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I teach my personal dogs to out for a tug. I think it does a lot to promote a relationship of trust, and promotes an ability for a dog to delay gratification whilst in high drive, which ads benefit in many areas of the handler/k9 relationship.
This thread specifically regards the redundancy of the out, as taught to sporting dogs in an operational environment, especially working with less-than-experienced handlers.
I would ask that you, the reader, consider the following statement:
If a dog is taught to recall, or perform any other established obedience command, when commanded, at the expense of any other activity he is involved in, the out command becomes redundant in a functional sense.
Example: Either on command, or as result of handler attack, the dog engages the bad guy. Through smart offensive handling and a solid performance by the dog, the offender is taken to ground. Standing back a matter of feet the handler recalls the dog to heel, causing the dog to immediately release its grip and cease it's aggression and assume the commanded target behaviour.
The handler can then control the offender in a fashion that best suits the situation, or can command the dog to engage the bad guy once more in order to enforce his compliance. Alternatively, the dog could be commanded to hold-n-bark/revier the offender during a search, or even be dropped/sat/stood at the rear/front/side of the offender to facilitate handler safety during such search. Many past dogs have also been taught to 'watch' as a way to accutely observe the offender for non-compliant behaviours, as a cue to potentially have to re-engage said offender.
I understand that we all have preferences to how we train, but I suggest that this curriculum offers a realistic, feasible and clear alternative to sport based curriculums. I would also maintain that the cut and dried OB and command/stimulus controlled aggression work is both easy to teach and learn, both for the dogs and their handlers.
Lets try not to get off topic here guys, it is all too easy to do.
I also hope that this post will draw discussion from some of the more learned members of this forum, to share some of their hard earned understanding, and some alternative viewpoints
Regards,
BG
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