My dogs are trained without treats or toys. Instead, open and honest communication is used. Simply put, my dogs are praised when they do well and corrected when they make a mistake. Now this type of training takes a lot of dedication and isn’t for the lazy. At least with Scout, if you don’t consistently correct her when she willfully disobeys, she will continue to test the waters and see how much she can get away with. If you give her an inch, she will take a mile. It takes a huge amount of dedication to get up and correct her when you just sat down and got nice and comfortable, especially if you are in the middle of something. I’ve learned with Scout, being the willful Dutch Shepherd that she is, you have to nip bad behavior in the bud. Otherwise, it escalates quickly. Scout was very much a mess in her puppy days and we really cracked down on her. It’s interesting because now she listens much better than Copper, our Golden Retriever.
The great thing about dog training with open and honest communication is that eventually, all you need to interact with your dog is your vocals. There’s no need for balls, batteries, or treats. When I trained our little Miniature Pinscher, I used treats to get him to go through the obstacle course I made. That was all fine and dandy as long as I had treats but as soon as they were gone, so to was his attention. Of course you can phase out the frequency of treats but the dog is still focused on the reward. For a while I was using the electronic collar with Copper, and oh boy he was so well behaved as soon as that collar was buckled and powered. He got smart super fast. He realized no matter where he was, he had to obey as long as he had the collar on. As soon as the collar was removed, he ran around like a wild banshee. And good luck if the batteries ever died.
The one I find most interesting however, is the working dogs obsession with toys if they are used as reward. They can become so distracted by the toy they lose their ability to be effective in their job.
With treats and balls, the dog is focused on the object rather than the handler. The goal should be to have the dog focused on you. Next time we will discuss equipment.
Copper is my wife’s furball golden retriever. It looks like he always has a smile on his face, especially when he gets to love on people and people get to love on him. He’s been eager to jump in and train since I’ve started working agility with Scout. He actually surprises me with how much he keeps up with her. He can jump onto about any obstacle Scout can and is just as eager. He’s also super affectionate with our little one. He’s a great part of the family.
That loveable stinker elevated my heart rate the other night though. Ash’s parents were down visiting and we decided to grab some ice cream at the local ice cream destination. We brought both Scout and Copper with us and put them on a bench in a down stay while we went and ordered. Not two seconds after I turned my back on them, I heard a high pitched squeal and clatter of dog toenails on the concrete. My first thought was, “oh crap, what did Scout do this time” as I spun around to assess the situation while immediately belting out a “phooey that Scout!! Down!” I made eye contact with her and she seemed to be saying, “excuse me, I’m laying here like I’m supposed to. What’s your issue?” As she’s laying in the exact spot she was placed originally. A gold blur catches my eye in front of a trio of teenage girls. That little turd had been enticed by those girls to break position for some love and attention when they came up to pet him. I guess his exuberance caught them off guard and led to their high pitched squeals that sent my heart racing. I was embarrassed both with myself for not paying better attention to the dogs and with Copper for being so darn friendly.
As Joshua says at the start of every training. You, and you alone are responsible for yourself and your dog. No one is responsible for you. It was definitely an eye opener for me. My take-away: I have to pay better attention to my dogs even when I trust them to handle themselves properly.
Join me later this week as we begin tracking work with Copper.
Below is a short video of Scout completing a track. This is probably her 5th or 6th track ever. I told my lovely assistant to go hide and gave her some time to set up before I gave Scout the “seek” command.
She did pretty well. You can tell she lost it for a second but kept circling until she picked it up again. We should have praised her up more when she found Ash but we are always learning and training.
Tracking is one of my favorite activities to do with my dogs since I was introduced to it in October. Its actually way easier than I thought it would be. Before I actually tried it first hand I had read that you have to train them from puppy hood by moving their food a little bit further away each time they eat so they learn to smell it out. Made sense at the time so I tried that with Scout and got a kick watching her tear through the house looking for her dinner. I never got to the part where you are supposed strap hot dogs to your feet and walk a line and then have them smell the food in the footprints which somehow leads to a correlation of following foot prints and food reward.
Check this. We had the opportunity for some tracking instruction when we trained up in Canada. Its a simple as, “Ok Case, walk 50 yards, turn around, call her to you, and go hide in the bushes. We will come find you.” So I paced off the 50 yards, turned around, called her to me, and hid in the bushes. That dog was on top of me faster than I expected. She was straining against the long line, pulling Joshua along behind her. “Ok Case, make sure you praise her up good. That’s it.” I didn’t know it at the time but this is called the “lost handler drill.”
Ha! Awesome right? So now we constantly increase the distance of the track when we get the opportunity to train. I would train all the time if I could but unfortunately, tracking is a two person venture and sometimes its hard to convince my awesome wife that hiding in the tick-infested woods of Florida is actually an enjoyable time. She’s a great sport though because she knows how much I enjoy watching the dogs work.
Scout has realized that while she does enjoy finding Ash or me, she really loves smashing the decoy at the end of a track. Being the decoy suited up in the bite suit at the end of the track is a unique experience. I had the privilege of being the decoy for a couple dogs that were pros at tracking. Its an eerie feeling just waiting for the smallest hint the dogs are getting close. I found myself worrying they were going to flank me and bite me when I wasn’t expecting it. Luckily, that hasn’t happened yet but as they say, there’s only two type of people in dog training, those that have been bit, and those that haven’t YET.
