SCHUTZHUND
Just for the
Sport of it!
http://www.schutzhund-training.net/
©12/15/95-02
Helmut Raiser's View on Which Drives
Are Useful During Protection Training
by Armin
Winkler
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." About 20 years ago Helmut
Raiser revolutionized Schutzhund protection training by identifying which inborn
motivations (drives) are stimulated in the different phases of training. He
did not just assign specific names to these motivations, he combined years of
practical experience and research with the clinical studies and their results of
such behavioral giants like Brunner, Hediger, Lorenz, Most, and Trummler
among others, to determine on a scientific level what drives are and how they
fit into protection training. Without any further introduction, let
me summarize his findings from his now famous book Der Schutzhund.
Prey
Drive
Prey
drive is part of a dog's food gathering behaviour. In a predatory animal that
means prey drive governs hunting and killing techniques. Chasing, flushing,
pouncing, biting, and shaking-to-death, are the most important of these
techniques when we are talking about protection training. In order to stimulate
these instinctive techniques in the dog, we have to keep in mind what a real
prey animal does when it is hunted. Prey is always on the move, it
always moves in an evasive fashion, and it is panic-stricken. These
behaviours in turn trigger pursuit, pouncing, biting, pulling, and
shaking-to-death in the dog. Prey drive is inborn, and is a trainable
instinct, meaning it can be enhanced or reduced. Prey drive can be exhausted,
meaning that a time will come when the dog "doesn't feel like performing
the desired behaviours any more." Author's note: Considering the
serious effects the end result of this drive would have on a prey animal, I do
not subscribe to the idea that prey work is only a silly game.
Defense
Drive
Defense
drive counts as one of the dog's aggression behaviours, and it can appear in
conjunction with other behaviours. Threatening, staring, and biting are
typical defensive reactions. Defense behaviour is generally triggered by
threats, real or perceived, or open aggression. The goal of defense
behaviour is always to create avoidance behaviour in the threatener.
Defense drive may appear as defense of prey, defense of puppies, defense of
territory, defense against the unfamiliar, or self-defense. The drive is
satisfied in each case when the aggressor shows avoidance behaviour.
Defense drive is not subject to exhaustion, so it can be activated at will. It
should, therefore, be part of the combative behaviour of any protection dog.
Furthermore, it is responsible for behaviours like countering when under stress
or when threatened. The great danger when working a dog in defense drive
is that the same stimuli which cause defense behaviour also cause avoidance
behaviour. Which of the two possible behaviours is displayed by a dog when
a trigger stimulus is presented is dependant on a variety of factors, among them
confidence and temperament of the dog as well as the threatener,
"life" experiences of the dog, age and maturity of the dog, location
(unfamiliar or home turf), distance between adversaries, and the presence of
other external influences (prey, mate, puppies). Author's note: Hopefully
this allows people to see defense for the double-edged sword it is.
Defense is one part of protection training. The idea that good dogs should
only be worked in defense is a dangerous one which has wrecked many great dogs.
Aggression
Drive
Aggression
behaviour contains reactive aggression (defense) as well as active aggression
(social aggression). With all the different theories that exist about
aggression, there still is no conclusive proof available as to whether or not
genuine spontaneous aggression exists. The three theories about where
aggression comes from are:
- Aggression is learned.
- Aggression is created by negative experiences.
- Aggression is inborn.
The
truth is probably that aggression results from all three processes.
Research is available to support all three theories. For our purposes
however, we should concern ourselves less with where aggression comes from and
more with what triggers it, what its goal is, and what its biological
significance is. The triggers for reactive aggression (defense) was
covered under the previous heading. So, lets deal with active aggression.
It is always intraspecific, meaning social aggression, and is the result of
competition over things (territory, food, mates, etc.). Intraspecific
aggression is activated by rivals, and by anti-social behaviour. The goal
of the drive is to cause avoidance, submission, or worse of the rival.
