[Christina]

Hi all! I am new to the sport of IGP and this is my first sport dog. I have an 9 month old Czech Working Line Shep. When developing her in bite work when she was little I didn't do lift offs. As she got older I started doing it more, and she has started redirecting back towards me out of frustration. She has not actually bit me yet, just teeth flying. Im wondering if lift offs are necessary for dogs to get used to, or should i just out her at this stage?

She is a possessive dog, and is easily frustrated. She had also started to drop the pillow to get chewy and then started to guard it and lunged towards me to tag me once when I touched her side with the pillow dropped. That was the first time she did that. I did prong correct her for that, which I am not going to pretend I know best, but I draw the line at coming to nip me like that. Sorry. I have since started putting a line on the pillow so it can be yanked out when she drops it like that. She will let me cradle her at the end of the session with the pillow. I'd like to add that I have done a lot of trading of resources with her as a puppy, I do not constantly take her stuff.

Looking for any/all advice or experiences that may help with this issue.

 

[Jim Duncan]

Are you doing the bite work or pillow work with your dog or do you have a club decoy doing it? You need to do a lot of simulated lift offs prior to the actual lift off. We call it "run byes". You come up to the dog, say it's name and grab the collar and lift with out taking the dog off. This gets the dog used to you coming up and grabbing the dog. You may be progressing too fast with a 9 month old dog as well.

 

[Christina]

Are you doing the bite work or pillow work with your dog or do you have a club decoy doing it? You need to do a lot of simulated lift offs prior to the actual lift off. We call it "run byes". You come up to the dog, say it's name and grab the collar and lift with out taking the dog off. This gets the dog used to you coming up and grabbing the dog. You may be progressing too fast with a 9 month old dog as well.

Pillow. I have a club I have consulted about it, they didn't have any real suggestions for me. They suggested trading her, but the main conflict is not about outting/trades, its about me lifting her off. I have since worked with another schutzhund decoy to get his opinion and he suggested back tying, cradling her then walking away, then reapproaching up the back tye to lift her off. If she drops the pillow while I cradle her, she loses the pillow (on a line). That session seemed to go well, she dropped it the first time or two I craddled her, but not after, since she lost it when that happened. She has not tried to bite or redirect at me since I corrected her, but I can tell she is apprehensive in a more submissive way when I approach.

It sucks, I am frustrated. It's getting better, but I think I could have avoided some of this by working her in a more productive way for her. I was trusting my helpers and directors to point me in that direction and when I needed them they didn't suggest any of this. The run byes sounds like they would definitely help! I will start incorporating those! Thankyou for suggesting that!