Puppies at Work 4: The Finished Product

This post is the last in the Protection Work series, and we’ve covered all the basics from two month old puppies all the way to amateur protection dogs in-training. If you haven’t been following the series I recommend that you go back and read the first 3 articles HERE.

Now that you’re all caught up, it’s time for the fun part: watching people get bit.

Alline Globule, nicknamed Allie, was Dennis’s award-winning German Shepherd Dog. She was raised and trained in Germany, and is featured on several websites. The Trzcinski family bought her when she was several years old, and she quickly fit herself into their family. They described her as great with their kids and other dogs, cuddly, but always alert to any danger.  She raised multiple litters, with many of the puppies showing as much bitework potential as she had. Unfortunately, she became ill and passed away in early 2014, much to everyone's shock. We will always miss her, but she left behind a great legacy!

Those of us that worked at Pet U were lucky enough to catch Dennis training with Allie. It was incredible to see the amount of excitement she had for her work, along with her immediate response to Dennis’s commands. Her tail never stopped wagging, but she sounded truly vicious while she barked. Fully trained protection dogs like Allie are able to turn their work drive on and off in a split second. They are lovable, friendly, goofy and calm but if they sense a threat they wouldn't hesitate to give their life for their family.

While a protection dog's bite is important, more important than the attack aspect of training is the bond that is built and the obedience training that is done. The dog with the strongest, fiercest bite isn't worth a dime if their obedience work isn't up to par.

As with most working German Shepherd Dogs (GSDs), Allie was trained in German. She responded to 3 separate commands for heel: fuss (left heel), heel (in between the legs), and enohey (right heel, spelling is incorrect). She knew sitz (sit), platz (down), bleib (stay), hiere (come), aus (drop it) and more.

Upon Dennis’s command, Allie would sit and bark ferociously at an attacker, and then after a separate command, she would race and bite the attacker. After biting she only released her hold when Dennis told her to, even if the attacker fell down, and tried his hardest to throw her off. Protection dogs are trained to not release the attacker no matter what, until the release command is given by their trainer. The entire attack sequence is very carefully planned out, and designed to instill maximum fear.

Video: In the beginning Allie shows off her obedience training with heeling practice. Each time Dennis says fuss he is asking her to heel on his left side, and once he says 'heel' she is supposed to stay between his legs. At the end of the video Dennis releases her and gives her the bite command. The stick that the decoy uses is designed to make a lot of noise and movement, but it never actually touches Allie. Notice how her tail never stops wagging, and that she keeps up her energy and excitement the whole time!

Alline was the real deal; she was a lovable family pet, as well as a powerhouse protection dog, and we all miss her. Several of her puppies have shown great potential, and will be shown at this year's Service Dogs of America trials this July. Broc has been training since he was two months old, and will turn two years old this August. Pepper is 1 1/2 years old, and has been training for the last year. They were featured in the last post, focusing on their different stages in training.

If this type of training interests you at all, please stop out and visit us at the Service Dogs of America trials, held July 5, 2014 from 9am - 5pm.  The trials will take place just south of Milwaukee, at 3002 4 Mile Rd, Racine, WI 53404.

Puppies at Work 3: Bite Work Progression

Over the last two posts in this series, here and here, we've showed you various stages in beginning bite work. We showed you the 3 month old puppies playing tug-of-war, and then the 6 month old puppies increasing their confidence and prey drive. We use lots of games, lots of treats, and lots of praise to increase their excitement and drive to work. This week, we’re focusing on 2 dogs from our litter born last January, Broc and Pepper. Broc has been learning bite work since he was 2 months old, but Pepper started when he was 6 months old. They are both in very different training stages, which makes them an excellent example for this post.

Broc during daycare

The video below was put together by our own Kate, who is in charge of our media. She did a phenomenal job, so let’s take a look at how we progress with bite work techniques.

There are several techniques that we worked on in this video. As you watch, keep an eye out for the following.

With Pepper:

• We are working to increase his drive - by making him chase the tug, he has to fight for it, which makes him want it more. grab and bite without thinking

• We begin working more with the bite wedge and sleeve, rather than a rag or tug - this teaches him to focus on the person, rather than just to chase a rag around. playing tug, We had difficulty with this aspect with Broc at first. If the bite sleeve was on the ground Broc would ignore the decoy and bark at the sleeve on the ground. We had to teach him that the sleeve and the person went together.

• We take him out into new environments - will he still perform well if we are outside on the sidewalk, versus inside the daycare?

• We teach him how to turn his drive on and off - GSD’s are phenomenal family dogs when properly trained, because they turn on their drive when they are working or notice a threat, and then immediately turn it off when they’re done.

• In his last clip, Pepper is seeing the bite jacket for the first time. Since Pepper is so new to bite work, he still treats it as a game. For that reason, we want to assimilate him to as many of our training items as possible, so that later on everything is familiar when we begin to progress with training. For his first time, he does a fantastic job!

