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. After reading my article on grip problems again, I felt
that I didn't spend nearly enough time discussing the hold and bark exercise.
Now, don't panic, I'm not going to bore you by giving you step by step instruction
for teaching the hold and bark, that would lead too far astray. So I am going
on the assumption that most readers and their trainers are perfectly capable of
getting the exercise started. What I want to talk about are some of the problems
that come up and how to deal with them.
There are different philosophies out there on how to teach the exercise. I'm
not going to get into which one is right and which one is wrong. The truth is
there is more than one way to start and teach the exercise and they all have merit.
The problems generally start creeping up when we think the dog has learned what
we wanted him to learn.
As always, I want the reader to have some insight into my way of thinking to
avoid confusion.
- Our concept of the hold and bark is unnatural for the dog. The dog does not want
to hold the helper, he wants to make him react. Either by popping the sleeve up
for prey action, or backing down to show avoidance or submission.
- We as trainers have to be absolutely clear what it is we want to teach the dog.
Dogs learn by making connections, it is our job to make sure they connect the
right things.
- The helper is there to help create the concept we want to teach to the dog and
to reward correct behavior. He is not there to correct the dog.
- The teaching of the hold and bark should take place everywhere but the blind.
Only when it is starting to come together do we move to the blind.
At seminars the most common complaints about the hold and bark are:
- He is not intense enough
- He is too sleeve focused
- He needs confidence
- He is too dirty
There are a few others too of course, but these are the main ones. Different
things cause these problems, but one thing is always constant, something is not
quite finished. But what is a finished hold and bark? Again there are a lot of
different opinions out there. I will try to formulate mine.
The hold and bark is a part of protection training, and as such, it has to include
the same components as the rest of protection training. And when it comes to protection
training nothing is more revered than the all important fighting drive. I stated
in a previous article, that such a drive really does not naturally exist. What
we call fighting drive is actually a "package" of components including prey drive,
defense drive, social aggression, and dominance. As trainers we "package" the
above components to end up with the finished product: Fighting drive. Sometimes
dogs are easier to "package," sometimes they need a bit more work. But one thing
is for sure, whether by accident or by plan, bite training is not finished until
some of each component plays a role in how the dog works. We want the dog to fight
the helper while he is biting.
Now, do trainers make sure the dog learns the same for the hold and bark (H&B)?
I would say no. But the H&B is part of protection training, we cannot expect
the dog to suddenly feel differently about the helper, just because he is not
biting. And with that we are very much at the root of most H&B problems.
What most dogs learn is to hold back and bark rather than to hold the helper.
The dog needs to learn that he can hold, control, and fight the helper just as
much during the H&B as he does while biting. Just as much thought, work, and
effort has to go into balancing out all the dog's motivations in order to properly
"package" the H&B as was necessary during the rest of protection training.
I am convinced that we can't separate the H&B from the rest of protection
training. With that in mind we have to realize that the dog can only do what we
teach him. A dog who works almost exclusively in prey drive during protection
work won't magically display defense and aggression during the H&B, that makes
no sense. At the same time, a dog who works almost exclusively in defense doesn't
want to just sit in front of the helper and bark, so he can make prey when the
helper pops the sleeve up. Balance is the key, if we aren't willing to balance
the motivations for the dog, we have to accept the fact that he performs an exercise
with the appearance that something is missing.
With that in mind let's address the problems I mentioned above. I am assuming
that the dogs are fairly balanced in their protection training, and the problems
are limited to the H&B whether it is in the blind or during the guarding phase.
The dog lacks intensity.
Intensity generally comes from defense, or aggression. Defense is reactive aggression
and usually easier to use in training than social aggression. So by adding a defensive
edge to the H&B, we can create the desired intensity.
In bitework we generally teach the dog defense by countering. What is countering?
It is a retaliation to a threat by the helper. It is difficult to teach this to
the dog without getting him dirty.
So as we are training the H&B, we have the dog at a stage where he is holding
back and barking for a prey reward, we want to add intensity by putting a bit
of pressure on the dog. The dog counters by biting either the helper, or the sleeve.
