Sharon Blakeney-McDonald
Forum Replies Created
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Ah… Mike I’ve watched further videos of “cc protection dogs” in their video gallery and can see how they trained their puppies to do bite-work & targeting now. The puppies are train in offence work on the full suit (no tugs, sleeves, etc and it does seem like he only uses the prong collar for he dogs training). Am I correct that offence work is prey drive? The puppy looks like it is genetically gifted.
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Unfortunately with my large male GSD, the second trainer who came to help me with controlling his guarding was using “quick fixes” of the e-collar and I didn’t feel right about it as I felt that it was my dog’s natural instinct coming out of him to guard. I decided to go to a club unaware at the time the methods of training were for sport dogs. Their training involved prey development where my dog learned when he barked he could control the decoy by making him move – then he was taught to do the obedience commands (sit, down, ok for the bite) and to carry sleeve back to car. The problem was he started to become aggressive with the decoy, spitting the sleeve and wanting to take him out. The trainer stopped my dog’s training there and said he had too much defence drive and I was better off leaving him at home. That didn’t help me much as I still needed to be the one controlling him instead of him making the decisions threatening all outsiders that came near me, our home or the car. I started to do some research and came across your video and put that into practice of sending him to the place, etc that did solve my problem with him at home with visitors or workmen. Sadly, he now has DM (degenerative myelopathy) and won’t be with us for much longer.
The link “ccprotectiondogs” did you watch their videos? The obedience and the off leash bitework of targeting the weapon hand was very impressive for a dog where he says he does no e-collar training. My female dog fights more like the way he mentioned in the training section under the “best protection dogs” using more her front teeth and biting wherever she wants to. I do have videos off her training and will post them in my training journal to help you with your guidance of our training. Your training journal will provide a valuable service in helping me in expanding her training… there isn’t many dog trainers here in AU who know anything about training protection dogs. I look forward to starting my journal as per your recommendation.
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Hi Mike … I’ve watched the links above. The video that shows some of these concepts on a suit: is what I use to control my large male GSD who has a lot of reactive aggression. I was very grateful to come across this video a few years back as I never had any luck finding a dog trainer here who knew how to teach me to control his aggression of guarding me from strangers approaching us in public, our home or with our car. A trainer showed me how to use e-collar to stop him from disobeying obedience commands but never showed me how I could use the e-collar to control his guarding… I was concerned that I would only suppress his aggression if I use the collar the way I was taught for the obedience.
My female protection dog that I spoke about above seems to have been trained different from the links you have provided here and the dog trainer I purchased her from seemed to be following the dog training methods from http://www.ccprotectiondogs.com/training/. I do understand your reasons though for not allowing any of your clients to do REAL personal protection training beyond the foundation tug and prey work without finishing “phase 3” obedience with the e-collar. With my protection female dog she seemed to be conditioned to only bite on command and apart from her training she is meant to be the family pet . The reason I was thinking of putting her on e-collar for off leash was my concerns of her chasing wild animals and I know of no other way of having 100% back up of leash. The other reason I’m also considering using the e-collar is even though she does obey my commands she breaks them too as there is no aversive consequences except for a “no” and put back into the command or a jerk on the leash. It’s like “do I have to do the command?”. Do you have suggestions that may help me to improve her obedience when she is off leash?
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Thank you… your answer was very helpful and I’m sure the links will be a great assistance in helping me to expand on her training. I have been considering training her in off leash obedience with the e-collar as a safety precaution but also to have a 100% back up in all situations that could occur off leash. This lady’s dog training is based on the dog remaining on the lead out in public and even at home, once the dog as given you warning of strangers being near your home.
The method of her training to “speak” is in another post I noticed in your forum – Protective/intimidating barking on command – and reading that has put my mind at ease as to the way she trains her protection dogs. This is along with your response/answer here.
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Hello Mike, Tazer is making good progress with each training session we do and his defense drive has now began to move more towards being prey. We may have also discovered another issue that he has and we think it could be separation anxiety. Tazer at times would be pushing me with his backhind when his in front of me, regardless to who his barking at.(Decoy or at strangers approaching us at home or out). We weren’t sure why he was doing this. We decided to tye Tazer to a pole by himself and I would move out of his eye sight. The decoy couldn’t get his attention and could even stand along side of him without Tazer reacting as he was more concern at looking to see where I could be. It seems that I could be one of the triggers for him to react. My husband is going to give it a go at being Tazer handler at the next training session so we can see what Tazer will do without me. What is your outlook on Tazer behaviour?
