We did bitework training yesterday with a young guy from the Military Police Dog Unit. His origin is Belgian and his father was a Kennel Master in the Belgian Army; his uncle has the same job presently.

The training went extremely well and we slowly coaxed her into defense drive. She did very well and her first taste of a bitesuit also went very well and without any problem at all. She even managed to leave Sam with a nice bruise on the tricep. Her grip was strong and she impressed me with her determination to stay on with a strong bite.

Young Sam is one of the best decoys I've seen with a natural ability to read the dog and use his body language to bring it on with confidence. She ended the session on a high with her confidence bolstered by some good wins.

I was very happy with the training and look forward to our next session. I was worried that she'd become too equipment focused, but this session reassured me that the transition to defense won't be a problem

Sorry no pictures........maybe next time.

Peter

Hi Peter

Good to hear how your girl is coming along. Even better to hear that you have a good decoy. So important, as so many green dogs have been put back in their training due to inexperienced decoy work, or backyarders thinking they know it all.

Look forward to some pics....

Cheers

__________________
Mark Singer
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Peter do you know if this persons father who used to be the Kennel Master for the Belgian Army is in Sydney?

Hi Mark and Jeff

Yes that's right Jeff. Mark he's the best decoy I've seen for a long time. He's recently got one of Danny's pups and from the looks of it, it's going to one formidable dog. Only three months at present and an extremely calm little fellow that is going to turn into one big confident Malinois. I'll be decoying with some trepidation when he's older!

Peter

Great News Peter.... well done i bet you must be proud!


Mark this is sooo true... i have had a female broken due to this!

look forward to piccies next time Peter

Hi Maxx
Good to hear from you.

Yes I'm very lucky, otherwise I'd be stuck working her myself in prey, which was one of my main concerns. Fortunately, she presented no problem when worked gradually into defense drive, which was definitely testimony to an excellent decoy. All too often a young dog's introduction to defense work can be a matter of smacking them hard with a stick to some people, I too have experienced this many years ago, but again I was lucky the decoy I had knew what I wanted, and he himself knew exactly how to gradually bring the dog on. I would gladly take lessons from this young man.

Cheers
Peter

If the father son guys are Sam and Erik than Erik is in Sydney and if you want to contact him jeff I can put you in touch.

I went to school with sam and his sister, his father Eric has been giving me advice with my training and his knowledge seems to be never ending. I am sure that Sam is on his way to great things and you are lucky to have such a great decoy to work with.

Yes Sam is an excellent decoy; it's a while since I've worked with one as good. I haven't met his father yet but I'm looking forward to swapping a few tales with him when we do finally catch up.

Peter