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by Jeffs on 06 May 2013 - 15:05
We had a special guest at my training class the other day - a member of the local police K-9 unit and his dog. The trainer donned his bite suit and we got to see the dog and handler in action. I was curious about how think the bite suit was, so during a break I checked it out, The trainer saw me and said, "you want to try it", and before I knew it, he was putting the jacket on me. As instructed, I stuck my arm out in front of me and the handler gave the command. Wham. That dog had my arm before in a split second. And I learned pretty quickly that the bite suit only protects the decoy from the teeth breaking the skin. That dog had some power in his jaws.
Interesting how the dog could sense the smallest tensing of my arm muscle because as soon as my bicep tensed just a little, that dog clamped down even harder. I was a little freaked at the thought that the dog could easily break my arm or what it could do to my throat.
After we passed the point where I'd had enough, the handler called off the dog. It's been a week and my arm still hurts.
I realize that there is an art to it and the decoy's rarely let the dog actually grab their arm, leg, shoulder, which is even more impressive because that dog had a hold of my arm in a flash. I have new found respect for the dog and the decoys.
Needless to say, I can scratch decoy off my list of things I want to do.
Interesting how the dog could sense the smallest tensing of my arm muscle because as soon as my bicep tensed just a little, that dog clamped down even harder. I was a little freaked at the thought that the dog could easily break my arm or what it could do to my throat.
After we passed the point where I'd had enough, the handler called off the dog. It's been a week and my arm still hurts.
I realize that there is an art to it and the decoy's rarely let the dog actually grab their arm, leg, shoulder, which is even more impressive because that dog had a hold of my arm in a flash. I have new found respect for the dog and the decoys.
Needless to say, I can scratch decoy off my list of things I want to do.
by LadyFrost on 06 May 2013 - 15:05
LOOOOL...thanks for posting your experience...very interesting to read it from 1st timer point of view..LOL
by bubbabooboo on 06 May 2013 - 15:05
I am not a helper but I believe there are different levels of bite suits. Some thinner and some thicker. An experienced decoy may use a thinner suit which gives better mobility but less protection and a lot of them wear a compression sleeve or other slippery clothing on the body inside the suit to allow them to slip out of the dogs clampdown bite and leave the dog with a mouthful of suit and not a mouthful of you and bite suit. That said unless you have the Sta-Puff marshmallow suit you are going to get bruised and hurt by a strong dog that knows how to push in and stay clamped on you and the bite suit. If you go to Kreative Kennels site they have a photo of one of there most experienced helpers in a bite suit getting his family jewels chewed on through the suit and his face says it all.
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