[Mick Trainer]

I have not fully read the other replies so sorry if I recap. All of what I write here is done so with the premise that the dog is the temperament type to handle such work.

I see from the video and from your description a few problems existing within the hold and bark which, as you have said, innitate from the training or more importantly incorrect training of the dog. However I doubt it will be so easy to simply fix a hole here and would strong encourage you to take a large step back and re-train the H&B from stratch if you truly wish to cure this problem. The problem with the not barking straight away is created in three forms here by firstly not enough intensity of drive and also by coming into the blind unsure and also a conditioned responce about being called away from the blind on the first search. To help better understand this I will go into what I do and why to better illustrate what I am searching for and what I see as causing problems here.

When I am first going to teach the H&B I firstly want the dog showing a good firm grip and a huge amount of drive etc to get onto the field and to work. In the vast majority of dogs this will mean that the dog is functioning in it's predatory drive. I wish to see the dog is totaly forward movement to the point of being highly forging, showing very comfortable typography and in a highly exitable and aroused state. The dog should be barking upon it's entry onto the field and is not to be commanded to cease in any way. At this time I will simply start to train the out (if it has not already been done) by going sleeve to sleeve with the dog teaching it to hold predatory arousal whilst it trasfers from sleeve to sleeve. Once the dog will out from a dead sleeve to a live one quickly and hold drive I simply start moving away so that the dog cannot reach the sleeve and then I go dead. Upon bark I move and give bite same as is done in very early stages of foundation work. All at this time in prey. In time the dog learn to out upon command cleanly and wait for movement. At this time I am happy for rythmical prey barking. Once I have this I move on.

Once I have a good "out" and the dog understanding barking and waiting I start to get the dog to give eye contact before it gets a bite. This normally only takes a few sessions. Once the dog is understanding this I now move to were I am seeking intensity in the H&B and I do this not through changing drives but through frustration and loading of the dog. Whilst in the vast majority of bite training viewing biting to occur in prey/defence and fight (if you like that term) will be enough to understand what it is we are doing and seeking from a dog, however when training for a truly intense H&B I find it a little simplistic and that a good helper will know that aggression can truly exist and occur in more than simply the perception of threat or fight drive and that one of the great producers of aggression within a dog is frustration and that the threshold to frustration levels can be lowered by loading of a dog an in-turn the lack of movement from the helper and compliance to a command. We can all, I believe, easily equate this to ourselves and how our frustration levels if lifted can lead to a lower threshold to an aggressive responce to even someone we love. For me whilst we opperate clearly on a higher level to the though patterns and learning principles of dogs that it is nieve to believe that the same frustration will not lead to a similar responce in the dog.

So how do I do this? Well whilst there will be some variance depending upon the individual dog being trained I usually start with building frustration and loading upon the dog not in the H&B but in a fixed position such as a drop etc. I do this by putting the dog into a conflicted situation and putting many different forms of pressure that can be confusing to the dog. For instance I will normally start with putting the dog into a drop with the handler right beside it. I will then get right up in it's face doing prey movements, banging the sleeve and hissing etc to get the dog truly aroused. Now remembering that the dog is already trained in holding a drop and is good at this exercise and is on a pinch collar (Once you have worked a dog with this type of technique it is not often trained upon it for OB work unless you are looking to increase intensity a lot as the dog will soon make an association that a correction from the pinch is a trigger to arousal and often aggression) I will get the handler to keep repeating their drop command and even though the dog is not breaking the dog is receiving low level corrections. The abundance of stimuli and the confusion upon the corrections will lead to the dog loading and becoming high aroused. When I see that the dog has become highly aggitated and is ready to burst (think of a big spring being turned high and higher) I will move rapidly away from the dog I get the owner to give the command. The dog will run and hit very hard as a rule. Now it is important that the helper can read the dog has holding for too long can shut the dog down. This exercise has two beneifts. One is it teaches the dog to fire frustration at the helper and it builds a truly solid off lead.

Now once I have a dog that can build frustration I will start to transfer this onto the H&B. Now as a rule again I will start by agitating the dog (not in the blind) and not allowing it a bite. I move to where I will work the dog get the handler to send the dog in. At this time I am not concerned if the dog takes a dirty bite. Now the owner is to give the out command and wait. I will give no responce if the dog hold on but most know the out well and will let go but I do not want a correction if they do not at this stage (I will fix this later if it presents a problem and the use then of a correction will also load the dog further but most of the time it is not necessary as the dog has learnt to out and hold drive). Once the dog is outed the handler is a praise the dog and give it a good hard pet on the rear. Then I get the handler to keep repeating the H&B command giving slight corrections once again upon the dog. The dog now knows that it must gain eye contact to get a bite. Now with the mild corrections the dog will start to load again and I wait until the dog not only seeks eye contact but it gives an aggressive responce, then I gove it the bite. Once I have it a few times of course the handler corrections cease and the time the dog must show this responce builds. The dog in time will succesfully aproximate and after a very short time the dog will show this responce to get a bite in all H&B situtations. The dog if originally conditioned correctly will out cleanly and go straight back into a very intense H&B. The dog is not working truly in either prey or defence but it shows the intensity in the bark of defence but the forward movement and strength of prey.

In all this however the dog must learn that it is it that initiates the responce from em and not the other way around. it must aproximate that it is the alteration of it's behavior that changes my responce to it. This is hardly new to any helper but shows the importance of timing in that the helper must alter his/her movement as soon as the behavior alters. Once the dog has made this link then the time can be built until movement is given thus again having the dog succesfully aproximate how it must behave.

Now in a number of situations another behavior will present that people see as bad and stop this type of training. Due to the high level of arousal that a dog feels due to the loading and frustration some may start to take dirty bites and not wish to out quite so quickly. Now once agian pointing out that the dog must have known the "out" previously the dog can be corrected for either of these and due to the fact that it now is conditioned to loading upon the pinch collar this will only gain greater loading and more intensity. This is a problem easily cleaned up and one that can lead to even greater results.

I do not like a number of the modern PS or SchH H&B that put the dog into defence that even though whilst the dog will do the exercise it shows true insecurity and even in the worst cases avoidance barking. Defensive work can build intensity all all forms of bite work but it can also create insecuity in the dog and thus reduce true intensity as it appears to have done here.

Now whilst it is the case that the dog must be called away from the H&B in the trial this is not the way in which I practice such an exercise in the majority of cases. If the dog is conditioned to think it will be called away in such circumstances then it will soon loose intensity for the H&B. If you have a sound recall to heal then there is no lead to constantly practice this when preparing for a trial. If the dog does it then leave the dog to think nearly all H&B end in a bite. It is clear that the first dog in the video's has too much attention placed upon the handler waiting for the recall command and it has already started to return to the handler upon the first letter leaving the handler mouth. This is good for the recall but poor for the H&B.

On another point if you are using drive/predatory behavior in either bite work or Ob (and lets face it who isn't now days?) then one your dog is conditioned to being in drive when being worked the worst thing you can do is play and work your dog up before a trial. Why you may ask? The more a dog is triggered into drive by the stimulus triggers present upon trials or training but the longer that drive goes unsatisfied (as long as the dog has been conditioned to it coming if it performs long enough) the higher levels of arousal the dog feel and the more intensity it will show. Watch any truly great helper with his truly great dog before a big trial. He will stand dead still and give the dog nothing before he enters the ring. By the time the dog hits the field it is bursting out of it's skin ready to rock and roll.

I hope that this makes sence to all and it helpful. I feel that I have left much out but have not the time to write more now.

Mick.