Gempress said:
I am curious as to how he used the motivational training to teach bitework. I wish had had gone into more detail on that.
It starts out just building drive, you frustrate the puppy with a toy that he can bite, usually a leather rag or small tug, till the pup is actively giving you the behaviors you want to see and it gets to bite, when they're really young, you let the leash go, and they get to chase their "prey" before the bite.
Later on the toys get bigger and the helper gets closer and the pup has to bite the toy in the helpers hands. After a
long (months and months) while of good hard solid bites with the pup or dog actively giving the desired behaviors with no conflict the "out" will be introduced. Usually done like this, dog has reward in mouth, helper gets a new one and makes it active at the same time the handler gives the out command. This way, "out" doesn't create conflict with the handler over losing his "prey" or reward, but instead means, "oh yeah baby, fresh meat, give me a bite of that moving toy, not this dead one" and the toy in the mouth is dropped so it can go for the next live one, cause its more fun.
This of course is built up over time until the dog is actively engaging a man with a sleeve, hidden sleeve whatever. At this point many different things can happen depending on the dog, its age, its maturity, how it can handle pressure etc, that is much to much to get into here.
But at some point with some dogs, the reward in their mouth is worth more than the prospect of chasing a new one, sometimes staying in a heeling position with an "enemy" in front of or along side of you puts some dogs into such high drive, "eh eh" means absolutely nothing to them, some a pop from a prong collar doesn't mean jack to them either at this point. Their drive to bite and hang on or engage the helper overrides almost anything.
Teaching bite work motivationally is fun for handlers and dogs, of course you have to have a dog with the right drive or you'll never teach it bitework this way, and to me if they aren't driven to do it, its pretty pointless to do it, there are plenty of dogs that do want to.