Required equipment for tracking is pretty simple and easy to obtain. All you need is a long line (30 ft), a flat collar, and someone to go hide. The hard part is finding a nice area in which to do it.
Watching a dog track is amazing. Definitely one of my favorites and I look forward to it every chance I get.
Oh Scout. Life with this little 43 pound one and half year old Dutch Shepherd gets interesting at times. Ok, actually most the time. Scout joined our family in March of last year. She was a wedding present from only the most amazing wife ever. I was dead set on male Belgian Malinois when I first began my search. I wanted a dog as smart as a whip, with protective instincts, and one that could keep up on life’s adventures with me and my adventure partner. After hearing stories of the Mali in action protecting soldiers overseas and increasingly being used as police K9s, I was sold. I began to research Malinois breeders in the Florida area and found one I really liked. Unfortunately for them they gave me the run around and I decided to take my money elsewhere. I did a little bit more searching and found one that seemed ok but for some reason I wasn’t completely sold. It’s amazing how things work out because I stumbled upon the best breeder ever thanks to ITS Tactical, Jack Spirko of the The Survival Podcast, and Joel Ryals. Joel Ryals mentioned Baden K9 a couple times and when I searched for them, I happened upon Rich Graham of Trident Fitness and his youtube channel, Vonhelmet. He has an amazing, just amazing Malinois that goes by the name War Beast, and War Beast lives up to her name. Definitely check out his videos if you get the chance. After this, I knew I wanted a Baden dog. My wife is awesome and set up the call so I could go about getting a pup through Joshua Perry at Baden. When he explained their training philosophy and breeding program, I knew I had picked the perfect breeder. I was really surprised however when he tried to steer me away from a male Mali. I had my heart set on one but listening to him, I was convinced that maybe I would be really happy with a female Dutch Shepherd even though they had both a male Mali and a female Dutchie on the ground. I had no clue what one was when he first mentioned it so I did some research and although I wasn’t fond of the brindle coat, I figured their capabilities exceeded my wildest expectations. After discussing it with my wife, we decided to pull the trigger.
Joshua delivered our pup the day before the Intro to K9 Home Protection Course he and Rich Graham were conducting in Orlando. I knew as soon as the little Dutchie stepped out of the truck we had made a very good choice. The first night was a sleepless one as we figured her out and she figured us out. The next day we took our tiny pup to hang with the big dogs at the Compound. We didn’t get to participate in all the exercises but Scout was thrown into the mix whenever she could. It was awesome seeing that little fuzz ball in the dog pile on top of the table.
Scout Conquering the Atlantic
She has come a long way since then. She is now an active participant whenever we can make it over to training. She’s been to Baden up in Canada and trained multiple times with Rich in Orlando.
I can honestly say I am so glad we got into contact with Joshua and picked Scout, our 43 lbs Dutch Shepherd instead of going with a male Mali. She’s ferocious, smart, agile, sweet with our little one, and more fun than you can imagine. She always keeps you on your toes and makes you a better handler. Life with Scout is always an adventure.
My parents have pictures of me napping on our German Shepherd’s Dog when I was a tiny little guy. They said I would also practice standing up by pulling myself up with my tiny fingers interlaced in his fur. After he passed he away, a couple years went by before we acquired two labs, aptly named Bonny and Clyde. They were trouble makers alright and thats the reason we got them. They were so cantankerous their former owner gave them to us and threw in a 6ft privacy fence to sweeten the deal. Now if you ask my dad if it was worth it for the fence, he would really have to think about it versus the chewed up four-wheeler wiring harnesses, the trailer light harness, coming home from work and seeing the yellow and black labs sitting on the hill by the side of the house with the whole neighborhood’s newspapers at their paws, and countless other shenanigans. Yes, my dad would really have to think about it. My sister and I loved them of course. The next animal that impacted our lives was a cute ornery little Miniature Pinscher named Rusty. I took it upon myself to teach Rusty how to navigate a homebuilt obstacle course out of K’nex and by golly, I was successful. He figured out quickly that there were treats at the end.
I got my first taste of professional training with Boone, a hard-headed German Shepherd’s Dog. Luckily a friend recommended Lara’s Canine Solutions, and after a couple of lessons, Boone was a much better behaved dog. I didn’t realize at the time but now I understand that the dog is capable, it’s the handler that dictates how far they go. Goldie was a sweet little yellow lab that I had the opportunity to train for my sister. I have never met a more sweet dog.
Then it was time for me to go off to college. I finally got my dog fix again my last year of college when my then girlfriend (now wife) brought down her exuberant golden retriever. I am not sure who adopted who but we have become very fond of each other. (The dog that is). The wife is pretty awesome as well, especially since her wedding present to me was a Dutch Shepherd.
Luckily, I have had the opportunity to train with some stellar handlers within the last couple of months. I have learned so much about dogs training with them. Its always an adventure. You never know what you will see or learn, not only about the dog, but about yourself as well.
So there you have it, my dog life.
Taken after a successful tracking session with Scout, a Dutch Shepherd
