Trainer For Watch Dogs

[Mireille Kreines]

HiI like that this is actaully the first real working trainer for watch dogs, It got a lot of good things but im still missing 1 thing in it and that is the Focus you can use in watch dogs.

Something like a infinite focus would be a great improvement, would love to see it in this trainer.

I hope you could create this and let me know by the time its finished.

I died once from a high fall(accidentally ran off the edge) and i have died from explosions and shooting(im on the hardest difficulty) it seems like i have closer to 2x health if i was on easiest setting

Protection training, when it is done properly, is one of the most demanding and difficult dog training tasks out there. Most dogs can learn obedience, scent work, or agility. But few dogs can be trained in handler protection.

The reason for this is based on the temperament of the dog. In its simplest sense, bite training is founded on the ability of a dog to deal with stress. A good protection dog is taught from a young age to act in an appropriate way when threatened. He is taught that to show avoidance and that running away does not solve his problem.

If your goal is to learn how to train a dog in protection work, your job begins by understanding these drives and how they relate to each other. If a trainer does not fully understand drive development, he may as well not even start this work because he is never going to accomplish anything in protection training.

If you are new to this sport, you need to listen to what I am about to say about drives and then either watch my video on the subject (The First Steps of Bite Work) or go to an experienced trainer and learn from them. Every time you watch a dog doing bite work, you should be thinking "What drive is this dog in and why?"

If you can watch an experienced helper work with a dog, you need to be thinking "What drive does the helper have the dog in?". When he switches drives, you need to try and recognize when that happens and why.

In my video, I will define and demonstrate drives by showing you dogs that have good drives and dogs that lack drive. I want the viewer to recognize when a dog has the potential for protection work. Probably just as important, I want them to understand when a dog has not inherited the necessary drive and therefore cannot be trained in protection work.

Right from the beginning, everyone needs to understand that dogs must inherit the drives for protection work. It is a genetic factor and neither a factor of training nor a factor of breed. In other words, if a dog does not have the genes for protection work, then you are not going to be able to train the drives into the dog. Just because a dog is a German Shepherd does not mean that it can be trained in bite work. That would be like saying that just because I have a horse, I think it can run in the Kentucky Derby.

The first part of the video deals with defining the drives a dog uses in protection work. We then go into the training steps for the dog, the handler, and the helper. To be effective in protection training, the handler and helper must work as a team.

The prey drive is the easiest drive to see and understand in our dogs. It can be recognized in a puppy as early as 6 weeks of age. Prey drive is the desire to chase a moving object, and to grab it and shake it once it's caught. Puppies exhibit prey drive when they chase a ball or play tug of war with your pant leg or sleeve. Hunting dogs that retrieve a dummy are also demonstrating prey drive.

When you see a dog chasing a rabbit, a cat, or a Frisbee, you are watching that dog's prey drive in action. In Schutzhund or protection training, when a dog grabs a sack as the helper runs by, it is working in prey drive. When an older dog chases a helper off-leash in an escape bite or a runaway bite downfield, that dog is also working in prey drive.

When a dog is worked in prey, it does not feel threatened. Prey work is a comfortable drive for a dog to be in. Dogs look at prey work as a game. For them, it's a game of tug of war. They don't feel stressed when they play tug of war.

Think of a Labrador chasing a ball. It doesn't feel threatened as it chases after its ball. When a dog is biting 100% in prey, it too doesn't feel threatened. The dog's body posture during prey drive is alert, with its tail up or wagging, (this is probably the easiest thing for new trainers to spot), there is no hair up on the dog's back while biting in prey, and it is not growling or showing its teeth. The prey bark is a higher-pitched insistent bark. A dog when barking in prey does not sound or look nervous or stressed.

In our training, the prey bite becomes a comfort zone for the dog. It's a place in the work where the dog can calm down without stopping the work. By teaching the dog to move into its prey drive when we want it to, it learns to relax after a particularly stressful training session.

One thing to remember about prey drive is that it is extinguished or is diminished as the dog gets tired. In other words, an exhausted dog does not have much interest in playing tug. This will come into play during our training.