But we correct the dog for that, so after a while, we are left with a H&B
which has no defensive component left. The dog simply figures he is not allowed
to be defensive during the H&B. A better way to introduce the defense to the
H&B is to take a few steps back in training. So we don't allow the dog to
make a mistake, we work the dog again on a tight line, with the helper out of
reach. The dog is doing his version of a H&B but gets no reward, instead the
helper threatens the dog a bit to stimulate defense. The dog wants to bite but
can't, he will try to counter in a different way, by threatening the helper. He
will curl his lips slightly, the bark will get deeper and have a growly sound
to it, the dog's neck hair may go up. The dog is showing us defensive behavior.
During defense drive promotion I discussed that what the dog wants at this stage
is backing down by the adversary (namely the helper). Attempting to channel this
behavior into prey drive by popping the sleeve would be jumping a training step.
So the way to react to the dog's display of threat is to act impressed and to
back down. Depending on the dog's confidence and strength we can either jump away
backwards or duck slightly. This will reinforce the dog's behavior. We are showing
him a way to win defensively.
Once the dog shows that he is confident in his "no contact" counter, we can progress
to channeling the defensive behavior into prey drive, by giving the dog a bite
on the sleeve and stripping it. All this still takes place on a line where the
dog is prevented from biting prematurely and the helper approaches the dog. Next,
the dog has to display that he can rely on this non biting counter. While the
dog is dog is barking in a defensive tone, the leash is slacked slightly and the
dog has to still rely only on his bark and body posture. This is when the helper
gives the dog the reward by offering a bite, stripping the sleeve, and backing
up slightly.
Next, the dog is the one approaching the helper. First on a line, he is initially
held back until he displays the intense pushy bark we are aiming for. Then more
and more the responsibility is put on the dog to hold himself back, but only from
biting, the assertive, intense attitude of the dog should be maintained. Eventually
I let the dog push me around the field. That way the dog gets small reinforcements
for his defensive behavior, without actually getting a bite. As soon as the intensity
dwindles I try to push the dog backwards by inching forward. And just as I described
in Defense Drive Promotion it turns into an exchange of threats and counters between
helper and dog, except without biting.
Other ways to increase intensity are based on the same principle. We can create
adversity for the dog through means other than personal threat. Like environmental
stress, also mentioned in the Defense Drive Promotion article, or a neutral (but
still stressful) stimulus, such as a prong collar stimulation. The key is that
the dog learns to focus the intensity created by the adversity at the helper and
that this intensity can be recalled in the dog with the H&B command.
The dog is too sleeve focused.
This problem generally results from something very positive. Namely that the
prey drive in the dog is so high, that he has a pre-occupation with it. An additional
factor is that the dog has a high stimulus threshold for defensive stimuli. Usually
this complaint does not carry major problems with it for the dog. Generally the
intensity is still pretty good, because of the exceptionally high drive and the
dog never really ends up in what I term a "hole" that he has to recover from.
The dog remains totally in prey drive and can handle most Schutzhund trial requirements.
The complaint about it is that the handler does not like the way it looks. It
can be addressed by trying to incorporate some defense into the work by proceeding
as I described above. But with dogs in that category the amount of pressure it
requires to push them into defense often causes more problems than it solves.
I found one good way to work on improving the performance of such a dog is to
use a bitesuit or bite jacket for the hold and bark (see Bitesuit Training for
Schutzhund Dogs), or using two sleeves. The theory is that the dog does not blindly
focus on one prey object, because there are more options. Let's say I use two
sleeves. The dog barks at the left one, he gets a bite on the right. If he barks
at the right one, he gets a bite on the left. This may go on for a bit, but the
dog will reach a point where he can't make up his mind anymore and he will start
barking at the person who makes the sleeves move, namely the helper. We are really
not adding anything significant to the dog's motivation in the H&B, we just
change the dog's focus away from the sleeve and to the helper. Dogs with exceptionally
high prey and very high defensive stimulus threshold make very competitive sport
dogs. We should make sure that the H&B has the picture we want to present,
but I would not mess with a good thing by forcing something like defense on such
a dog.
