Category: K-9

The Courage Test at the Sieger Show.

The history and the Standard of the German Shepherd Dog are, and should be, intimately related to the “parent club” of the breed. If one does not agree with that underlying principle of almost everything concerning the breed, then unity in the sport and identification as a breed will suffer. An English Springer Spaniel that does not look anything like the historic or the British dog perhaps should have “English” dropped from its name in countries where breed type has strayed significantly. The Australian Cattle Dog, if it starts looking like a Whippet after drifting in Transylvania, should not retain that name. If some of the Yanks or the Brits want a different breed than the internationally traditional GSD, let them call theirs the Alsatian or something else, rather than the German Shepherd.  (Read more...)

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Two Sides to Everything - Part 2

I would say that the easiest exercise to practice with an arm on the right is the hold and bark. It does not involve a lot of mechanics from the helper. The picture of the helper with the sleeve on the left is a familiar one.  (Read more...)

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Two Sides to Everything - Part 1

A good foundation is where everything starts. I've covered foundation topics over the past few months and looking back, I think I missed something. The reason for that is probably because what I will discuss in this article may not become an issue until later in a dog's career.  (Read more...)

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Tell Me About Your Dog! - Part 5

This brings me to the end of the discussion of fighting ?drive?. The major contributing components I have been able to isolate are the six I just described: prey drive, defense drive, frustration aggression, social aggression, dominance behavior, and rage.  (Read more...)

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Tell Me About Your Dog! - Part 4

There are a few more points I'd like to mention regarding defense drive. I strongly believe that these three defense drive categories are pre-determined and that this predetermination sets limits to how much we can change through training. Comments like we need to put more defense into this dog make me cringe and feel sorry for the dog.  (Read more...)

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Tell Me About Your Dog! - Part 3

I believe that reading dogs is one of the most important parts of dog training. In part one of this article I tried to address general qualities in dogs that we hear often when dogs and their training are discussed.  (Read more...)

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Tell Me About Your Dog! - Part 2

Nerve has become a catch phrase for almost everything. Good nerve, bad nerve, weak nerve, strong nerve, thin nerve, thick nerve. Where do these terms come from? And more importantly, what do they mean?  (Read more...)

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Tell Me About Your Dog! - Part I

The SV celebrates 100 years this year, so for all intents and purposes Schutzhund training has been around for close to 100 years as well. In that time countless books have been written, and even more seminars have been taught, and let's not even start on how many conversations and discussions were held late into the night on the topic of dog training.  (Read more...)

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Helmut Raiser's View on Which Drives Are Useful During Protection Training

Prey-drive, defense-drive, fighting-drive, etc. are the catch phrases of modern protection training. They are thrown around at every seminar we attend, they are the subjects of countless articles, but rarely do people agree on what is being said about these "drives."  (Read more...)

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Protection Obedience: a Closer Look - Part 2

The dog needs to learn to accept guidance from the handler. The key word here is guidance. The way many dogs act the first time an obedience exercise is asked of them in protection, I would say it is not disobedience that is happening.  (Read more...)

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Protection Obedience: a Closer Look - Part 1

Again, I have to go by my observations on the training field. Once protection training begins, obedience is not given very much thought. Oh, don't misunderstand me, we all demand it. Hell, we need it to get our titles. The dog needs to be obedient during protection, we all know that.  (Read more...)

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Problem Solving in the Hold and Bark

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.  (Read more...)

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Defense Drive Promotion

In the last two articles I had the opportunity to discuss Prey Drive Promotion. I feel that protection training should always begin there.  (Read more...)

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DEFENSE BEHAVIOR

Unlike most dog events, working dog competitions are not so much a test of how well a dog can do a particular exercise, but a more fundamental examination of the dog's temperament.  (Read more...)

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Building Drive in Obedience

Discussions over the last few years regarding the protection phase center around active and reactive aggression. In these discussions the importance of having a dog initiate the work is generally agreed to by most.  (Read more...)

