PROTECTION TRAINING—FIGHT OR FLIGHT OR SOMETHING IN BETWEEN.

Gary Patterson

The very heart of all protection training is developing the defense of the dog. Even though many protection trainers call this bite work, the bites play a secondary role to the development of the dog's willingness to engage an adversary and resist pressure in a fight.
The old German trainers called this courage and hardness and it is the single most important characteristic of the working dog temperament.

The problem is that defense work requires a high skill level from a training helper and, even with this, can be dangerous. After all, the helper is playing with the very survival skills of the dog. But, “dangerous” can also mean that defense training is poor, so a young dog can be ruined forever.

Most animals, including wolves, prefer to flee as a primary defense strategy. Dogs, on the other hand, can be taught to be aggressive in defense if they have the genetic character and are developed properly through good training. I have seen dogs that would hide behind handlers at a year old that, a year later, were sparkling in their willingness to dominate and defend.

Many people who criticize a program for developing defense early on say, “You are playing with fire. You will ruin a lot of young dogs.” I believe the reason for this worry is a narrow understanding of the defense mechanism in dogs.

Of the various forms defense can take, avoidance, flight, aggression, freezing or hiding, the overlaying pattern of these defense reactions are prompted by only one cause, a perceived threat to the dog. So it is not the defense triggering mechanism bringing a response that is so important, but the dog's perception of its options when the threat arises. Fundamentally the dog has two responses, with each bringing an entirely different attitude from the dog. The first, true defense, is where a dog always has the opportunity to either fight or flee. Either reaction is a legitimate defense reaction in the mind of the dog for it can find success in either behavior. The second form, self defense, is where the dog must react through aggression or be seriously injured, even killed, by the adversary. In other words, it has no choice. The example I use is one of a farm dog, left to guard the farmer's bee hives from a marauding bear. When the dog detects the bear coming toward the bee hives, it first postures by making itself as big and ferocious looking as possible. Its ears, tail and hackles will rise. It will bark strongly and make quick jumps forward. But what happens if the bear continues to move toward the dog? At some point, the dog must decide if the strategy is working and consider changing behaviors. It could continue to advance against the bear in the hopes that the bear, fearing injury, would turn tail. Or the dog could back up, even run from the bear. The important point is that the dog has a choice and either choice brings success. This is the essence of true defense.

Now, let's change the rules slightly and tie the dog next to the bee hives. When the bear arrives, the picture of the dog will be totally different. Having no option to avoid, it goes into a total stress reaction. It will curl back its lips, lower the tail and ears, with a higher pitched bark. This dog now is in a total survival mode; it is either fight or die. This is an example of self defense.

Our first example is true defense, where there was always a choice and a high probability of success. The second was self defense where the only result was stress: there can never really be a sense of success. How can we use the concept of true defense to help us in training, while avoiding the problems of self defense? The answer is to show the dog levels of confrontation, but allow the novice dog to win through aggression and relief from stress. A dog will tend to repeat that which is successful, so with skilled helper work, the dog learns that aggression works, so why think about any alternative, such as avoidance. So in a more natural setting, true defense always creates a strategy of success to the dog. In training, avoidance might be a successful strategy for the dog, but a total failure for the trainer.

Developing this attitude of aggressive responses happens on the arc, the very fundamental teaching tool for dog, handler and helper in protection.

The arc is nothing more than a circle around the dog and handler with the circumference being the length of the lead. The handler holds that position until a bite is given without moving the feet. The dog will be out at the end of the lead confronting the protection helper. But this is where the skill of the helper must come into play. Why? Because of those two things in the dog's mind called the alert zone and the critical zone.

The alert zone is simply that area around a dog where is first perceives a threat and reacts to it. There is no magic distance involved. Some dogs may alert to something a hundred feet away while others, especially young or novice dogs, may only start to show an alert at ten to twenty feet. We can and should expect a good dog to be fairly assertive when it first alerts. It may bark, raise its tail or hackles, point the ears forward, stare at the threat and become highly animated. But understand, this behavior is only a prelude to something more serious. The dog attempts to create an imposing figure to the threat so it will go away. But what happens if the threat doesn't go away?

As the threat (in our example, the helper) advances on the dog, it must decide if the current defense strategy is working and consider the alternatives, like the dog defending the bee hives. It could become more aggressive (unlikely in young or novice dogs). It might become quieter, flip the ears back, drop the tail or even hide behind the handler. The area where this shift in behavior occurs is called the critical zone.