When an uneducated person sees a dog being trained in prey, he would think that this dog is out there actually trying to kill the helper, when in fact, the dog is just playing a rough game of tug with the helper or handler.

Before we move on, let's take one more look at several stages of prey drive. Each dog we see will be doing something different, but all are working in prey. If you are new to bite training, this may seem complicated but hopefully, we will help clear up the confusion as the video progresses.

Schutzhund is currently going through a series of rule changes concerning the courage test, but the old courage tests started with the helper running away from the dog. When the dog was sent after the helper, the dog was functioning in prey drive.

While all of the dogs we just watched were working in prey, their level of prey, the intensity of the prey work, and the way their prey drive was interacting with the other drives produced different pictures.

A dog's defensive drive is the drive to protect itself from a perceived threat. When a young dog is working in its defensive drive, it is not in a comfortable situation. The dog thinks that it's in a position where it is being threatened or attacked and as a result, it is stressed. For our training, we want a dog, that even though it is unsure of its position, it will initially react to a limited amount of threat with an aggressive challenge.

This willingness to defend himself is an inherited characteristic. It cannot be trained into the dog no matter how hard you try. If a dog has not inherited the defensive gene, there is no way we are going to make this dog a protection dog. A few good examples of this are most labs, golden retrievers, huskies, or other such breeds. These dogs just don't carry the gene for protection work. The most that can be expected from these dogs is that they will bark at strangers. But when threatened, they will go into avoidance and run.

Even though a dog may inherit the defensive gene, a dog's defensive drive does not start to appear until it reaches puberty. For some dogs, this can be 1 year of age. Defense does not fully develop until a dog reaches mental maturity, this can be as late as 3 years of age, depending on the bloodline.

The picture we see of an untrained dog in defense is a different picture than what we have seen in prey work. Initially, defense is a picture of insecurity. That dog's bark will be deeper and more serious. The hair may be up on his back and he will be showing a lot more teeth in the form of a snarl.

The hair up is a natural reaction to make himself look bigger and more serious. This is a common reaction for animals; we see it with Australian lizards, they have a flap of skin on their neck that flares up to make themselves look more ferocious. Hopefully, this will scare predators away. The defensive bark is a deeper guttural bark. Once you identify it, there is a definite difference in the prey bark and the defensive bark.

A defensive bite is also different than a prey bite. It is done with the front part of the mouth. Often dogs will grip with a full mouth in prey and then only with the front of the mouth in defense. When you hear trainers say that the grip is weakened in defense, they mean the dog is only biting with his front canines and is often chewing on the sleeve.

New trainers should think of the tail and the grip or bite as a temperament barometer. When the dog's tail is up high and wagging, the dog is comfortable with what is going on. As more pressure is added, the tail will wag less, it will come down and the grip will get weaker. If the pressure continues and the dog approaches avoidance, (which is the point where it will run away), the tail will be tucked between his legs.

The defensive drive can begin to show as young as 4 or 5 months of age in the form of barking at strange circumstances. It does not develop to the full extent until the dog is 18 to 24 months old and with some dogs, not until they are 3 years old.

Experienced helpers can begin to introduce a young dog to defense when it reaches puberty. This is usually around 11 to 14 months. New trainers that make the mistake of introducing defense before a dog is mentally mature enough to deal with the pressure are making the biggest mistake of their training career. Pushing a dog into defense before it is mentally mature enough to deal with the stress is the quickest way in the world to end a dog's protection career.

Unlike prey drive, the defense does not diminish as the dog gets tired. Another way to look at it is that no matter how tired your dog is, it is still going to react to someone that is threatening him.

American bloodline German Shepherds often have some degree of prey drive, but 99.9% of them have little to no defensive drive. That's why they cannot do Schutzhund work, much less police service work.

Working defensive drive takes a skilled helper that is adept at reading and understanding temperament and knowing exactly how far a dog can be pressured or threatened in defense before it is pushed into avoidance.

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