Biological significance is the even distribution of a species over available
land to reduce the possibility of food shortages and epidemics as well as
survival of a species and a pack by selecting the fittest animals for
reproduction and as leaders. In species with a social hierarchy behaviours
developed from the aggressive drive, which limit the negative results and
guarantee the positive results of social aggression such as threatening,
dominance, submission, and rituals of non-physical combat.
Aggression
increases through maturation and practise. It can also be increased or
decreased through training and through external influences, for example pain can
be aggression stimulating. Other factors which affect aggressive behaviour
are location and hormone levels. Two factors which affect aggression that
a protection helper needs to be aware of are: personal acquaintance blocks
aggression; and passive acceptance of a dog's aggression impresses a dog deeply
and causes unsureness.
A
negative side effect of aggression in dog training is that it greatly reduces
the dog's learning ability.
Author's
note: We all want to see our dogs work aggressively against the "bad
guy," but we need to keep in mind that that is the final picture we want to
see. Too often high quality dogs don't reach their potential because their
owners want to see them aggressive right from the start, forgetting about the
fact that the dog has to learn many intricate exercises before he can walk onto
the competition field. So if possible teach the dog an exercise first,
then make him perform it aggressively.
Fighting
Drive
Again
the question of whether or not an independent fighting drive exists has not yet
been answered. Some dog-experts feel that a fighting drive must exist and
that it is related to the play drive. The term fighting drive is an
oxymoron. It combines the word drive refers to an inherited trait which
serves to preserve life and species, with the word fight which refers to
physical combat. A drive to fight would then be an internal motivation
which leads the animal into a potentially harmful situation. But even in
social aggression the non-physical ritualistic showdowns are much more common
than the injurious physical fights. However, that argument aside, the term
fighting drive is a useful description of a desirable behaviour in the dog.
We want to see a dog who has fun fighting with the helper. But only a dog
who doesn't feel like he is fighting for his life can be unstressed and have
fun. Therefore I (Raiser) feel that fighting drive is an extension of prey
drive.
What
qualities make up good fighting drive - meaning the spontaneity? Practical
experience has shown that dogs who work primarily in as a result of their
defensive drive may still lack fighting drive. Dogs like that then often
fail to engage the helper if he does not present any defensive stimuli, but work
confidently while under threat. The desire to "seek the fight"
is an essential ingredient of fighting drive. In all dogs with pronounced
fighting drive, I also found pronounced prey drive. Making prey is a
passionate activity which does not stress the dog. However, prey drive alone is
not equal to fighting drive, the dog also has to use defense behaviour.
The fundamental component of fighting drive is the active part of the aggressive
drive, social aggression. Therefore, the dog must always see the helper as
a rival. The object of competition could vary: it could be the prey (hence
the relation to prey drive); or it could be social rank, which works well with
dominant dogs. So in order to increase fighting drive, we have to promote
prey drive, build up defense drive, and strengthen aggression by teaching the
dog that he can defeat and dominate the helper. This should make it very
clear that as much as fighting drive is a very desirable quality, one cannot
expect to see it fully developed in a one year old dog.
Author's
note: Do your dogs a favour and help them develop all the components that make
up good fighting drive, rather than waiting until it magically appears out of
thin air because the dog should have "it" naturally.
What
impresses me about the discussion of drives every time I read Helmut Raiser's
book is that he simply dissects the material on a scientific basis. He
does not try to make the theory fit his practical techniques, on the contrary he
willingly admits to his own past mistakes, and tries to improve his practical
skill by better understanding the theory behind it. I will probably
summarize the practical applications of these theories at some time in the
future. For people who can't wait, the full length version is available in
my translation of the book Der Schutzhund.
Tracking Obedience Protection Sport BH Humor ZTP Reading Friends Triple D
Guest book Awards Webdesign Working Links Sitemap
subscribe to dobermann1@onelist.com
for training tips and general
discussion