The helper has a dilemma, how to get close to the dog without raising issues of avoidance or even throwing the dog into a self defense mode. The critical zone is not a measurable one or two foot area, but one that, as the helper approaches, puts increased pressure on the dog, so a breaking point is ultimately reached.

So, one of our goals in beginning protection work is to make the alert zone as large as possible and the critical zone as small as possible. In fact, in more advanced work there will be no critical zone if the earlier work was done correctly. How does the helper carry out this seemingly contradictory task? The answer is prey work.

Prey training, by definition, is non-stressful for the dog. If you ever see a dog showing avoidance while heavy prey work is attempted by the helper, the dog is still working in defense, not prey, no matter what the helper is doing. In this beginning training, we will use prey to relieve the dog's apparent stress. If the advancing helper tries to approach the dog in defense, but sees increasing signs of stress in the dog, he must shift into prey immediately. The problem posed to the helper, then, is working the dog in defense in a way it believes it can win, but taking the stress out of the dog with prey work when the critical zone is approached. A few examples might be clearer.

The helper starts out in a hidden place, a blind, behind a tree or building and slowly starts to menace the dog from that position until it begins to alert. If it doesn't the helper is probably too far away. If the dog does start to bark, the helper doesn't immediately come towards the dog, but stays in position, continuing to threaten the dog, or at least acting suspiciously. Once the dog starts to show a persistent alert, the helper then moves out of hiding and advances on the dog.

But, how? If the helper moves directly on the dog, the critical zone may prevent the helper from getting close enough to give a bite. If he simply starts swinging the sleeve or tug while moving on the dog, he is shifting the dog from defense into prey, so no real defense training is accomplished.

Example One shows the answer. The helper moves from hiding with continued threats from the alert zone, but doesn't advance directly against the dog. Instead, he immediately starts running on a diagonal. This is a pure prey move as anything running away from the dog raises this prey reaction. At the end of the first diagonal, the helper stops, stares at the dog and waits until the dog raises a defense reaction again. When it does (usually barking or lunging on the lead), the helper takes off on another diagonal in the opposite direction. This pattern continues until, in the beginning, the helper is only a few feet from the dog and then runs the last diagonal to give the dog a bite.

Behaviorally, what has happened here is the helper has raised a defense reaction on the alert zone and then broken the pressure of defense by running sideways, a prey move. The helper then, again, raises defense, but, again, breaks the pressure with another prey move, running another diagonal. As the diagram shows, each diagonal is slanted, traversing the critical zone, so the helper is able to invade the critical zone with prey moves, but bringing defense out at ever closer distances between helper and dog when he stops to threaten the dog.

Over time, the dog will start to show more of a conditioned response to the presence of the helper on the alert zone, with a stronger and quicker bark. The mere presence of the helper will be enough to make the dog alert strongly. The helper can then start to test the waters of the dog's strength. Instead of breaking into a diagonal run from the alert zone, he might move directly toward the dog in a moderated, threatening posture. Typically, I will even have the helper hide the sleeve or tug behind him, to avoid a total prey response from the dog. How far does the helper advance? This is where the skill of dog reading comes into play. The helper might move several steps and start to see the critical zone having its effect in the dog's mind. It might bark less strongly, drop its tail, back slightly or look away from the helper. All these signs indicate the stress level is coming up in the dog. At this point, the helper breaks into diagonal running, as earlier, to relieve the stress and allow the helper to move closer to the dog. Example Two shows how this should work.

Over time, the helper will find that he can advance closer and more directly before having to break into prey, until, one training session, the dog will allow the helper to advance directly to the dog without the helper having to use the diagonal approach. At this point, the trainer knows that the critical zone has all but been eliminated to moderated threats and the dog is thinking in terms of aggression, not avoidance. From here on, the dog can be advanced with stronger threats and closer work such as body contact, fighting with a dog on the sleeve, stick hits and the usual building techniques.

Keep in mind that all this still hinges on the quality, age and temperament of the dog. With dogs that are slow maturing, no matter what the quality, arc work will take longer. With dogs that have less than perfect nerve, more prey work will be required. But don't fall into the trap of using prey training as a crutch, using it excessively or where it isn't needed. Make no mistake, this is defense training. The helper must be a good actor, convincing the dog he is a real menace. At the same time, everyone (but the dog) should understand this is acting, so that measured pressure should always be in the helper's mind. Besides threats, the helper should also feign fear when the dog becomes aggressive, reinforcing the dog's belief that it can conquer anything. It is this attitude in a dog that makes a great protection dog, no matter what it may be called to do in the future.