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Mike we thought of giving it a go of me holding on to him and running him to the car with the bite wedge… it worked. (Instead of tying him to the pole due to Tazer being able to pull me over.) Trainer believes when a dog carry is the day the dog has started to enjoy bitework. He is sure we can now fix the problem. I’ll send a update video after the next training session.
@Mike D’Abruzzo 1012 wrote:
The video looks like like a good plan. It is all very prey orientated for sure which is good. My advice would be to see if Tazer steadily increases in intensity and keep track of how excited he gets to do “bite work”. If this is on the rise I would stick with the current plan. If it starts to plateau you may go with increasing the competition by introducing a second dog to compete over the tugs/wedges/etc.. This can sometimes increase the intensity.
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Thanks,they sure know their stuff. The decoy is Brendan but he does have a brother called Scott.
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Please click on the link to see a quick video of Tazer working with his new dog trainer. -
We are having a hard time training Tazer as he has a bad association with the tools ( tug, wedge, sleeve, suit) that are needed to teach him protection work. His a dog with high defence and a low prey drive. We are trying to build his confidence and prey drive up (with a wedge and a lot of running away) and until we do we can’t process to the next level. Any tips would be appreciated. I have a video of Tazer working with the new dog trainer and I will send it through once I’ve work out how to.
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Good news… I attended the new club today ran by the Security company and their method of training is the same as yours. You were correct Tazer was being work in defence and not prey. We are starting the training from the beginning of using the tug and building up his prey drive. Thankfully I became a member of your website and by watching your videos on your Protection training I could see the correct methods of how it should have been done.
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In my album I have photos of Tazer guarding a sleeve with one of the club member wearing a suit who Graham was teaching at the time to be a agitator. Unfortunately this member can no longer make the training sessions. I’m hoping to record a video of Tazer doing his bite work on the phone so you can see him working. Notice Tazer in the photo focus on the agitator eyes instead of his arm. Maybe the problem of him not holding on is inexperienced agitators.
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Tazer is a German Shepherd and is now 5yrs old. He has completed phase 3 off-leash control. Tazer has always been incline not to make immediate friends with strangers and I don’t allow them to pet him until I know he is comfortable with them. They are usually friends or family members that we have invited into our home or at the dog club where he knows the members. He has been like that from the time he was a puppy… very sweet with us and my hubby little dog but wary of strangers.(Now people are wary of him). Tazer has never been taught to bark, stare a person in the eyes while jumping up and down in front of strangers that enter our property before I am there. (regardless of my sign) He is always looking for the eye contact of people. Tazer is not the type of dog to bite but would if he believe a person was a threat. I think the problem with him not holding on in his bite work is his too focus on the agitator then the equipment and I don’t know why. It’s like he waiting on a further action from the agitator. I have found another club run by a Security company that are doing dog training and I’m hoping they will be able to help me finish off his protection training. The other company that was running the course in Property and Family Guardian Training haven’t return my calls.
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I decided to watch all the video’s starting from the tug up to the flanking. I think if I follow your video’s I will get the results I’m after. The flanking I don’t know where I’m going to find anyone here in WA that would know how to do it. I may have to be content with him just being a pet. One thing I do know is Tazer into watching eye contact with strangers and if they happen to look at him he barks at them giving them a fright. I have no idea if a real situation occur and we were threaten what he would do. I think he would get a fright as he so use to strangers being frighten of him.
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Back again… watched video on Nikko grip work. I can see two problems that we are doing wrong. One Graham can’t run and two Tazer hasn’t been taught to target the weapon hand (stick) as Graham uses one arm with the stick, other arm with sleeve. I need helper who can run and use the suit with a stick. In tug games at home I’ve try to get Tazer let go off one tug and move onto the other. He just watches it out of the corner of his eyes as if to say – I know that trick and I’m not letting go off the one I’ve got. (Unless I tell him out and then his still focus on that tug). Any suggestions?
