Disc Dog Puppy Bitework | Details

DiscDog BiteworkBitework is an activity or a game that consists of biting and dropping a toy on cue. Cued Bites and cued Drops (and Gives) can be used to teach and reinforce many behaviors.... is an amazing, low impact exercise for puppies of all ages. In addition to teaching the basic mechanics of the game: Bite, Drop, and GiveThe Give is a retrieve to the hand. A cued Give is a foundational skill that is not super useful in the actual performance of disc dog freestyle, and has huge applications for..., bitework can deliver many important details and ancillary behaviors of working dogs.

Engagement Starts with Dismissal

You cannot engage in play without first being disengaged. To have control over turning something on, it must first be turned off. This is an often overlooked aspect of engagement and dog training – it is often the most overlooked.

Dismiss your puppy early and often to instill a strong and resilient work ethic and improve your ability to manage your d og’s drive. Short sessions that end not on success, but on high. Are critical to success, drive, and desire and are easy to execute while training your puppy.

Shaping Engagement

DismissalIf a dog is dismissed, it means the handler is "off limits". Dismissal does not mean the dog has to leave, just that the handler is not available. Dismissal is a valuable drive... means that the handler is off limits momentarily. It doesn’t mean you have to go away, it just means you have to disengage. This disengagement is the perfect opportunity to shape and reinforcement re-engagement.

Turning the start of the game from an obligation to an opportunity for fun and work and using behaviors that lead to engagement like reorientation, the cessation of sniffing, leaving spectators and other dogs alone, is a great way to turn these competing interests from guilty little pleasures and grass is greener opportunities into things that I leave alone to get access to my person and amazing play.

Taking It Away is More Valuable than Giving It to Them

Taking toys and opportunity away is far more motivating than giving opportunities and toys. We all remember the one that got away. An exciting near miss is far more powerful than a Bite given for pity’s sake.

Near misses and playful teasing are great motivators – they are the hallmarks and definition of opportunity, challenge, and rewarding play. Use them to your advantage. Skillful use of this concept will lead to intense and resilient play and an intense and resilient work ethic.

Resist the urge to “give your dog the toy” to motivate them or to make it easier if they are not very engaged. Nothing says lame and not fun like a game or prey that is lame and not fun.

There is No Such Thing as a Suicide Rabbit

Attention for Bite

Patience and DriveDrive is focus and energy applied towards work. There are many kinds of Drive: social drive, tracking drive, prey drive, bite/kill, stalking, and food to name a few. Social drive, prey drive, and... can be cultivated by “asking” for Attention (unsolicited eye contactUnsolicited eye contact or Attention is a great way to hook up with a dog. If you have something the dog wants he should give eye contact in order to get access to...) for access to a Bite or for Next"Next" encapsulates the dog's anticipation of a forthcoming reward, sparking motivation and excitement. This expectancy creates a driving force that propels the dog through training, forming a continuous loop of engagement. When "Next".... Asking is in quotes because you don’t want to cue it. You want the dog to look to the handler when there is a question about whether or not we should be biting. If nothing is happening, the dog should look at the handler.

If you make the dog look at you, or ask them to look at you during play you are cheating them of self discipline and creating a dog that is not a team player. Your dog should look to you, first, when they don’t know what to do, and should look to you for the opportunity for cooperative play.

Triggering the Bite

The cued Bite should be triggered. A free bite is a bite that is not cued or Triggered, and it is not fun. A free bite is like your dog molesting your hand as it goes into the cookie bag, or mauling you the moment you say,”Yes!”

This idea of a trigger for the taking of a cookie is common sense when it comes to cookie training, but becomes weird and poorly understood when working with toys and bites. You don’t want the dog to bite on “Yes!” and you don’t want the dog to bite until you are ready and have presented the disc for the biting.

The trigger for a Bite on the disc should be the horizontal presentation of the rim of the disc. Establishing this as a trigger for the bite is safe and useful for general disc play it will mean that your dog will not bite if you simply move the disc but will wait until they see the rim hit that horizontal position.

Shaping the Give – Dead Fish Tug & the Prompt Switch

A prompt switch is a technique used to change a cue from something that works to something that doesn’t quite work yet.

The idea is simple, you put the cue that doesn’t work (yet) right before a cue that totally works and blend them together until the cue that doesn’t work becomes a predictor of the cue that works.

In the case of Bitework, a Dead Fish TugThe dead fish tug is just a super boring game of  tug from your dog’s perspective. It takes two to tug on something. Tugging is only fun if the other side plays the..., sharing the disc with little to no resistance, is super lame and not much fun. This lame tug reinforces the dog spitting out the disc. A Dead FishA Fish is a leaping catch that ends with the dog passing the disc back to the handler before landing back on the ground. The basic idea is catch and release, Fishing is... Tug can be considered a “strong cue” or a trigger stimulus for the dog dropping the disc.

It is a very simple process to offer your Give cue and then go Dead Fish, taking the fight and intensity out of the tug. It doesn’t take long for the dog to drop it.

This is not always as easy as it looks and happens with Wham!, but it is just as simple. The concept is very simple, but the application can be a bit messy and not nearly as simple.

Maybe we’ll do some additional work on this in the future. A couple of quick hit ideas:

• Who cares if the dog takes it if it is a lame win?
• Have you tried a Collar Hook?
• Does the dog get to ReBite right away?
• Have you contrasted Tug with Dead Fish directly?

These are the kinds of questions we deal with and answer in detail in classes and with patrons… hint hint… Scroll down and hook up with us…