Schutzhund: Theory and Training Methods

The Protection phase of Schutzhund work has raised more eyebrows than any other aspect of the sport. Some people consider it cruel and savage. Others say that it is too dangerous. Still others believe that protection training somehow returns the dog to a wild state. Despite these misapprehensions and the criticism that arises from them, we consider protection to be the most exciting of the three phases of training. It is also at the core of the purpose of Schutzhund sport—to test, select and promote dogs of character and working ability.

These myths and misconceptions surrounding Schutzhund bite work still persist and must be refuted. One frequently voiced concern regarding protection is that the training will alter the dog’s temperament. However, experience has shown that a dog that is confident and friendly before protection training will remain confident and friendly after protection training. We do not brainwash the animal in any way. We merely strengthen and mold a perfectly natural facet of its behavior that we can already see in some form or degree in the dog before it is ever exposed to agitation.

Another myth surrounding Schutzhund bite work is that the training involves cruelty to the dog. Nothing could be further from the truth. After all, the primary objective in bite work is to build and maintain confidence, and this state of being cannot be evoked by cruelty or by force. Confidence and self-assurance evolve instead as a result of a carefully designed series of exercises that teach the dog, first, to display aggression in appropriate circumstances and, second, that it can always expect success in so doing. The dog must develop the self-assurance necessary to oppose a human willingly, with conviction and with force. This it will not do if abused or mishandled.

The use of the reed stick during Schutzhund protection routines caused much criticism and concern during the early years of Schutzhund in the United States. However, for a number of reasons, the stick hits are not dangerous for the dogs nor even particularly unpleasant. Stick hits are carefully and precisely administered by an agitator who is expert at his craft, and the blows fall to one side or the other of the dog’s spine, on the thick dorsal muscles of the back. Because the stick is very light and flexible, the dog is covered with fur and the agitator is skilled and experienced, no harm comes to the animal. Although the stick hits, characterized by sharp, menacing gestures, reflect a threat to the dog that it must withstand in order to pass a Schutzhund examination, they inflict at most a brief sting.

Indeed, the animal shows us clearly whether this pain is important to it, for it has the choice to undergo the stick hits or not. If the dog finds the blows truly unpleasant, if it is frightened by them, then it will bite badly or not at all while under the stick. Consequently, because it does its trainer no credit, the dog will be retired from Schutzhund and it will never see the stick again. If, on the other hand (like a football player who repeatedly endures far worse than a brief sting for his love of the game), the dog is so transported by the passion and excitement of bite work that it is oblivious of the blows, then we can unmistakably see that the dog has made its choice to go eagerly under the stick. We therefore admire the dog and use it for precisely this quality in it. The issue of the stick hits illustrates most clearly the central dynamic of Schutzhund sport: The Schutzhund dog loves the game.

A final misconception involves the common conviction held by many dog owners that their dogs will, without benefit of training or experience, protect them in a dangerous, real-life situation. This is extremely unlikely. Most family dogs are systematically discouraged from behaving aggressively under any circumstances. In addition, the majority of dogs simply do not possess the necessary courage to bite when suddenly threatened. Their immediate and quite reasonable response is to retreat from an ominous situation with which they have not had any previous experience. The fact that a dog barks aggressively from behind the safety of a fence or a door is no indication that it will protect its owner when push comes to shove. Even in the case of a dog of unusual quality, a great deal of schooling is necessary to overcome the dog’s ultimate inhibition against biting and to develop its confidence and expertise in protection.

In fact, it is extraordinarily difficult to induce a dog to bite a human for real, and as trainers we spend an inordinate amount of time and energy striving to overcome this problem. Many dogs are willing to threaten, harass and even nip when they have someone on the run or when they confront a person who is not particularly dangerous. However, this is not the sort of person against whom we need protection. For a dog to enter into close combat with a person who is unafraid and genuinely means to hurt somebody is a different matter altogether.

Remember, biting is an extreme act. The animal in question must be either extremely frightened or extremely brave.

In an emergency, it is best if the dog is not only brave but also well trained, and a dog that has proven its courage and steadiness on the Schutzhund field and that is then schooled in personal protection can provide many years of service as a reliable family guardian.

Despite the advantages of owning and training a well-schooled Schutzhund protection dog, there can also be decided disadvantages. Training a dog to a high level of competence in bite work is a long and arduous process. To begin training and then not follow through to this level of competence is to invite problems. A dog that is not fully trained has neither the control nor the judgment necessary to make a good decision, and a mistake of judgment with such a powerful animal can result in injury to an innocent party and a possible law suit.

