Training a Bouv Puppy for Ring

Ring Training for a Bouv Puppy
by Chris Redenbach 30 Nov 2004
Arion Kennels

Question from an email Lister: When is the right time to begin training a Bouvier puppy for Ring work?

In ring, I start the pups as soon as they will bite something. When they are four and a half weeks old, I am already playing tug with a soft rag and getting them used to being touched and hit with empty paper towel cardboard tubes while they are playing. When they are seven weeks old they are working/playing on the field with the decoy who is shaking the stick (behind his back at first) and when they are ten weeks old they are running at minimum 15 feet to the bite. When they are four months old they are taking stick hits and bottles full of pebbles bouncing around them while they bite.

They start to learn fighting drive young because although they win all the time, they have to fight for the rag and face the decoy. We do very few runaways at all. The pup runs at a frontal decoy from the start and the pup gets to choose to bite. And the pup is not asked to carry the rag or tube, nor is the pup discouraged from carrying, but is always asked to refocus on the decoy as soon as possible to begin the fight again. If the pup drops the rag immediately when the decoy lets go of it, that's fine. It's the fight that is the reward, not the rag. Pups as young as four months are already trying to best the decoy with a cocky little attitude (if they're any good anyway).

I think if the dog has any fight in it, it will come out as a pup. But building fight drive involves a whole series of things more attached to social play and one-ups-manship than to prey or defense. No dog should be made to feel defensive ever in my opinion. But as they mature, you can see the spirit come out in them when you "piss them off" in proportion to their level of maturity and experience.

We train right through teething as long as the pup still has the desire but the decoy doesn't fight them quite so hard when the teeth are loose. If the pup shows any reluctance, then we give it a lay off as some have a harder time with teething. But most of the pups don't care much by that time because they like it so much.

The only dogs who are encouraged to carry the rag/tube/leg sleeve are the ones who show some lack of confidence on the man or a problem with full steady grips. But when they are that way as pups, usually they wash out. Although there is the exceptional old fashioned serious dog who has great inhibition against biting as a pup and not much desire to play even, but, once mature, is a serious and confident protection dog to contend with. These dogs usually don't excel at sport work but can be important to keep in the gene pool if their character quality is high enough.

I think what deadens the real instinct to fight is the use of routine all the time rather than starting too early. [...] What I've seen in Schutzhund training (although what I've seen may not be at all representative) involves giving the dog the bite and then turning away from the dog while it hangs on the equipment. To my way of thinking, this may calm the dog and improve a full calm grip in some dogs but may just communicate to another dog that you don't want to play. I prefer to see the pup get a fight without pushing beyond his/her physical strength and coordination...just some cajun spices in the training.

Ring uses the concept of decoy as sparring partner, ever pushing the pup to do a little more than before to win but never making the pup feel it won't be able to win. French trainers do not talk about drives until they have been taught by Americans to talk about drives. They just talk about the different techniques to get the dog to love the bite. They also talk about creating in the dog a love of the fabric, meaning suit. They are sport oriented. But I was told that the French army dogs are taught with the same foundations before getting serious work.

I would like to clarify that there is a difference between working in prey and working in play. I think people use these interchangeably and they are not the same thing. While many ethnologists no longer speak of drives, the traditional definitions of drives are that prey drive involves a specific hunting and capturing sequence of stalk, chase, bite, kill behaviors that is relatively rigid and is very serious in intent...kill for food. Dog trainers simulate this as prey meaning a chase with no fight and always giving the impression of trying to get away. Real prey tries to fight back when it can and real predators then estimate whether it is more costly to stay and fight or more costly to live to fight another day. Dog trainers can simulate this by switching between prey and defense drives giving the dog some rapid pressure and then again trying to get away. This can be one way to build fight drive but would usually be used on a mature dog because both drives should be done with serious intensity.

Play drive is a whole different category that involves social play and simulated prey/defense/possession. Social play involves fight drive stemming from typical doggies games of taunting, feigned attacks, stealing of possessions, some social dominance play with posturing and threats, hit and run type games, and more. The key is the level of intensity and the amount of "edge" that you bring the dog to in terms of that moment in play where it can tip into seriousness. That, IMO, is the way to teach fight drive to younger dogs. It is a system that allows tremendous flexibility and responsiveness between decoy and dog with many changes in the game plan. It is what I have seen most good trainers doing whether that's what they call it or not.

But the point is that using play drive at whatever level of intensity is appropriate for a pup and is a great way to train. Pups go through stages where they play bite pretty violently left to their own devices. This is a great time to build confidence in them if you are sensitive to their limits and don't get ego involved. And when you bring pups and adolescents along this way, it is not much problem to switch to real aggression later when you have any quality dog.

Webmaster's note: Chris Redenbach owns & breeds working Bouviers. Write her if you have a question or comment on this article. Or, if you have a correction or want to contribute an article, write me.