If you have a friendly and stable dog and want to be able to control your dog's biting, I recomend getting some high quality tugs made from French linen like that the bite suits are made of. I like the ones with the seams on the inside because I believe it feels better to the dog. You must start to think about how everything seems and feels to the dog, and about cultivating a very good feeling for them about their bitework. Working in the "prey" or hunting drive should create a happy fun, feeling for their work. This means that you must move yourself (when you are decoy in the bitesuit) or move the tug like prey would move. If you check out the pics on wwwpolicedogcenter.at site, you can see how he holds the tug off to the side. We train this way because it is safer for the handler and to show the dog to bite sideways. On the leg, the dog must always bite with it's nose to the outside of the center line and this technique can be worked with the tug. Many of the biting techniques can be worked on the tug and in my trainer's style, we use the tug also for stress release during training for the handler and the dog. If you have the common problem of finding a good decoy, you can still do a good amount of bite developement and training with the tug. Before I decided to become my dog's major decoy, I went months with her only bites being on the tug and she is a very, very high drive malinois who MUST be worked. When the dog bites, you must pull with steady pressure, moving slowly and calmly from side to side and you can say your "attack" command and give praise. Watch the dog's body language and if the dog shows stress from pressure of you leaning over of too much noise - back off and build their confidence with praise and getting low (but not over the dog) as if you are prey being slain. The dog should have a firm and deep bite on the tug. While French Ring and Mondio do not require a deep bite, many people still feel it is a desirable trait both genetically and also for the safety of the dog when they are biting. If the bite is not full, you can keep slight pressure without moving and let them "re-bite" to drive in deeper. When they drive in, give verbal and body language praise. It is not desirable for the dog to be "chewy" on the bite. In competition, it will lose you points. One REAL bite is must less damaging to the bad guy and to teach a dog to rip flesh apart into peices is not moral in my opinion. When you do tug work or decoy work, your attitude must be calm and focused on the pressure you make because you are teaching the dog to hold on and feel good about it. Their tail should be up and the body language should say they are soo happy to be working. The Beginning Schutzhund Tapes with Dr Stewart Hillard are excellant for showing prey movement
We use our tugs for obedience ie en avant (send out) protection work, and jumps. In addition it is used to "unload" (stress release) for the dog as well as the handler. Because most people use the tug as "reward" in training, they see me train and tell me they think that I shouldn't give my dog the tug when she has not performed the exercise to their liking. They do not understand that I am sometimes like a malinois and am nervous, angry or upset and need to "unload" so that I can concentrate better and keep a better connection to my dog. In this, there must still be control of the dog's obedience and drive. Once your dog has a good connection to their tug, their is an unlimited number of tasks you can teach with it.
The send out ('en avant") has the handler walk away from en avant line and turns into the direction of the departure line walking towards the preparation point (misan place) with a calm, verbal cue like "now we make send-out". After turning into the send out direction, calmly and softly say "send out, now we make send out" while lifting up right arm to cue the person who is helping, who is standing by the fence. Fence person shows tug. Heel dog a few steps, make dog sit and straddle dog while positioning dog's head in send out direction and make cue "Send-out". When handler lifts arm, fence person holds out the tug to show dog. On the last cue, the fence person hangs/places the tug at dog level and steps away. . As time goes by, gradually, have Fence Person move away from tug, but back up if dog goes to person instead of tug. Heel dog to starting point, down dog and after horn give "send out/ en avant" command. When dog reaches tug, handler blows whistle or verbal recall and presents other tug byhandler's side. In Ronin (by yourself) training, the handler can place the tug while the dog is in a down or heel to the fence/whatever place the tug goes and then back to the starting point. Practice send out with marker points at 5m and 10m from center line showing point zones. See rules for a drawing. Mondioring may have a send out at a diagonal line to the field fences, so at an advanced level, this should be practiced also.
For the recall, if you dog has a sit/stay, you place them in it and walk away
and turn to face the dog. Hold the tug on your heel side and say "Fluffy-heel"
and they should run to the tug and bite it and then you can play a little, then
out them and put the tug away. If you don't have a sit/stay, work with a partner
who has your second tug and take turns running back and forth
Working and teaching the "escort" and "out" or "release" with the tug is done by calmly and slowly moving the tug while the dog escorts. When you make an attempt to escape, by pulling the tug away fast, the dog is allowed to bite and worked. For the "out", some people use a correction on the collar or throw something at the dog to out. I don't like these ways because they can cause a confict in the dog's feelings about the bitework and cause the dog to release when a bad guy throws something. My trainer, Rene Sagarra, uses the tug. For puppies and teething dogs, first use a rag, like the nice soft leather cleaning rags, then the tug. You stop motion and give the "out" command and when the dog releases, quickly pull the tug back and let them bite again. Since I got my mali before I ever met Rene, she first learned the out with a food tidbit placed above her head while giving the out command. I said "out" she let go and got to eat the food tidbit. This changes the dog to food drive and does not create a conflict about biting, although if the dog has more food drive than prey drive, you may have troubles with that technique. Now, since I met Rene, I agree that prey is the highest drive (unless we make problems) and is the way to go. The "out" is very, very important and I believe that if you dog can't out, you have BIG problems.
You can easily teach your dog to bark with a command. Whenever they are barking say the command. When they have a favorite toy/tug, you can hold that away from them in a teasing manner and say the command until they bark. When they do bark, they get the toy.
Be very careful that you have the right size tug for your safety and the dog's liking or you may have unfortunate accidents with getting bit unintentionally. Also, after you out the dog, CALMLY and SLOWLY put the tug in your training vest or tuck it in the back of your pants.
If your dog is already doing bite work and will not come back to you for the tug, there is something wrong with how you are working the tug. You must examine what's going on and change something. I know this from first hand experience and have had excellant results coming from having been "less exciting than the dead tug on the ground" a devastating but truthful (at the time) statement from my trainer.
Our style of Mondio uses the tug extensively and is really challenging, but I can't think of a better way to spend time with my dog's training time. I also use it for my rottie who because of no hips, will probably never compete, but must of course, as all dogs be trained.