With Broc:

• We are teaching him to ‘bark and hold’ - Broc is learning not to attack until given the signal, but to maintain his position and warn the assailant to back off.
• We are teaching him to learn tolerance for physical pressure - an assailant won’t just stand there while the dog attacking them, so they need to be accustomed to the feeling of being rolled around on the ground and thrown around.

During this stage in training there are two very important aspects that mold the dog's attack behavior:

1. The handler and the decoy (person accepting the bite) can never switch roles - The dog learns to respond to their handler and to focus all their drive at the decoy, and so if you both handle and act as a decoy, the dog will begin to have trouble distinguishing which person you are at any given moment.
2. It is also important to have different people acting as the decoy during this stage. We don’t want to have the dog only associate having to bite with one person

Stay tuned for the next, and possibly final post in this series, featuring Alline. She is the mother of both Broc and Pepper, and is a competition-winning protection dog.

Puppies at Work 2: Bite Work Progression

If you tuned in for the last post in our bite work series, you learned that PetU offers a variety of training options one of which is protection training. Dennis has been training protection dogs in Milwaukee for over 20 years, and we currently have 4 German Shepherds that are in various stages of training. We start training our puppies for bite work when they are just a few months old. Last time, we showed you newest litter of 3 month old puppies learning bite work. This post showcases the next step in training, with our 6 month old GSD puppies, Kinley and Chaos.

The pups have very different personalities. Kinley, the little girl, is crazy. She comes running out the kennels barking her head off, and will do whatever it takes to get the tug. Chaos, on the other hand, is a little more reserved. He wants to play, but doesn't yet have the level of excitement of his sister Kinley. Because of this, we have to use slightly different techniques to work each dog.

I mentioned before how the bite work games start off simple and then increase in difficulty based on the individual dog. After the game concept has been grasped, we begin testing and working their drive by increasing the difficulty of the games. Watch the video of Kinley training below. She is very adventurous, and so Dennis tests her drive by hiding the tug on top of the steps. This is her first time using the stairs, but her prey drive is so great that they don’t bother her. Note how much energy she has and how her eyes never leave the ball.

In the next video, you can see that Chaos is a little more wary about the stairs. Dennis compromises by letting him grab the tug off the side, because he doesn’t want Chaos to feel so frustrated that he loses interest. The game moves at whatever pace Chaos sets it at, and we always want training to feel positive.

We work with our dogs daily, and also have a weekly bite work class for our clients. If you are interested in learning more, bite work classes are a great way to test the waters. You will learn from the best, and watch multiple different dogs work at different levels.  Call us at (414) 766-1100 to find out more.

Stay tuned for the next post in this series, following Broc and Pepper, 9 month old GSDs from a previous litter.

Puppies At Work: Foundation for Bite Work

There are very few things in life cuter than watching a GSD puppy start learning bite work.

The end result of this type of training is this:

(source)

So, how do you go from an adorable little bundle of fur, to a full-fledged protection dog?

Dennis is a Lieutenant in the Milwaukee Police Department, and has been raising and training dogs for over 20 years for family obedience, behavioral issues, personal protection, police, sport competition in Schutzhund and Service Dogs of America competitions. He has trained several puppies all the way to executive protection and police service dogs.  Dennis and his dog Xeus are the only team in history to have all Service Dogs of America protection titles on one dog. He is an incredibly talented trainer, and both he and the dogs bring a contagious excitement and energy to the room when training.

Protection work and bite work are very specialized types of training, that most people don't have experience with. One of the first days I was at Pet U, I watched Dennis training with Allie, his competition-winning German Shepherd. It was a little scary, a bit emotional, and unlike any dog training I'd seen before. So naturally after seeing the finished product I was intrigued as to how this sort of action was taught.

How does it work?

Our puppies are temperament-tested for their potential as police dogs as early as 2 months old. Drive is the want and desire to do something. In this case, to be a protector and to take down the instigator. There are 3 fundamental drives needed in protection work that we test for.

• Prey drive - The want to catch the prey
• Defensive drive - The want to defend and protect itself
• Fight drive - The want to win even under extreme stress

Some puppies naturally have more drive than others. Drive can be increased and improved, but it is important that the puppy naturally has a high drive to begin with. We begin training with the simple game of tug-of war. At the same time we test their social drive and prey drive, and their sensitivity to noise. The games and tests will increase in difficulty as the puppy grasps the concept. The idea is to teach him how to best use the 3 drives in order to produce a trained response under pressure of attack.

Puppies in action

Playing with the rag teaches the puppies how to bite fully and to fight for it. We introduce them to as many of our training items as possible in this stage. This is the stage that decides which puppies will continue with training. Broc passed with flying colors!

Broc - rag work

Stay tuned to learn more about the process and see the next stage in training.

And remember, training protection dogs is not easy, and should not be attempted on your own. If you are interested in learning more, please contact us here at Pet U! We would love to answer any questions!