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Bitesuit-work for Schutzhund Dogs

A few weeks ago I got into a bit of a debate with another trainer over the fact that I did bitesuit work with a dog who is destined to be a competitive Schutzhund dog.  (Read more...)

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Only the NOSE really KNOWS Part 4

Restraint, tapping, sniffing, platz, reward.Be sure to maintain the restraint part of the set up. Handlers sometimes get a little rushed and let go of it too fast.  (Read more...)

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Only the NOSE really KNOWS Part 3

Part 1&2 of this article was a discussion of the fundamental concepts of tracking and teaching tracking. I'd like to focus part 3 on a crucial part of Schutzhund (or VPG) tracking, articles.  (Read more...)

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Only the NOSE really KNOWS Part 2

I call this my colored dot concept. Let me be clear here, this is totally made up and only an aid to help people understand things a little better.  (Read more...)

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Only the NOSE really KNOWS Part 1

Tracking books, videos, articles, and seminars have one thing in common. They are written, produced or taught by people.  (Read more...)

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Police officers form tight bonds with their canine partners

Lodi Police Officer Dee Dee Dutra said goodbye to her partner for the final time last week.  (Read more...)

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The Dumbbell Retrieve:

First off, the dumbbell is an incredibly important part to the obedience phase of a schutzhund routine. Out of a 100 point Schutzhund 1 obedience routine, the dumbbell is worth 25 points. In the Schutzhund 2 and 3 it is worth 40 points out of a 100. This just demonstrates the importance of a good dumbbell retrieve.  (Read more...)

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Getting a Grip

At my seminars, I like to address specific training issues the dog handlers feel is their dogs' weakest point in protection. I would say that with the dogs who have already had some protection training, the single most mentioned problem is the issue of gripping technique.  (Read more...)

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Prey Drive Promotion, Part II

Like everybody else who has been involved with dogs for a while, I am certainly aware that training does not always follow the steps outlined in books or videos.  (Read more...)

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Prey Drive Promotion, Part I

I like to start prey work as early as possible with puppies, usually around ten to twelve weeks old. This allows me to work with all the unspoiled inborn instincts of the dog. I start young puppies the same way I start late starting adults, with a rag or a sack.  (Read more...)

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DRIVES

The term, drive, when used in dog training is a departure from the behavioral scientist's understanding of the concept.  (Read more...)

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GETTING STARTED TRACKING VARIABLE SURFACES

You take your dog out of the car, attach his harness and approach the track. The dog takes the scent from the bandanna left at the start and, nose down, begins tracking along the edge of the parking lot.  (Read more...)

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Lou's Stake Out Test

My Stake Out Test is designed to test the potential canine (k9) to see what drives he operates in during stressful situations.  (Read more...)

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Scent - Pheremones and Odor

Compare the canine's nose Inside) to the human nose--it is much longer. The olfactory lobe of the canine is many times larger. Therefore, his brain's ability to register different smells is many times greater than ours.  (Read more...)

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Canine Heroes Not to be Forgotten!

Dedicated to the memory of all those who served in Italy, France, Russia, Belgium, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, and Great Britain all have formal monuments and decorations dedicated to war dogs by the military organizations under which they served.  (Read more...)

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Food Refusal Training

This is a common use of the training collar, aversion training with a twist. The twist is that you not only want the dog not to eat stray piece of food, but that you also must train that it’s O.K. to eat under certain circumstances.  (Read more...)

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The Trial Helper

It is a thankless task! If, in a trial, a handler receives 100 points in protection, he has done an excellent job of training the dog.  (Read more...)

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Serpentine Tracks

All the existing literature on tracking introduces tracking by beginning with straight line tracks with a reward and/or article at the end.  (Read more...)

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The Schutzhund Sport

SCHUTZHUND is a German word meaning "protection dog" It refers to a sport that focuses on developing and evaluating those traits in dogs that make them more useful and happier companions to their owners.  (Read more...)

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