| Re: Schutzhund?
Speaking of only confident dogs biting a sleeve, I've seen many defensive and other wise nervy dogs bite the sleeve without issue. Raise a voice, give a hard correction, show them the stick and they run. Ok just for an interesting discussion I would like to discuss this a little. Thsi isn't really true. it may appear to a novice or s spectator that this is the case but anyone really working this dog (helper, decoy, agitator) would easily be able to see in such a dog the signs of it's nerve. There is no doubt a nervy dog can bite very hard, they often do as they view it that they are fighting for their life, any helper worth anything would see the signs of stress upon the dog (eyes widening, shoulder stiffening, sideways glances etc etc etc) that would show him what the dog is feeling. No helper should be shocked at the dog moving off the bite when he/she does things to increase stress upon the dog. He/she should easily be able to see the dog is nearing the edge. A dog will not be truly comfortable on the bite and show such avoidance and bite truly well.
Mick.[/quote]
I a few weeks ago, I was watching a female rottie at the club. The owner says she's a hard dog, bites out of aggression, loves to fight etc..maybe so but I didn't see it.
What I saw was a dog on the nervy side that lacked prey drive and confidence. I saw a helper come in zig zag on this dog to give a sideways bite and the dog backed off. It took several attempts and then finally this bitch would bite. And when she bit, it was full, calm and hard. This is not a dog from some backyard breeder like mine, this is a dog from one of the most famous kennels in Germany.
Now I've never worked this dog, but her bites are always hard, firm and full and she's never moved from the bite, while she's has always looked good to me that way, that same dog was very spooky when I met her and on two occasions she tried to take a nip at me. That's not a confident dog in my book. The owners are very good people have been working to better socialize and increase the confidence, in the year that I've know it, she's less spooky from what I can see but obviously the nerve issue is still there and I tend to think she's leaning on the side of being edgey rather than nervey  |