The hold & bark

[northwoodsGSD]

How do you(yourself, club, trainer, ect) teach the hold & bark? Do you find certain things work better w/ a puppy vs an adult? Why?
What problems have you come across & how did you rectify them?

[4TheDawgies]

I teach my dogs how to "push" me for things at a very young age. They learn that barking and acting like a bully will get me to give in to things. I then shape the behaviors that "work" when pushing me into things I want to see on the field.

During rag work as the dog barks I begin to name it in the very beginning. The dog learns how to bark the helper in.

It starts out as a prey bark, but a dog with defense will naturally bring out a serious bark as they age, mature, and the helper becomes more challenging. Then eventually it turns into a really nice bark with a pushy attitude. A dog with fight drive will naturally come out more and more until you have a great bark and hold with a good intense bark.

[lhczth]

I wait until the dog is mature enough to bark in aggression since the H&B is an aggression based exercise. Makes teaching the H&B significantly easier. IMO teaching it as a prey exercise imprints the wrong behaviors and the wrong attitude in the dog.

[Liesje]

Pan hasn't really started HB yet, probably won't until next spring. We tried but he's still immature in the head and not yet really viewing the helper in a way that brings out aggression. Sure he can sit there and bark forever and be clean but it's not really the picture or the power that I want. He's done enough rounds to understand that barking = good and barking gets results but it's not quite the type of barking and frame of mind we want, and that's not his fault or the training, just the maturity of the dog. There's not much he can learn in protection right now. I'm focusing on my other dog right now and then we are not training for the rest of the year. Not sure exactly how we will do it with Pan, we shall see...