The dog lacks confidence.
Dogs in this category generally have difficulty dealing with defensive pressures
(from the helper) and their prey drive is not high enough to compensate for the
problem. The cause is usually one of two things. Either the dog is not a very
confident dog to begin with, or in training he was confronted with levels of pressure
he simply could not handle. As a result the dog sees no possible way of coming
out of this situation a winner. A way to address the complaint is to go back to
re-training the dog with the concept that all he has to do is bark to get the
sleeve to pop up. No pressure, no defense, just barking for action. Through this
we should be able to get the dog to a point where he accepts positioning himself
in front of the helper and barking to make the sleeve move. Now we need to give
the bark a purposeful tone, so the dog becomes pushier. One way of doing that
is (we are working on a tight line again) to slowly back away from the dog with
the sleeve while he is barking. As the helper gets farther away, the dog will
experience some frustration and his bark will express this frustration. With the
change in tone the helper starts to go closer again to the dog and give a bite.
The dog should develop a more demanding bark that way. This may be all we can
expect from a dog who is genetically not very confident. If the dog's confidence
problems resulted more from poor training, then there is a possibility that with
the dog's new found confidence, we can add even more intensity into the H&B
by again adding some defense (in small doses) as I described with the low intensity
dog.
The dog is dirty.
Dogs who show this type of behavior generally are relatively confident dogs.
In some cases even extremely strong dogs. There are a few causes for this particular
H&B problem. One is the dog has extremely high prey drive, and the handling
is not concrete enough to stop the dog from rewarding himself with a bite whenever
he comes to within a certain distance of the sleeve. Taking a few steps back in
training to make sure the dog understands that barking is a required element before
biting will help get the dog on the right track. From there handling becomes very
important. It is the handler who has to prevent this "self service" rewarding
as more responsibility is placed on the dog. I recommend that a more experienced
club member help the handler by working a second line.
One of the biggest causes for being dirty for strong dogs is that they again
have not learned to fight the helper with the H&B. For them fighting involves
biting. In a way this problem starts out very similar to the problem in point
#1. With the introduction of defensive stimuli in the H&B (whether this is
how the dog is started, or it is a progression does not matter), the dog reacts
by biting the helper or the sleeve. In the #1. dog, handler corrections lowered
the dog's confidence and it led to lower intensity. The stronger dog however will
not stop countering the defensive stimuli by the helper just because of corrections,
instead he will break through time and time again and retaliate against the helper
by biting. It takes a lot of patience with these dogs to break them of this habit.
The methodology is again very similar to what I described in #1. The dog has to
learn he can actually fight the helper and counter against him without biting.
The dog adds threat and intensity to the H&B, and the helper reinforces this
behavior by weakening. Eventually the dog gets a prey reward to end the exercise.
And again we have "packaged" different drives in order to teach the dog how to
fight the helper.
I want to briefly mention a few other causes of dirtiness in the H&B. One
is helper corrections. A dog will retaliate against harsh influences by the helper
by countering. A correction is such a harsh influence. And unless the harshness
escalates to where the dog is driven into avoidance to the point where he is simply
too concerned to retaliate the problem will not go away.
Hectic and overbearing handler behavior during approaches are another cause for
dirtiness. The dog in an intense confrontation with the helper needs to be able
to concentrate on what he is doing. If the handler becomes an unsettling influence,
the dog will no longer feel like he is in control of the helper through his no
contact fight and resort to biting again.
There are likely quite a few more causes for a dog?s being dirty, but I feel
that I have addressed the major ones.
Once a dog has learned to fight the helper without biting, we can consider teaching
the formal out. Because once a dog has learned the proper H&B concept, he
does not have to stop fighting when he is told to out. He is just substituting
fighting techniques. I won't get into the actual training of the out in this article
as it would lead too far astray.
Finally, I want to touch on another big problem with the H&B exercise. This
problem is often not recognized. It comes from the dog learning something during
the teaching of the H&B that the trainer did not intend for him to learn at
all. Somewhere along the line the dog makes a connection in his head which then
is extremely difficult to erase. The possibilities as to what a dog could pick
up are endless. In order to determine the cause of the problem and come up with
a possible solution, experimentation in training is often necessary.
