Raising a working prospect
We’ve provided a few observations that have been deemed useful towards getting the most out of your working dog. Particularly when raising a puppy
Curb your enthusiasm
So you just got a new puppy. The biggest mistake you can make is to go out and just start training. Drive building, socialization, environmentals. Just pump the breaks. The dog barely knows you, has no idea as to your expectations, and needs to acclimate to a new way of life. The most important thing you can do as a new handler, is begin to set the dog up for nothing but success. Limit experiences so that you can build a trusting relationship without resorting to excessive commands (that they may not yet comprehend) or where your forced to use the word NO. Its hard building a new relationship based on the word NO, so take it slow. Your puppy is looking to you for calm, fair, and consistent leadership. One of the best things you can do to relationship build is just take the dog on a walk.
The walk gives you and the puppy time to bond over new shared experiences. Gentle but firm leadership will allow the puppy to trust you during any obstacle where they may begin to feel unsure. Your responsibility is to teach the dog the world, and in response they’ll learn your expectations. They will not only overcome obstacles with your direction, but be confident in following your lead. Recognize that they are babies - and train accordingly. What is most important is that you acknowledge the importance of firm but gentle leadership towards creating and maintaining a strong canine handler bond.
We can begin laying the foundation through positive reinforcement, using toys, food, play or affection to reward desired behaviors, and ensuring the dog can understand our expectations. Simple drills where the dog works for food by shaping behaviors, instilling impulse control in the house, or learning boundaries should be fun and light. Start with the behavioral basics (such as shaping muscle memory to sit, or down) before placing demands on pups that they aren’t capable of fulfilling. You cannot expect a young dog, to perform like a well trained adult. Far too often, new owners overdue elements of training because they are anxious to see results - seemingly unaware that they can kill drive, or a puppies enthusiasm to work (for not only themselves, but their handler).
Let them Grow
Oftentimes - if bred correctly, less is more. There is plenty you can do with a new working prospect - drive building, free shaping, environmental work, conditioning desired behaviors, but its important to remember NOT to overdue any one thing. The working dog, though eager to work can loose interest, and an over enthuiastic handler can take all the fun out of a specific task. Far too often I’ve seen well bred, phenomonal prospects “burn out” and find themselves “washed” because the handler’s couldn’t put their ego aside and allow the pup, to just be a pup.
Work, training, and conditioning comes in multiple forms; use variety to your advantage and hone many of their transferrable skills. Recognize that dogs mature at different rates (particularly bull and molosser breeds) - and oftentimes really don’t begin to come into themselves until 8-18mo. “Let the puppy be a puppy” - is a simple, yet extremely difficult concept for people to understand. If the genetics are there, the behavior will follow. Appreciate the many developmental stages, observe how their behavior changes through time, and how their confidence grows. You’ll see glimpses as to who they’ll become, so allow them to be young; you’ll have an adult dog the rest of their lives.
Socialization doesn’t have to mean that every stranger can have a playdate with your dog. Socialization often means that simply sharing in the dogs space - is showing them what’s appropriate and respectful. Interaction doesn’t always have to be affection, and as a firm and consistent handler - you do not have to be pressured into letting strangers interact with you dog. You build confidence and trust in your dog by advocating on their behalf. You set the stage for their experiences and interactions. Allow them to trust and respect your guidance. Please note, that we do however, believe in early and frequent exposure and interaction with children.
Exposure to environmental stressors are important as well. Working through textures, unevan surfaces, traffic, shopping carts, playgrounds, tunnels - all aid in building a dog who is confident and secure. With your guidance they will believe that they can tackle anything thrown their way - and when we build a confident dogs, we enhance their ability to complete a job. Positive guiding experiences (no coddling) will allow them to become strong and steadfast in character. A working dog who shuts down is of no value. But one who rises to the challenge, observes, navigates and recovers is.
We find navigating children’s playgrounds, feed stores, and home improvement centers with young dogs using positive reinforcement/luring extremely helpful. The obstacles, tunnels, slides, textures, sights, smells and varying heights both challenge you and your dog, providing a stimulating environment to train with.
Of particular note, we cannot overstate the need to expose heavy molosser infulenced dogs to new environments and excessive socialzation early in life. The genetic predisposition to confronting insecurity with aggression can make for these dogs to become massive liabilities. We breed for stable, social and confident dogs, but nurture as well as nature molds them into who they become. Failure to extensively socialize and expose young molosser puppies can often yield less than ideal results as adults. Socialization does not change their ability to be defensive or protective, but rather provides dogs with the appropriate context necessary through observing normal human behavior. Building up an arsenal of such sight pictures allows a dog to determine what’s “abnormal”, and oftentimes reacts appropriately.
