ButchCappel
6th March 2004, 14:38
As proper Personal Protection training is still so new to the vast majority of dog trainers it is our job at K9 PRO SPORTS to educate as well as certify in this important arena of dog training. To that end we will post monthly for discussion a PP training topic. We will attempt to make this topic truly thought provoking as well as informative. Hopefully these topics will be informative beyond the basic “sit, stay, down” or “bite, out, heel” questions that seem to constantly reappear.
These topics should also go beyond the basic “technicality” questions like “How loud should the bark be in the Bark & Hold, and how do I get my dog that loud?”
No, I haven’t seen that up yet but I’m sure it has been posted somewhere. I’m also sure about a dozen I.I.E.s’ (That stands for Instant Internet Experts) have posted an answer and challenged everyone else to prove that their decibel meter is wrong!
The first topic will be about the 2 most basic components of animal training, Theory and Technique. About 2 years ago at different trials I began asking simple questions of the handlers and trainers present. The questions I asked were fundamental in gauging how much people were beginning to understand the difference between the “sport” or “tuff dog trials” they had been used to, and real PP street application.
One of the first questions, “why is the full mouth bite the preferred bite?” So few people actually understood the reason, beyond “that is what the judges look for”, that I wrote several internet posts about it and think that the knowledge is now fairly common. Let’s take this common topic and see how a “theorist” and a “technician” might look at it.
Technician: The best technique is to get the dog more frustrated before finally giving the
Bite!
Theorist: The reason the dog is not biting full is because it is much higher in defense
Than prey drive!
One understands how to solve the problem. The other WHY there is a problem. Obviously in a professional trainer both abilities would be desired. I don’t think that is the case today. So how do you know if your trainer has the experience to be a theorist, and has done the studying to apply the best technique for the problem? Ask the simple question WHY?
If the answer you get back is “Cause I said so!” or “Cause that’s what I learned at the seminar!” Your trainer has only reached the “technician” stage of their apprenticeship.
Other indications? Trainers that tend to be breed specific, or that work in mostly one discipline.
Learning a variety of techniques is the first step in becoming a “trainer”. But in creating the most proficient PP dog don’t forget, there are no patterns on the street, thugs don’t lean over a dog and give them the correct “target” area to bite. At this point in time WHY your dog is motivated to choose “fight over flight” may be much more important than the “mechanical application” of a proper bite in the proper place.
These topics should also go beyond the basic “technicality” questions like “How loud should the bark be in the Bark & Hold, and how do I get my dog that loud?”
No, I haven’t seen that up yet but I’m sure it has been posted somewhere. I’m also sure about a dozen I.I.E.s’ (That stands for Instant Internet Experts) have posted an answer and challenged everyone else to prove that their decibel meter is wrong!
The first topic will be about the 2 most basic components of animal training, Theory and Technique. About 2 years ago at different trials I began asking simple questions of the handlers and trainers present. The questions I asked were fundamental in gauging how much people were beginning to understand the difference between the “sport” or “tuff dog trials” they had been used to, and real PP street application.
One of the first questions, “why is the full mouth bite the preferred bite?” So few people actually understood the reason, beyond “that is what the judges look for”, that I wrote several internet posts about it and think that the knowledge is now fairly common. Let’s take this common topic and see how a “theorist” and a “technician” might look at it.
Technician: The best technique is to get the dog more frustrated before finally giving the
Bite!
Theorist: The reason the dog is not biting full is because it is much higher in defense
Than prey drive!
One understands how to solve the problem. The other WHY there is a problem. Obviously in a professional trainer both abilities would be desired. I don’t think that is the case today. So how do you know if your trainer has the experience to be a theorist, and has done the studying to apply the best technique for the problem? Ask the simple question WHY?
If the answer you get back is “Cause I said so!” or “Cause that’s what I learned at the seminar!” Your trainer has only reached the “technician” stage of their apprenticeship.
Other indications? Trainers that tend to be breed specific, or that work in mostly one discipline.
Learning a variety of techniques is the first step in becoming a “trainer”. But in creating the most proficient PP dog don’t forget, there are no patterns on the street, thugs don’t lean over a dog and give them the correct “target” area to bite. At this point in time WHY your dog is motivated to choose “fight over flight” may be much more important than the “mechanical application” of a proper bite in the proper place.