1) Well, today’s seminar was engaging and Guy spoke about the different methods of getting and maintaining the dog's attention. Something we all knew and Guy just emphasized that the dog's undivided attention is fundamental to all dogs training...Obedience, Schutzhund, etc.....

Initially, judging from his lecture, and answers to questions on certain training problems, one would conclude that Guy is of the conventional training school of thought i.e. correction and reward. Usually, one would defend vehemently on his chosen method of training. However, tonight, Guy displayed his openness and practicality when he emphasized that as far as attention and obedience is concerned , the “positive learning method” (Clicker-training or positive reinforcement) works best. His openness and impartiality really impress me. All these while in all the Internet info and books I’ve read, clicker trainers almost never concede that the opposing method works better sometimes and likewise conventional trainers will always usually don’t give a hoot about clicker training methods.

Guy explained in real details both the advantages and drawbacks of each method respectively and for obedience (attention training in particular), Guy went into meticulous level on the why’s and how’s of positive reinforcement training to maintain a dog’s attention.

Just to share very briefly, to get a dog’s (puppy) attention, one has to be very patient.

Phase 1: Give your puppy /dog a threat (or something he really likes) and make any unique ‘sound’ with the mouth, each time your dog receives the reward. Do this repeatedly for a number of times until your dog has associated the sound with something pleasant like the threat.

Phase 2:
Let your puppy or dog run about in an area that is neither too big nor small and DO NOTHING. Just watch closely your puppy /dog’s antics and as soon as he stop pauses to look you in the eyes, make the sound. The dog, having already associated the sound with a reward, will come running to you and you give it the treat. Repeat this for a number of times.

MOST IMPORTANT LESSON: - DO NOT MAKE THE SOUND TO GET THE DOG’s ATTENTION.
You will have to wait until the dog looks at you spontaneously and voluntarily before you make the sound and reward. Or else, according to Guy, the dog cannot associate the reward with looking to you in the eyes and paying attention. It will think that by NOT paying attention to you (looking elsewhere), you will make the sound for his attention and gets a reward. The secret is to imbed in the dog’s mind that he (the dog) will have to look at the owner in the eyes to earn the sound and reward.

I think this is the most valuable lesson as very often, we as humans always consciously or otherwise, makes all sort of actions and noise to get the dog’s attention. By doing so, we are actually teaching the dog not to pay attention and wait for us to keep calling to it. Make sense eh?
Well, I cannot be writing the whole lot of what Guy said tonight. I might bore you to death. However, the practical is tomorrow. We shall be practicing what we learned today.

2) The practical on obedience: Guy spent much time on 2 dogs explaining in minute details. Nonetheless, it was very educational as Guy, in his typical meticulous fashion, pointed out clearly the difference in training a dog for normal obedience versus obedience in Schutzhund. That guy literally spent >3 hours talking and training non-stop!! Really a committed instructor.

In Schutzhund obedience, the 'drive' and 'excitement' of the dog in performing the exercise is paramount. Hence, the training focus not on getting the dog to execute the exercise but Guy also taught us how to bring out the excitement of a dog in performing, say, the fetch as an example.

Let's talk about the fetch. In Schutzhund, you must first have a dog with lots and lots of drive and hence, not all dogs can be a Schutzhund dog. We were shown how a toy (a ball attached to a rope) was used to built up the excitement of the dog by tempting it to a optimum point before being thrown a distance the moment you feel the dog has reached its peak in excitement. With its excitement built up to such a peak, the dog will literally power-off to fetch the thrown toy. A common thing that happens is that it will now be 'over-driven' to a point where it refuses to release the ball to the handler. A prevalent mistake would be for the handler to yell and tried to tug the ball away. This would only drive the dog further and grip harder as it will think that you are playing /challenging it (the prey drive). So, Guy demonstrated what should be done and it really works. The handler should just hold the rope tautly with the ball still gripped by the dog. Stand firm, do not tug and in a firm but composed manner give the 'leave' command. Chances are that the dog will still hold on to the ball. After a while and sensing no challenge plus getting a little tired, it will loosen its grip and the ball will be released. At that precise moment, the handler makes the sound and swing the ball away for the dog to run after and retrieve it gleefully. What we have taught the dog is that the moment it obeys the 'leave' command and not challenge the handler, the reward of the ball being thrown for it to fetch will follow. Hence, after a few workouts, your dog will readily releases the toy on command.

3) Now for a bit of bite work. Hundesport, you are absolutely right. One needs to evaluate a dog before actual training. Here, it was demonstrated that before bite work training, one has to ascertain if the dog charging strongly towards the Helper (decoy is the man with the sleeve) is actually on prey drive (desired) or aggressive towards the Helper (undesired). The dog with leash held by the handler is being teased with a sleeve by the Helper to bring up the drive / aggressiveness. Once the peak is reached, the Helper throws away the sleeve away from himself. The dog (still held on leash) is then judged to see if it goes after the thrown sleeve or continues to 'attack' the Helper. Ideally, the dog should go after the sleeve and ignore the Helper. This proves the dog is in prey drive. If it ignores the sleeve and continues to 'attack' the Helper, it is now determined that the dog is aggressive towards the person and is not suitable for Schutzhund besides posing a danger if left uncorrected.

In such a case, Guy showed that focus must then be on training the dog to shift his aggressiveness away from the Helper and towards the sleeve. This is done by continuous teasing the dog with the sleeve and let it 'win' by allowing it to bite the sleeve and run away with it as a reward. This was actually demonstrated and it was really interesting to see words put into action by him with the desired result.

Next, we were shown the dog seeking out the Helper hidden behind the blind. The dog is suppose to seek out the Helper and upon finding him behind the blind, must give warning by barking in a threatening manner WITHOUT biting. It must bite only at the moment the Helper jerks the sleeve upwards.

A trained Schutzhund dog belonging to one member was used in this demonstration. Before that, it was told that this dog is very 'unclean' in this exercise, meaning it has a tendency to bite the sleeve right away without first barking as a warning. True enough, the dog bit the sleeve held by Guy without warning and we were shown how the dog was corrected with the special rubber baton made especially for Schutzhund training. Again, we saw how the dog did it right after the correction. (There were actually handclaps when the dog did it right. Spontaneous handclaps from us dog trainers ? Very rare indeed).

To be honest, not everyone likes to see how the dog was corrected but then, Schutzhund is not for everyone or every dog. I think this is something important we must not forget. In a book I read, finding a dog that is suitable for Schutzhund is an exception and finding one that is not, is an expectation.

Top