In perfect truth, whether well trained or not, dogs simply do not possess the capacity to safely and reliably judge when and whom they should bite, and when not. Therefore, the responsibility for this judgment rests entirely in the hands of the owner. It is up to him to constantly and accurately predict his dog’s reactions in daily situations and to restrain the animal if there is a possibility that the animal will behave aggressively when in reality there is no danger.

For this reason, the person who is considering Schutzhund must be reflective regarding his own needs and competencies. His attitude toward the dog must be one of respect for a powerful weapon. The owner must have the determination and the ability to make good decisions regarding the safety of his dog and of other people.

It should be evident that, contrary to the lurid image bite work conjures up in the imaginations of the uninformed, training is carried out gradually and in a humane manner.

The process of building the dog’s confidence and developing its instincts is called agitation, and it is an art. The person who performs this work is called the decoy, the agitator or the helper, and his function is to serve as the dog’s adversary in order to progressively develop the animal’s desire to bite and to increase its courage. The agitator must be an athlete, physically strong and agile, but more importantly he must also be a person with what we call “feeling”—an accurate intuition for what makes dogs behave the way they do. The agitator must have the ability to observe a dog for a moment and then know what is in its heart. An expert agitator makes a good dog better. A mediocre agitator can make even a good dog look mediocre. A poor agitator can ruin a dog.

Throughout the protection section of this book we use the terms agitator, decoy and helper interchangeably. We prefer the term agitator because it best describes what the person actually does. However, we also use helper because this has become, for the sake of public relations, the officially accepted title (“help” has a more innocuous connotation than “agitate”). We include decoy because this term is commonly used on the training field in many parts of the country.

In addition to a competent handler and a gifted agitator, a Schutzhund team requires the right dog. The dog must have certain qualities of character. It is easy to imagine that the most aggressive, nasty, suspicious, hyperexcitable animal possible would be a good candidate, but this impression is totally incorrect. Rather than suspicious (a trait founded upon unsureness), the Schutzhund dog must be strong in character—steady, friendly, reliable and confident. The dog must be rational, in the sense that it must be capable of distinguishing between real threats and the normal, sometimes chaotic events that surround it. Thus, the single indispensable character trait of a working dog is stability. The animal must be steady, neither timid nor inappropriately aggressive. It may be friendly or it may not, but above all it must not be unreliable or dangerous.

The animal that snarls at a person approaching it, or tucks its tail and anxiously growls in a group of people, is not representative of the Schutzhund dog, both because it is not safe or reliable and also because it does not express the necessary power. It is from steadiness and neutrality—and the courage they bespeak—that the dog’s ultimate power in bite work arises. Contrary to common belief, the Schutzhund dog is not filled with suspicion or hate for the agitator. It does not bite from rage, fear or malevolence. It does it because the activity fulfills a great number of its instinctual needs. Quite simply, the Schutzhund dog bites because it likes biting.

The animal’s nature is that of a hunter, a predator, a fundamentally aggressive animal. Its urges to chase, bite and struggle are part and parcel of its life instincts. Just as it finds pleasure in eating and mating, so it also gains intense gratification from biting.

This point must be absolutely clear: We do not teach the Schutzhund dog to bite. Biting is not an artificial or contrived behavior, like wearing clothes or riding a bicycle are for a circus bear. As Schutzhund trainers we merely take a behavior that is already native to the dog and we channel it, strengthen it and mold it to suit our purposes. Therefore, it should be evident that we can only train the dog if it wants to bite. If it does not, then nothing remains but to find a new dog.

In Schutzhund protection the dog is a voluntary, even an intensely eager participant.

CANINE AGGRESSION

The basic requirement of Schutzhund protection is the bite itself—the dog’s grip upon the sleeve. The power and quality of the bite are important not only from the standpoint of getting the job done (that is, stopping and disabling an aggressor). They are also important because how the dog bites provides an index to its quality as a working dog and as a prospect for breeding.

The ideal bite is what we call full, so that the dog grips the sleeve with its entire jaw, including the molar region. The dog need not fight this way in order to fight a human effectively. But working dog trainers have found over many years that dogs that bite full are normally the best and the bravest animals.

What makes the difference between the dog that bites full and the dog that does not is, to a great extent, their differing degrees of courage. But it is also a fact that the two animals are motivated to bite for different reasons, by different types of behavior. Their characters are different.

The dog that bites full displays at least a certain degree of prey drive. It pursues and bites the decoy for the same reason that it would chase and bite a rabbit. It is “hunting.” The dog in prey mood is unafraid. It bites quietly, its eyes are tranquil and its expression, although intensely keen, is neutral. This dog does not snarl or grimace or flinch as it bites. It enjoys itself and, most important, it will pursue. For the opportunity to bite it will run hundreds of yards or even search for extended periods of time.