I would like to use an example to make my point. A friend of mine has a SchH
3 Malinois. A very strong, hard dog with very good prey and defense drives. The
dog bites very full and hard. He hits very fast and hard. He handles the drive
and stick hits confidently and counters powerfully. I would say the dog does not
have any serious deficiencies in protection work. Now to the H&B. The dog
has an intense rhythmic H&B in the blind and after the out. I would say the
dog works during bite work and in the guarding phase with pronounced "fighting
drive." Sounds like the poster child of what I was talking about.
So, where is the problem? The problem was this. The dog did all his H&Bs
about three feet away from the helper. Initially, it didn't concern me all that
much. The dog always took full bites from the guard, he punched with a lot of
force, and he was always very intense. So in a few sessions not much seemed off.
But about a year ago I found myself always working on trying to get him closer
in the guard. ( I only saw him periodically at seminars). I had a talk with the
handler, to discuss where this distance thing came from. He explained, "In his
foundation work we taught him to start barking at about three feet away to keep
him clean, thinking that as his intensity got greater, he would inch his way closer
and closer and close that gap." What nobody counted on was how quickly and accurately
the dog learned his H&B. But for him a H&B meant being three feet away.
So now the experimenting began. We tried raising intensity. I pushed him hard,
and he rose to the challenge, 3 feet away. I got him to push me from one end of
the protection field to the other, he did, 3 feet away. The handler came up to
me and tried to get the dog to come closer. But to no avail, he held his ground.
I tried to set the dog up. He was sent to the blind for a H&B, and just as
he was setting up to bark, I took a flying leap out of the blind. Naturally he
caught me. We repeated this a few times and then sent him for a real H&B,
and he actually came closer. I guess he didn't want me to fly the coop again.
But, no long term success, the very next time he was 3 feet out again.
During one of my experimental sessions with him I decided to lie down on a slope
at the side of the field, so that he would have to come closer if he wanted to
see my face while he was barking. It was during this session that his handler
and I discovered another thing the dog had learned on his own that nobody ever
intended to teach him. He seemed to figure that any type of body contact with
the helper during the H&B was absolutely forbidden and taboo. He would come
up to bark beside my head at either side of me, but would absolutely refuse to
touch me with his feet. The handler tried to guide the dog by patting my legs
and belly. The dog came around me, hopped on him but still refused to touch me.
This was the biggest obstacle in all our attempts to get him to come closer. Because
by coming closer, he was also closer to doing something he considered strictly
forbidden.
I've been referring to this problem in the past tense, because by finding the
reason for the problem we were able to come up with a solution. We had to take
the taboo out of the dog's head. So we set the H&B situations up where I was
lying down on a slope or sitting in a chair. We got a second handler who worked
the dog on a line to prevent him from coming around beside me. So he was held
straight in front. Then the handler came up and coaxed him to touch me with his
feet. He patted my body, I tried to stimulate the dog to a point where his drive
would take over. As soon as the dog put his front feet on me and barked, I would
give him a bite. A few times the stimulation pushed the dog and he took an occasional
body shot so he wouldn't explode. Nothing was rewarded, except barking with his
feet on me. After we got more of a handle on this coordinated effort, we got the
club helper doing the helper work. Helping the dog with stimulation and only rewarding
him if he overcame his taboo. It has taken several months, but I am happy to say
that I worked the dog a few weeks ago, and he was rocking on my toes during his
H&B, that is how closely he is guarding. With this lingering problem well
on the way to being solved, I hope this great team will have a chance to compete
at some big trials.
I used this example to show that dog training is much more than doing everything
right all the time. Nobody does that. Dog training and especially problem solving
in dog training involves thought and research to investigate the cause for the
problem. Flexibility is necessary to determine where problems come from and how
to work on fixing them.
I hope this article added a little bit of insight into one of the most difficult
exercises to perfect in protection training. And I hope to get your attention
again next time.