Drive building Basics
Whether you’re looking to train a bite sport prospect, or a hunting dog - drive building can develop and enhance a dogs intensity, engagement and commitment towards the task at hand. We can use early bite development games to lay a foundation for bitework or hunting - by teaching the pup to enjoy working in prey (strengthening drive) and when done correctly - we can help pups develop an unflappable confidence in themselves. By using prey based, bite development games, we introduce a low stress, fun way to familiarize a dog with using their mouth, sticking their grips, and remaining committed while engaged.
We can begin by using a rag, small rope, animal hide or flirt pole to encourage the dogs desire to “chase, catch, kill”. Fast, excitable movements should encourage a response in the pup to pounce, chase, and bite the object. We reward a full mouth grip and commitment by letting the pup win, releasing the item and letting them have it. What we are teaching is that by enthuiastically engaging through play - and commiting to the bite - that they can trust their mouths and win the object. When starting out, its important that we keep the sessions short. We can build frustration by taking the rag away at the height of their excitement. By ending the game abruptly, we enhance their desire to re-engage the next time we bring it out.
We reward deep biting, natural countering, persistence and willingness to remain engaged by letting the puppy win the tug. Start easy and incrementally add challenge - increasing intensity and duration of the tug session, playful contact with the dogs body, engaging over obstacles ect. The beauty of this exercise is that not only does it stregthen prey drive, but it can be used as a training exercize. The tug can become a tool we use to teach impulse control, become the reward for obedience sessions, and serve as an outlet for excess energy. Leerburg has a series of dog training videos on YouTube for those interested in learning more. Their video “The power of playing tug with your puppy” is a great place to start.
By introducing the basics, and building a foundation - we can set our dogs up for long term success. Raising a working prospect to reach their full potential requires patience, dedication, and commitment - but in our opinion, it is worth the effort.
Getting the most out of your working Molosser
Molossers, Bandogs, and cross bred bull breeds being trained in high level sport, personal protection, or even hunting applications truly benefit from early and frequent exposure to drive building. In my opinion, you can never start too early conditioning an intense prey drive response in these prospects. There are unique strengths to be found within these dynamic breed types, but getting the most out of their performance requires some intentional training and conditioning. The addition of molosser blood arguably creates a more dynamic dog - and commonly exptesses itself through a natural level of “defense drive”. This is a useful drive in that you’ll likely have a dog who is perceptive of abnormal human behavior, carry natural suspicon or a heightened territoral aggression. This is a useable drive that many can benefit from, but for high level sport or hunting applications, I prefer and breed for a molosser type whose first instinct is to operate in prey rather than defense. This is atypical of many molosser breeds.
Prey drive is a very natural, low stress drive - that when coupled with bite work fundamentals, we can condition a reward pathway which creates a dog who is determined to stay and remain engaged to fulfill drive, and self reward through biting and engagement. A dog who is comfortable working and engaging in prey, is more likely to commit to the fight when the going gets tough. What do I mean by this? It’s important to remember that for as strong as defense drive can be, it is always rooted in stress. Stress comes from worry, and worry is fueled by the idea of self preservation. The dog has two choices when pushed into defense - Fight or Flight. The strength of that defensive response is based on maturity, conditioning, and the overall confidence in the dog. All dogs, when pushed past their defensive thresholds will choose flight.
I prefer an offensive type of molosser - one who engages in prey before tapping into defense. By going into the fight with the right mindset, I want my working dog to view the target as an extension of prey, confident and determined to remain engaged despite potential harm. Their drive and quest for self fulfillment keeps them engaged, before any concept of worry and self preservation begin to creep in. By remaining engaged in prey, we arguably extend the amount of time it takes for a dog to reach this defensive threshold. This is easily explained by asking outselves, “What happens when the game is no longer fun?”
I believe that laying a strong foundation early, coupled with sound breeding and genetics, we can condition and create a dog who views this type of challenging engagement as “fun”. When we incrementally challenge the dog we build confidence. It is the confidence forged through a strong foundation that both we and the dog rely on and expect when it’s time to perform. The reason my dogs are successful is because I pair sound breeding philosophy with the approrpiate foundations which allow these unique breed types to both meet and exceed expectations. A little bit of work upfront enhances your likelihood of success. If you’re looking to create an unstoppable dog, drive build and create a confidence. You’ll be rewarded with a dog who is committed to seeking the next “win”.