My New Favorite Picture

DanL

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#1
This is my new favorite pic of Gunnar. I lifted it from our club site and used photoshop to zoom in on him and cut out the decoy. He's in 100% alert mode, focusing on the decoy who is agitating him a few yards away. I love his body language- confident, and ready to go.

 

cinnamon

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#2
You can almost see the tension in his legs---ready to take off. IS the decoy one of those guys in the special suits and Gunner tackles (for lack of better work) them?

Is this training for police work?
 

DanL

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#3
Yes, the decoy is in a suit or uses a bite sleeve. For these, he had the sleeve on. It's not for police work, it's protection training but we use a lot of methods that police, military, and sport trainers use.

Here's the full shot. The decoy expected him to go around the spools, I expected him to go over them, but when I let him go, he went right thru them.

 

Barb04

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Dan, you should be so proud of how far Gunnar as come. He looks great!
 

Buddy'sParents

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#6
Right, I'm so not breaking into Dan's house... he's big and scary and so is his dog. :p He looks great, Dan. You must be so proud. :D

Psst.. I think Daisy and Bruzer are feeling left out...
 

DanL

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Zoom I have a few shots of him working around those wire spools that are cool, I'll post them. One is kinda scary- the decoy anticipated him going around the spools, he went onto them and was real close to a crotch bite! I had released him so the decoy was on his own! Luckily Gunnar went between his legs and grabbed the sleeve, it could have been ugly.

Thanks Barb. He really is doing well. What's cool is when I look at him now, I see a full grown, confident GSD. All of our work the last 2 1/2 years is really coming to payoff time.

BP, I think that someone would be more intimidated by Miss Daisy if they decided to come in. She's very vocal and wouldn't let a couple guys who came to service our water conditioner in the house recently. Because I let them in, Gunnar accepted them, but Daisy wouldn't have any of it and I had to physically restrain her. But, it's all part of the training- that's my goal, that if a threat develops, I have options. I read somewhere else, that if you have a dog or a gun, you can send a dog but call him back. You can't call back the bullet.

Here's more pics from that protection session:
Barking at the decoy. The decoy is trash talking. "I'm not scared of you, and I'm not scared of your dog!" The decoys always have funny lines like that. They will do all kinds of vocalizations and sounds to agitate the dog and get them hyped up to engage.


I have no idea what this picture is about! I know what Gunnar is about to do but I have no idea what I was doing!


This is where he circled behind and jumped up between his legs. It happened in a split second as he got around the spools fast!


Some ground work. Gunnar looks huge in this shot! Notice the "step on the foot to trip the decoy" technique, lol. Nice full bite, confident tail set (wagging and set high), and no concern about the stick that is coming towards him. He doesn't hit him with it, but might tap him on the sides, and brush it across his face and down his back to get him used to feeling it without showing stress.
 

Buddy'sParents

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BP, I think that someone would be more intimidated by Miss Daisy if they decided to come in. She's very vocal and wouldn't let a couple guys who came to service our water conditioner in the house recently. Because I let them in, Gunnar accepted them, but Daisy wouldn't have any of it and I had to physically restrain her. But, it's all part of the training- that's my goal, that if a threat develops, I have options. I read somewhere else, that if you have a dog or a gun, you can send a dog but call him back. You can't call back the bullet.
Those shots are impressive.

Have you done training with Daisy like you do with Gunnar?
 

DanL

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No, but I want to take her down and have them at least evaluate her. They will back tie her, and then the decoy will hide in a blind and pop out and make threatening movements from a distance and watch her reaction to test her defensive drive. If she doesn't show avoidance at that, he'll move in closer and keep testing. If she barks and shows interest, they'll get a tug out and play with her and see what her prey drive is like. She's got surprising prey drive, at least with toys. She loves to play fetch, and with the tug, she gives a nice full bite and when you let her "win" she'll prance around with it, shaking it from side to side, much like the "prey circle" we do when the dog wins the sleeve from the decoy.

Of course my wife is totally against it! She wants to get her CGC and then a TD certification. I imagine she could pass the CGC right now without any more training than she's had. She's very stable around other dogs and people when we are out in public. I'd still have concerns about Gunnar passing the "get close to another dog without reacting" part of the CGC.
 

elegy

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#11
he's such a good looking dog, dan! looks like he's having a great time working.
 

Buddy'sParents

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#12
Of course my wife is totally against it! She wants to get her CGC and then a TD certification. I imagine she could pass the CGC right now without any more training than she's had. She's very stable around other dogs and people when we are out in public. I'd still have concerns about Gunnar passing the "get close to another dog without reacting" part of the CGC.
O00oo. Who will win? ;)

I think I would be really intimidated to do that sort of training with my dogs. I admire the work you do.

Do you think that Daisy could do both the CGC and TD while also doing protection work? I don't know enough about it, obviously, so if that was a stupid question, just lemme know. :D
 

DanL

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#13
I don't see why a dog can't do both. It's all about obedience, just one is done in high drive mode and the other isn't. I wouldn't really want her to do all the protection stuff. She's too immature at this point to handle it. With young dogs its more about building up prey drive and stuff- fun for the dog. I can see her doing that. As far as the requirements of each, CGC and protection both need good obedience, but the protection dog has to be at a higher level because it's working in a high drive, excitable state where it is harder for them to maintain their obedience. I learned fast with Gunnar, who has pretty good obedience, that when he's turned on and locked into the decoy, his ob has to be stepped up a few notches. Things like a down/stay with a relatively high level of distraction like throwing his ball and him not moving, vs a down/stay with a decoy 20' away agitating him, are completely different games. It's MUCH harder for the dog to stay calm and focused on the handler with the decoy there.
 

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