DOGGIE DOG BLOG

Written by: David Harris

Video by: Cindy Jacobs

Featured puppy: Gus Von Prufenpuden

www.vonjacobs.com

To View the video associated with this article click HERE.

Just recently I was writing about how to get your puppy to stop biting you and now I am writing about developing your puppy’s bite.  Of course that seems odd, but in reality the two issues go together as perfectly as your puppy’s needle teeth go into your unprotected flesh :)  What I mean is this.  Teaching the puppy the correct way to bite and teaching your puppy the proper things to bite will not encourage them to bite you more, but rather encourage them to bite the correct items more.  This follows the guidelines set forth when we discussed Teaching an Incompatible Behavior, and what I am going to talk about now is called Putting The Behavior on Cue. By teaching your puppy what and when to bite, you will be empowering your puppy and allowing it to make better choices about which behavior best suits it.  If biting hands does not give the puppy the satisfaction its breeding and drives are impelling it towards, but biting prescribed bite toys and rags does, it is then an easy choice for the puppy. The puppy will direct its attention towards biting toys more and your hands less.

But, that is one aspect of this article.  What I want you to understand from this article that there is a proper way for you to build bite strength and bite quality into your puppy.  First let’s discuss the WHYS of bite development.  Why is it important?  The short answer is that in the sport of Schutzhund, bite quality is part of your score and a major part of the judge’s decision regarding your dog’s level of courage.  Shallow, frantic bites will lead the judge to believe that your dog is short on confidence and will lead to a rating of Sufficient or Insufficient in courage when your goal was a rating of Pronounced in courage.  So, that is one reason to develop the quality of your puppy’s bite now.  But, there are many, many other reasons to develop a good quality bite in a young puppy. The definition of a good quality bite is one that is firm, hard, deep and calm.  A poor quality bite is shallow, frantic, noisy (Whining), or soft.

If your dog is going to participate in a sport or activity that requires retrieving, then developing a good quality bite is important.  If your dog is going to participate in an activity that requires a high level of motivation, you will most likely want to reward that work with a play bite and a tug, so correct biting will be beneficial to those dogs as well.  As the handler you will appreciate it as well when you can know the dog will bite the toy and not you, grip the toy calmly and firmly and not try to shake the toy or constantly attempt to re-grip the toy, putting your fingers and hands at risk.

Ok, now that we have established that playing tug and teaching your puppy to bite is not a bad thing, but rather a good thing let’s talk about how to develop good bites.

In the video associated with this article, you will be able to watch Cindy playing with her eight week old puppy, Gus.  Gus has excellent drive, bites well, hard and deep, holds on well, but does not have any interest in holding onto the prey once the movement stops or if there is even the slightest reduction in fight from the tug.  This is natural, but not what we want to develop.  What we want to develop is for the puppy to continue to bite and hold onto the article, toy, tug or ball until we ask the puppy to release it.  We want a bite that is hard, deep and calm.  So, how do we get there from a puppy that immediately drops the toy when we stop interacting with it?

To answer this you first need to understand two concepts.  One is the Variable Schedule of Reinforcement and the other is your ability to manipulate the quality of your puppy’s bite with your hands.  The variable schedule of reinforcement (VSR) is simple to understand.  It sounds complicated, but it simply means random reinforcement.  Not a predictable pattern but rather unexpected.  The behavior you want to reinforce (make stronger) is gripping and hold calmly.  The behavior your puppy likes best (watch the video for proof) is tugging and shaking.  So, how are we going to get the puppy to hold verses drop the dead prey once you stop tugging?  Simple.  By tugging you will encourage the puppy to hold, then slip your hand down the line holding your tug toy and put it firmly under the puppy’s jaw and apply pressure between your hand and the tug.  It is sort of like you’re trying to PUSH the puppy off the tug.  At first the puppy may release the tug, but then it loses the tug and works hard to reacquire it from you by chasing after the tug and re-gripping.  Repeat the exercise by slipping you hand down the line and with your full hand push firmly against the puppy’s muzzle.  This time the puppy will grip harder, afraid to release the tug since it has already learned that it will lose possession of the toy if it has any loosening of its grip.  Once you feel the puppy grip harder and hold the tug firmly against the pressure of your hand, remove your hand quickly and go back to tugging with the puppy, shaking the toy side to side, up and down, vigorously, but not so hard as to injure the puppy’s neck.  Keep the shaking and pressure up for a few seconds then again slide your hand down the line to the tug and apply pressure to the muzzle of the puppy.  This time hold the puppy’s head calm in your hand for a few seconds while keeping pressure on the tug with your other hand so that if the puppy releases the grip even slightly the tug will come flying out of its mouth.  If the puppy does release that is ok, just make it work hard to reacquire the prey and then repeat the counter pressure movement until the pup will hold for a few seconds, then remove your hand and go back to tugging.  The holding is what you want.  The tugging is what your puppy wants.  This exercise is designed to teach the puppy that if it holds the tug firm and calm then three good things can happen.  One is that it will not lose its coveted prey.  The second is that you will reward its calm grip with an extended play/tugging/fighting session that the puppy loves. Last but not least the puppy will hear you calmly verbally rewarding it for this calm/holding behavior.  I start teaching the phrase “Hold IT” right here during this exercise.  This phrase will come in handy many times as we advance the puppy’s skills and knowledge of obedience.

So, where did the VSR come into this exercise and why is it important?  It came into play with the random and unpredictable manner in which you brought the tugging and play back into the holding exercise.  If the puppy knows when you’re going to start back with the tugging it can relax its grip.  But, if the puppy does not know when you’re going to go crazy and start fighting again it will continue to hold waiting for you to restart the fight.  So, this allows you to slowly start extending how long the puppy will hold waiting for the fight to come back.  At first less than a second, then a few seconds, then less than a second and then four or five seconds and so on and so forth you go.  Each time you play this game with your puppy you will begin to see it become more and more possessive of the tug and less and less inclined to drop it.  Excellent.  We can teach the puppy easily to out (let go of) the tug on command.  But, getting it to hold, carry and even bring the tug to you for play is a most notable goal in the development of your young working puppy’s future career.  This exercise is well worth the effort.  But, not all puppies will master it regardless of your diligence or practice.  Part of this equation is genetic.  Some puppies come Hardwired with the innate desire to grip and hold and some have no desire to do this behavior.  Most puppies fall somewhere in the middle to varying degrees.  Any puppy can be made better, but not all puppies will master this behavior at this age.

To View the video associated with this article click HERE.

As always I look forward to your questions and comments.

David Harris