simple that you often think  "why didn't I think of that"...
For instance...someone teaching their dog to heel and the person is just having a problem with the dog going with them...for one reason or another...And the answer usually is to just WALK...just GO....and the dog will go with you...
It's so simple and you've heard it a million times...but you must be the Pack Leader...and because you've heard it so many times you don't even think about it...You just assume that your the Pack Leader and no problem...Well when your new to dog training...no matter what you're wanting to do...Wether it be Schutzhund...AKC...or just home Obedience it basically all starts the same way...
So the answer to most people's questions about training their dog is to just get off your butt and go and DO IT...Yes your going to make mistakes...and that's how we learn...And by the way...that's how our dogs learn too...

~Bob~

It's like zones...........Civil zones... But Jim is a good natured guy at home with his
friends, kids, and neighbors. But when he pulls into the parking lot at the police
station, he begins to feel himself going into character. The streets are unforgiving
and subconsciously he is preparing to do his job. As he gets into uniform and
gets his daily report he is now geared to meet with bullshit world that has been
heaped upon him. As he enters his squad car and drives off, he is now in civil
drive. The level he takes or does not take, will determine the outcome of the days
events..........So it goes for the working dog.  The hard part is to turn it off at the
end of the day, and go back to normal.

Stacy,

I have a female who is exactly like that. It's like you're describing her. I think that's just normal for her.

I remain dubious that she's normal in general though *lol* I can say "c'mere girl," and she either ignores me, or disappears. But if I grab a rolled up newspaper, thwap it on my hand and snarl:  "Imma smack my b*tch up!" in an faux-angry voice she comes leaping up with her tail wagging, and starts banging her head into the newspaper. My dog is into BDSM.

"Closes his eyes". Hmmm.

jc.carroll, maybe your dog is just trying to be kind to the mentally ill when you do that. LOL. She worries who will feed her when the men in white coats come for you. I'm only kidding- I do wacky stuff w/my dogs too.

Like I said to you on the phone, Stacy, he sounds handler-soft, which is not the world's most terrible thing. You are his superior, and trust me, when dealing with a dog who feels they have no superiors, that can be a nice thing to use to your advantage. Oftentimes a dog who is handler soft is extra biddable.  Like Jim says and I said before, be aware of it, but if he's truly that hard otherwise, don't coddle him; you only encourage him to "play" you that way. Dogs do what works and gets them the results they want. You correct him, he doesn't like it, mopes, you're sorry and then he's happy again. Who's controlling whom? I'm not sure that's the case here though. I think it might be that he's a softer dog who is so prey driven that it covers up the softness when he's training or "in drive" as Jim pointed out. There are dogs who hang onto the sleeve as a safe place when pressure is applied and can appear very strong, when in fact, they're hiding from pressure and for them, it's a form of avoidance.

Not saying this is the case w/Galan (that's who we're talking about, right?), but it's something to consider, especially since you mentioned he closes his eyes. As an example, my strongest dog keeps eye contact w/the decoy regardless of the pressure and/or pain; he'll escalate the fight but not break eye contact, almost as if to say "Oh yeah, Buddy? How about this?" Closing his eyes for a split second if something it hitting him in the head or face can be a simple flinch, and a natural reaction, but if he's actually closing his eyes, I'd take that as a form of avoidance and back off for a bit. Build his confidence before going back to that level of pressure again. JMO.