Training Pics

We've been concentrating on bite compression training with Gunnar for the last 3-4 weeks. This is building his bite strength and endurance and teaching him to bite hard on his initial hit on the decoy.

It is a 3 part exercise. 1st, I send him to the decoy and he gets his initial bite. I regain leash control (read: run after him!) and begin to pull back on him, hard. The decoy pulls the other way, but we inch forward to let Gunnar think he's driving the decoy back. If he tries to regrip or if he slacks off on the bite, he loses. He learns that if he bites deep and hard the 1st time, he can't lose.

After 5 seconds or so the decoy will go to the ground, to let Gunnar think he's dominating the decoy. At this point I'll give him some slack on the lead, and if he wants to get a deeper bite, he can. Then the decoy will recover and we'll do the 1st part of the exercise again for a few seconds. After that the decoy will slip the sleeve and let Gunnar win. We do this 2 or 3 times in a bite session, and do 2-3 bite sessions each training day. We are gradually building his time on the bite to 10 seconds or so- once he's at that point, he'll be ready to move onto the bite suit. The decoys both say he's hitting like a ton of bricks and his bites are harder than ever since we've been doing this work.

This picture is where I'm just regaining leash control to start the exercise.


Here is the pulling part of the exercise. Regrip, and lose. He doesn't like to lose!


This is the passive position where Gunnar feels like he's dominating the decoy. This builds confidence. Basically, it gives him the attitude that "I can kick this guy's butt whenever I want". After this, the decoy rises up to his feet, we do the pulling part of the exercise for a few more seconds, then he slips the sleeve and lets Gunnar win.

nice pics!! he looks good

Glad he's on that side of the screen. He looks great, Dan!

Good pictures DanL.

Great pics! Looks like he's doing a great job

You guys have certainly come a long way. Great pictures!

Gunnar's all grown up! GREAT pics, Dan! Glad to see he's doing well.

Wow he already has a nice full bite! Awesome!!!! great job with him!

Glad to see he is doing well too and glad it isn't my arm in that sleeve:yikes:

Gunnars great Dan. Decoys are pretty brave I reckon the hits they take from some of those dogs.

Nice training pics.
Thanks..

Great pics and descriptions. Sounds like you go to a good place for training. I've been to some training where I wasn't very impressed. Your trainer knows the exact steps to take to get the required result. Keep us updated on his progress.

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Barb, it's pretty cool having these guys. They are willing to do whatever you want with your dog, but I'm taking baby steps with Gunnar. I see another guy who is pushing his dog too far to fast and the dog shuts down all the time. He wants to go from step 1 to 10 and not take 2-9 in the middle, and you can see it. He started a few months before we did and Gunnar is way ahead of his dog now, because we're going slow.

I also have another guy I try to go to during the week, and he's real good too. His philosophy is a bit different but it's all about fundamentals too.

I'm behind, forgive me. What is Gunnar's future career? He looks good, btw.

Oohhhhh I'm envious! He looks like he's having a blast! Unfortunately the only Schutzhund trainers around here either only work with GSDs and Mals, or says "there's no room for love in the life of a Schutzhund dog". Grargh.

We demand more pics!

i very much believe in letting the dog set the pace. move to the next stage of training when he's ready, not because you want to, and there's nothing wrong with going back a step or two also as needed.

nice work with gunnar.

well then...move!!

Mindy, he doesn't have a career per se'. We're just giving him new challenges to keep him excited about training. With this protection training, my goal is to have him reliable and dependable because he understands how to evaluate a threat, how to react if someone comes after me or my wife, and how to lay off if the threat subsides.

Sizzle, we're not doing schutzhund, though there are elements of it in our training. I disagree that a schutzhund can't be a pet with a loving family. I know plenty of K9 officers who take their dogs home to their families every night. Real working dogs, not dogs that go out on the same field and run through a choreographed routine once or twice a week.

I'm hoping to get some more video soon. Next week we're going to let him do an area search since the fundamentals of the exercise will be the same, he'll just have a longer distance to go and have to find the decoy. I'll try and get someone to video that for me.