The animal that bites with only half of its mouth, or with just its canine teeth, shows a different kind of behavior, a different urge that we call defense drive. This dog bites not because it is fun for it, but because it feels it must. It is stressed. It feels endangered, and to at least some extent afraid, and it bites primarily to defend itself. It is therefore much less keen to pursue a person or search in order to find him and engage him in combat. In addition to biting with just the front of its mouth, the defense dog also tends to chew, or nervously shift his grip, especially when under pressure. This dog bites violently and with malevolence. The defense dog is also noisy while it bites, growling and snarling, and it often bristles, erecting the hair on the withers, back and rump.

Almost every animal has the capacity (to some extent) to express both prey- and defense-motivated aggression. Because each type of behavior has its advantages, during agitation we make use of them both.

Prey brings with it eagerness and pleasure in biting. But a “pure” prey dog lacks intensity. In addition, it is also woefully unprepared to bite in a real-life “street” situation in which it is called upon to protect itself and its owner from harm. Remember, a Schutzhund dog should also be a civil protection dog. During agitation, the prey dog is taught to regard the protective sleeve that the agitator wears as prey, like a rabbit or some other animal that the dog would naturally chase down and bite. It will happily bite anyone that wears the sleeve, even its handler. Consequently, when faced with a person who means to do it or its owner harm, and who wears no sleeve and does not follow the rules of agitation, it is very much at a loss.

The defense dog, on the other hand, is what we call sharp—it is always ready to fight, and fight in earnest, in threatening or disorienting circumstances. It is “strong-civil,” meaning that it is less interested in the sleeve than the prey dog and more eager to close with the agitator himself. Defense brings with it intensity and violence, and the power to fight in a deadly situation.

However, defense also brings with it stress. The fact that the animal behaves defensively implies that it feels endangered, that fear is at the root of its actions. Consequently, the pure defense dog leaves many things to be desired. For example, it does not bite with a full mouth on the sleeve, and it is frequently too overstimulated during agitation to learn well.

In training, we strive to make the protection dog a balanced animal that expresses both prey- and defense-motivated behavior. However, although with intelligent work we can change the dog’s basic orientation to some extent, its basic prey-versus-defense characteristics are mainly a product of genetics. The animal comes to us primarily prey-oriented or primarily defense-oriented. Therefore, as trainers and sportspeople, it is important to choose the type of dog with advantages and disadvantages that suit us best.

The authors prefer an animal that is fundamentally a prey dog. It bites for fun, day after day, clearheaded and happy, but there is a deadly serious edge of defense to it that lends it intensity. Prey will give it pleasure in biting and durability over years of competition and training, while defense will give it the raw power and violence we can call on in time of need.

THE ART OF AGITATION

During basic agitation, the helper’s function is to serve as the dog’s adversary in order to intensify the animal’s drives and desire to bite. It is the decoy’s responsibility to increase the dog’s courage and confidence, and also to modulate precisely and with split-second timing between the moods of defense and prey.

He modulates between prey and defense by changing his posture and his attitude so that the dog responds differently to him from one moment to the next. He causes the moods of prey and defense in the animal and then attracts the behaviors that they drive toward himself.

The attraction for prey drive is primarily movement. When the decoy moves laterally or away from the dog, especially in a jerky or erratic fashion, he excites the animal’s predatory instincts, and the animal begins to hunt him. The dog pursues the decoy as though he were a big rabbit, and the desire to bite awakens.

The attraction for defense is threat. Dogs have many ways of conveying threat to each other, and the agitator must understand them all. Dogs communicate with gestures, postures and movements. Human beings also use this nonverbal or body language. A good decoy is in touch with body language. He grasps how people use movements and postures to communicate, and he understands how human body language must be subtly altered in order to convey his intent to the dog.

First and foremost, for a dog, and throughout much of the animal kingdom, threat is made through eye contact. For example, baboons have bright patches on their eyelids that emphasize their eyes and the threat that they represent; some butterflies have great dark spots on their wings that frighten predators because they mimic eyes; and human prizefighters stare impassively into each other’s eyes before a bout.

Another canine threat is immobility, stillness. Who has not seen how slowly dogs move when they confront one another and how perfectly still they stand, staring fixedly at each other? Thus, the more still the decoy remains as he stares, the more threatening he will seem.

Animals also threaten through inflation of body size. When they feel endangered, owls extend their wings and flare their feathers; some species of lizards gape their mouths and extend great shields of skin around their heads and shoulders; and cats and dogs pilo erect (raise the fur on their backs). A gifted decoy can achieve the same effect by expanding his chest and lungs, drawing himself erect and letting his elbows rotate out from his sides.

