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Problem Solving in the Hold and Bark
by Armin Winkler
Copyright September, 2008 -
After my last article I was really stumped for my next topic. There are so many things one can write about. But with a lot of topics I found that a magazine article would either be too general and not of any great value or way too long and detailed to go into a magazine.
After reading my article on grip problems again, I felt that I didn't spend nearly enough time discussing the hold and bark exercise. Now, don't panic, I'm not going to bore you by giving you step by step instruction for teaching the hold and bark, that would lead too far astray. So I am going on the assumption that most readers and their trainers are perfectly capable of getting the exercise started. What I want to talk about are some of the problems that come up and how to deal with them.
There are different philosophies out there on how to teach the exercise. I'm not going to get into which one is right and which one is wrong. The truth is there is more than one way to start and teach the exercise and they all have merit. The problems generally start creeping up when we think the dog has learned what we wanted him to learn.
As always, I want the reader to have some insight into my way of thinking to avoid confusion.
- Our concept of the hold and bark is unnatural for the dog. The dog does not want to hold the helper, he wants to make him react. Either by popping the sleeve up for prey action, or backing down to show avoidance or submission
- We as trainers have to be absolutely clear what it is we want to teach the dog. Dogs learn by making connections, it is our job to make sure they connect the right things
- The helper is there to help create the concept we want to teach to the dog and to reward correct behavior. He is not there to correct the dog
- The teaching of the hold and bark should take place everywhere but the blind. Only when it is starting to come together do we move to the blind.
At seminars the most common complaints about the hold and bark are:
- He is not intense enough
- He is too sleeve focused
- He needs confidence
- He is too dirty
There are a few others too of course, but these are the main ones. Different things cause these problems, but one thing is always constant, something is not quite finished. But what is a finished hold and bark? Again there are a lot of different opinions out there. I will try to formulate mine.
The hold and bark is a part of protection training, and as such, it has to include the same components as the rest of protection training. And when it comes to protection training nothing is more revered than the all important fighting drive. I stated in a previous article, that such a drive really does not naturally exist. What we call fighting drive is actually a "package" of components including prey drive, defense drive, social aggression, and dominance. As trainers we "package" the above components to end up with the finished product: Fighting drive. Sometimes dogs are easier to "package," sometimes they need a bit more work. But one thing is for sure, whether by accident or by plan, bite training is not finished until some of each component plays a role in how the dog works. We want the dog to fight the helper while he is biting.
Now, do trainers make sure the dog learns the same for the hold and bark (H&B)? I would say no. But the H&B is part of protection training, we cannot expect the dog to suddenly feel differently about the helper, just because he is not biting. And with that we are very much at the root of most H&B problems.
What most dogs learn is to hold back and bark rather than to hold the helper. The dog needs to learn that he can hold, control, and fight the helper just as much during the H&B as he does while biting. Just as much thought, work, and effort has to go into balancing out all the dog's motivations in order to properly "package" the H&B as was necessary during the rest of protection training.
I am convinced that we can't separate the H&B from the rest of protection training. With that in mind we have to realize that the dog can only do what we teach him. A dog who works almost exclusively in prey drive during protection work won't magically display defense and aggression during the H&B, that makes no sense. At the same time, a dog who works almost exclusively in defense doesn't want to just sit in front of the helper and bark, so he can make prey when the helper pops the sleeve up. Balance is the key, if we aren't willing to balance the motivations for the dog, we have to accept the fact that he performs an exercise with the appearance that something is missing.
With that in mind let's address the problems I mentioned above. I am assuming that the dogs are fairly balanced in their protection training, and the problems are limited to the H&B whether it is in the blind or during the guarding phase.
The dog lacks intensity.
Intensity generally comes from defense, or aggression. Defense is reactive aggression and usually easier to use in training than social aggression. So by adding a defensive edge to the H&B, we can create the desired intensity.
In bitework we generally teach the dog defense by countering. What is countering? It is a retaliation to a threat by the helper. It is difficult to teach this to the dog without getting him dirty.
So as we are training the H&B, we have the dog at a stage where he is holding back and barking for a prey reward, we want to add intensity by putting a bit of pressure on the dog. The dog counters by biting either the helper, or the sleeve. But we correct the dog for that, so after a while, we are left with a H&B which has no defensive component left. The dog simply figures he is not allowed to be defensive during the H&B. A better way to introduce the defense to the H&B is to take a few steps back in training. So we don't allow the dog to make a mistake, we work the dog again on a tight line, with the helper out of reach. The dog is doing his version of a H&B but gets no reward, instead the helper threatens the dog a bit to stimulate defense. The dog wants to bite but can't, he will try to counter in a different way, by threatening the helper. He will curl his lips slightly, the bark will get deeper and have a growly sound to it, the dog's neck hair may go up. The dog is showing us defensive behavior. During defense drive promotion I discussed that what the dog wants at this stage is backing down by the adversary (namely the helper). Attempting to channel this behavior into prey drive by popping the sleeve would be jumping a training step. So the way to react to the dog's display of threat is to act impressed and to back down. Depending on the dog's confidence and strength we can either jump away backwards or duck slightly. This will reinforce the dog's behavior. We are showing him a way to win defensively.
Once the dog shows that he is confident in his "no contact" counter, we can progress to channeling the defensive behavior into prey drive, by giving the dog a bite on the sleeve and stripping it. All this still takes place on a line where the dog is prevented from biting prematurely and the helper approaches the dog. Next, the dog has to display that he can rely on this non biting counter. While the dog is dog is barking in a defensive tone, the leash is slacked slightly and the dog has to still rely only on his bark and body posture. This is when the helper gives the dog the reward by offering a bite, stripping the sleeve, and backing up slightly.
Next, the dog is the one approaching the helper. First on a line, he is initially held back until he displays the intense pushy bark we are aiming for. Then more and more the responsibility is put on the dog to hold himself back, but only from biting, the assertive, intense attitude of the dog should be maintained. Eventually I let the dog push me around the field. That way the dog gets small reinforcements for his defensive behavior, without actually getting a bite. As soon as the intensity dwindles I try to push the dog backwards by inching forward. And just as I described in Defense Drive Promotion it turns into an exchange of threats and counters between helper and dog, except without biting.
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Armin Winkler has been the instructor at many schutzhund training seminars. He has been training schutzhund dogs since 1976 and is a USA member who lives in British Columbia. His English translation of Dr. Helmut Raiser’s Der Schutzhund is available from Armin Winkler Publishing, 3503 Lakeshaw Road, RR#7, Duncan, BC Canada V9L-4W4 or by phone (250) 746-8989.
