Finally! A new training video!

[GatorDog]

Now that my holiday craziness is over, I finally got around to editing the most recent video taken of Aiden's protection work at club!

Aiden vom HausDaka - Bitework 12/6/2011 - YouTube

He's gettin' there..

[Castlemaid]

Very nice~ I enjoyed watching this. Aiden has a lot of good drives and aptitude for the work. Would have loved to hear the quality of his barking.

I'm no expert but was wondering why your helper was using a soft puppy sleeve for him, seemed to be encouraging shallow bites. But then when he switched to a hard sleeve, Aiden was biting full, so no worries there.

Another thing that I noticed is that the helper rewarded a few times when Aiden was shaking and trashing the sleeve. There were instances where he was pulling back nicely and strongly where he should have been rewarded instead. I know that some people don't worry about the head shaking, but if that is a concern to you, be aware of what Aiden is being rewarded for.

Overall, nice work, good fight!

[Mrs.K]

I was thinking the same thing about the soft sleeve and was thinking: What in the world is he doing?

Did he explain to you what the purpose of the soft sleeve was?

[GatorDog]

Thank you! It's been a work in progress with Aiden. I rescued him at 5 months with no intentions of Schutzhund (I didn't even know about it myself) yet here we are.

To be honest, I'm not sure why my helper was using a soft sleeve in the beginning of the video. Aiden has been working on a hard sleeve for a few months now. I had some issues with shallow bites on the soft sleeve in the past, and we have been working his grips on the hard sleeve for a while now. They weren't that great initially..

As of right now, I don't think that Aiden is a very consistent head thrasher, but (being new to the sport) I hadn't realized that it could possibly be an issue. What should I do to prevent that in the future?

I can use any hints/tips/suggestions to improve. Protection seems to be Aiden's weakest suit at the moment, so any advice helps!

[Castlemaid]

Mention to your helper that you have noticed how Aiden gets rewarded by winning the sleeve when he shakes, instead of when he is pulling back.

I'm not a helper, so maybe he is working on something specific and rewarding Aiden for something specific that I do not see, so ask him why he is rewarding Aiden just then. There might be a good reason for it, or he may just not be aware that he is doing it. The trashing/shaking is very hard on the person's shoulders. Your helper may be having shoulder problems wanting to slip the sleeve because he has a hard time holding on to it when Aiden is shaking - I really don't know. This is not something that you can fix, this is something that the helper has to fix (if it needs fixing). Best bet is to talk to him about it. You could just mention that you are concerned about Aiden developing bad habits and would like to see him rewarded only for calm pulling back.

I'm thinking that if your helper is going back to the puppy sleeve and letting the sleeve go when it is being shaken . . . he might have had a sore arm/shoulder and was protecting himself and trying to make things easier for his sore arm. I don't want to critizice him, overall I think he does nice work. This kind of feedback is good for you though to develop an eye to see what is going on and learning from it.

And again, I'm not very experienced myself, so if a more experienced person sees things differently than what I see, I'm open to learning from them also.

Did you ask your helper for permission to post this video? Our helper has asked us to check with him before we post pictures and videos of him working dogs to avoid that one ackward picture, or that one bad protection session that didn't go as planned but is not indicative of his general work. But then all it takes is one bad picture or one confusing video for complete strangers to make up their minds about a person's training ability.

[Renofan2]

Keep up the nice work! Agree, would have liked to have heard the barking. I am a bit envious of your indoor facility. We trained in 30 degree weather with high winds last night. I am still not feeling warm, lol.

Cheryl

[GatorDog]

Yup, my helper gave me permission to use my videos for whatever purposed I please. He's a great guy. He's taken Aiden from being shy and submissive to a much more confident dog. I'm going to find another one of my videos that has Aiden barking in it.

And yeah, love having the facility. That way when it's pouring or snowing (which is probably 70% of the time here in NY) we don't have to freeze! It's great. I personally doubt I could handle the weather around here. I hate the cold.

[Mrs.K]

Wuzzes... where I'm from you train and trial in snow, rain and the cold. I've never seen a club with any kind or form of indoor facility... but then again, we don't get those masses of snow you've got over here.

This current winter is more like the German Winter I am used to, so no need of indoor facilities, you just suck it up. Because Dog Handlers and especially Schutzhund people are not whiny sissies, they are rough and tough and endure the cold. If it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger!

[lhczth]

Biting on a soft sleeve like that can give a dog a lot of confidence because they can feel the helper's arm better.

As far as the questions about pulling back...... pulling back or away from the helper is an avoidance behavior. I want to see a dog that fights by either torquing the sleeve (not thrashing) with his head/body or that punches or slams the sleeve into the helper. This is a dog fighting with the helper and not biting and then trying to avoid the fight.

[lhczth]

We train in a filthy dirty cold horse barn in the winter. The footing in the barn is safer for both the dogs and the helpers than dealing with frozen ground, ice and snow. The barn also protects us from the miserable winter winds.