The decoy uses a combination of these elements of threat, as well as movement directly toward the animal, to alarm the dog and attract defensive behavior. A truly gifted decoy can sense just what combination to use with each dog at the right moment to make it “come out.”

However, the helper does not merely pressure the dog. He must also encourage it. By rewarding the animal’s efforts, he can intensify drive and induce the dog to become more and more confident about behaving aggressively.

The agitator rewards prey behavior with movement and by allowing the dog to bite. He starts the dog with a little motion, and then moves more and more quickly and erratically in response to the dog’s pursuit. As the animal begins to become excited, the decoy feeds on this energy, becoming more and more frenetic and intensifying still further the animal’s desire to catch him. At a peak moment, when the aroused dog is putting out an intense effort, the decoy rewards it by allowing a quick bite on a rag or sleeve.

The decoy rewards defensive behavior with retreat, by yielding to the dog’s counterthreat. He first incites the animal by threatening it. Then the dog, alarmed, threatens back and the agitator rewards its attempt to defend itself by running away. The dog learns that it can shatter the decoy’s threat by threatening back.

When the decoy returns, he threatens a little more strongly and the dog, emboldened by its recent success, will lash out at him more intensely. Progressively, we teach the animal to withstand a greater and greater threat.

EQUIPMENT NEEDED FOR PROTECTION

The leash is perhaps the single weakest link in the system of safeguards that preserves the agitator’s skin. In most training situations, the helper takes care of himself by staying alert and reacting quickly and effectively to emergencies that arise. Because he carries a rag or a sleeve much of the time, he is normally in little danger from a dog that breaks loose on the field. However, when he is working close to an animal, especially over a grounded rag or sleeve, only the reliability of the leash and snap protect him from a nasty bite wound.

A heavy-duty, one-inch-wide leash with stitching and riveting at both snap end and wrist loop is strongly recommended. The snap should be of a size, strength and quality corresponding to the leash. Brass snaps, although not as strong as steel, will not corrode and are often better made. Well-sewn nylon leashes are stronger than leather, but they tend to be very hard on the hands.

Normally, the line used in tracking training is not strong enough to provide perfect safety in bite work, especially because we often use the long lines not just as corrective devices but also as tie-out lines to secure the dogs to posts or trees for agitation. The best lines are thirty feet in length, and made of one-inch tubular nylon webbing. The flat, nontubular webbing long lines sold by most vendors are more than strong enough, but they are extremely punishing to the hands. We often find it necessary to make our own lines, and we buy the nylon at a mountaineering shop.

The first function of the agitation collar is to restrain the animal without any possibility of failure. The second function, just as important, is to allow the dog, even encourage it, to use itself physically as hard as it can against the collar.

The agitation collar should therefore be double layered, at least one inch wide so that it will not choke the dog, and fashioned of leather that is soft enough so that the edges of the collar will not bite into the animal’s neck when it throws its weight into the collar. Hardware and rivets should be extremely strong.

In the initial stages of training, the dog is taught spirit, not control. This means that, if it breaks loose suddenly during agitation, the handler may not be able to control it by voice, even if there is time to give commands before the dog reaches the decoy.

Agitation collars are seldom broken. However, among groups of novice trainers they are frequently slipped, meaning that the dogs spin and, in so doing, back their heads out of their heavy leather collars. This is especially a problem with smaller-headed breeds like Doberman Pinschers and Belgian Malinois. This cannot be prevented by tightening the agitation collar without defeating its purpose: With the collar cinched down tight upon its throat the dog cannot strain with all of its power against the leash without choking itself. Therefore, in normal practice the agitation collar should be left relatively loose so that it rides down around the massive muscles of the animal’s neck. Insurance against the dog slipping the collar is provided by the trainer’s skill in handling and also by a safety collar.

The best type of collar for this purpose is a thin nylon choker collar (really just a cord connecting two steel rings) sized much too large for the dog so that it encircles its neck leaving six or eight inches to spare. The safety collar is placed lower on the dog’s neck than the agitation collar, and the live ring is snapped into the leash along with the D ring of the agitation collar. Very often, even if the animal manages to slip its leather collar, the safety collar will stay on and draw tight as it backs out of the leather one.

In order to control the dog, to teach it when it should and should not bite and to pay attention to commands even when it is extremely aroused, a correction collar is needed. With many dogs, especially top-quality working-breed animals that are both physically and psychologically “hard,” a normal chain choke collar will not be sufficient. Therefore, we use a pinch or prong collar.

Because fitting the prong collar to the dog is complicated, the reader should have an experienced trainer demonstrate how this is done. The most important consideration is that the collar be snug, so that the yoke does not hang loose. When fitted in this way the pinch collar is intentionally rather severe, and requires in its use not crude strength but sensitivity and good timing. This sensitive touch should also be demonstrated by an experienced handler.

The blinds must be portable, yet very durable because they are subjected to tremendous amounts of abuse. They should be large enough to conceal a person, and there must also be a means of staking them to the ground so that the wind will not fell them (a constant nuisance otherwise). Several vendors in the United States sell ready-made, light and compact versions.

In the case of well-trained dogs, there is little danger that they will bite the helper anyplace other than the arm. (It is the agitator’s job to ensure that it is the sleeve arm!) The animals soon become attuned to the sleeve, and come to regard it as their prey, their goal. However, accidents do happen, especially in the blind, after the outs and when making the acquaintance of new dogs.

Accordingly, the agitator should make a habit of wearing bite pants, which are really a sort of overall. These pants will stop teeth, but they will not save one from the considerable pain of a bite and an appalling bruise. It is normally after his first bite in the legs that a brash young decoy learns respect for the dogs.

Even when the agitator estimates the chances of a leg bite at nil, he will still find the pants necessary because of the surprising amount of damage the dogs will do both to his clothes and his body with their claws.

Sacks or Rags

Burlap feed sacks work very well as a biting surface for puppies and novice dogs. They can be rolled and stitched to preserve their shape.

A very good dog that is well prepared and bites the sack eagerly will also bite the sleeve without hesitation. However, for the majority of dogs of less than outstanding quality, it is often useful to have a puppy tug in order to prepare the animals to move to a harder, more unyielding and bulky biting surface.

The same goes for puppy sleeves (soft, pliable and easily bitten sleeves designed for young and novice dogs). Very good or well-trained dogs do not need puppy sleeves and can move directly from the rag to the hard sleeve. However, in training the typical dog a puppy sleeve is normally necessary, if only for a few transitional bites before the animal advances to the hard sleeve.

In addition, puppy sleeves have the advantage that, because they are relatively soft, they are easily bitten and present little hazard to the teeth, jaws or spine of a hot-blooded young dog that is perhaps on the sleeve early and working itself hard. The puppy may be quite willing and eager to bite the hard sleeve, but it is best to protect the novice dog from impacts and accidents until it is older and physically more rugged. Furthermore, it is nearly impossible, no matter what mistake is made, to break a dog’s canine tooth with the soft sleeve. Accordingly, we restrict novice agitators almost exclusively to the use of soft sleeves until they have become competent.

In competition, Schutzhund dogs are judged specifically on the quality—the fullness and the power—of their bite, and awarded point totals and courage ratings accordingly. In trial, the animals bite what is called a bite-bar sleeve. This sleeve is made of plastic or leather, has a blade or bar that provides a V-shaped biting surface, and, when uncovered, is nearly as hard as a piece of wood. To give the animal’s teeth purchase and to protect the sleeve an expendable jute sleeve cover is used with it. This bite-bar sleeve allows the dog, if it has the desire, to bite with its entire jaw, all the way back to the molars. Thus, it allows the judge to evaluate the animal’s quality of bite.

There are schools of training that employ a great number of techniques and devices in the effort to teach the dogs to bite full. Accordingly, these trainers use several different types of progressively harder sleeves, often concluding with an enormous hard barrel sleeve which theoretically gets the dog in the habit of using a huge, mauling mouth to bite.

This approach views the bite as a fundamentally mechanical event, a skill or habit that must be meticulously taught. We disagree. To us the bite is an emotional event. The basis of a crushing, full-mouth bite is in spirit, not in mechanics, and a correct bite is not a function of how the dog is “taught” to bite and what sort of sleeve is used in order to involve the maximum number of its teeth. The bite is a function of the dog’s basic motivation for biting, whether defense or prey, and of how badly it wants to bite in the first place.

If the animal only half wants to bite, then we can expect it to bite with a half mouth. If, on the other hand, it is consumed by its desire, so that neither hesitation nor prudence exist for it, then it will engulf the sleeve (no matter what its form, shape or hardness) and no one will have cause to doubt its courage.

We urge the prospective Schutzhund enthusiast to see to the dog and its spirit, not some arsenal of sleeves, devices and techniques.

The stick is a section of reed. It is light, flexible and approximately thirty inches in length. In training we also use other sorts of sticks in order to harden the dogs. Rattly split-bamboo batons, riding crops, whiffle-ball bats filled with handfuls of noisy gravel and other devices can all be used to inure the animals to challenges and intimidation of any sort.