My Dog Attacked Me During Training. Here's What I Did Wrong.

Let me tell you something I should have figured out earlier.

I had a Doberman. High prey drive, heavy fight drive. Took him back from a breeding I did about a year and a half prior. We were training with Al out behind Granger in Compton, working toward IGP.

Long down. I put him in position. Walked 20 feet. Turned around.

He moved.

I picked him up, put him back down. Made the correction right then — not five minutes later, right then. Turned around again.

He moved again.

Al said put him back.

I did. Walked out. He moved halfway.

Al said pick him up and put him back.

I put him back down. This time he's on a live ring. Not a dead ring. A live ring.

He stiffens. Looks at me.

Five seconds later he came at me.

I was correcting the wrong behavior.

Here's what Nate broke down.

When a dog breaks position and it takes you more than 1 to 2 seconds to turn around and respond, you are not correcting the break. You are correcting the dog for coming to you. That's it. The connection between the behavior and the consequence is gone.

I turned around. He had already moved and traveled halfway to me. By the time I made the correction, what did I teach him? Coming toward me gets him corrected.

So he loaded up.

The dog wasn't wrong. The timing was off by about two seconds. I was penalizing him for something he didn't understand he was being penalized for. A high-drive dog with fight in him is not going to shut down when he thinks what's happening is unfair.

Some dogs shut down. Some dogs load up. I found out which kind I had.

The fix is simple but hard to practice.

You turn around the moment you see the break. Not two seconds later. You mark it right then.

If the dog has already traveled to you and more than two seconds have passed, you say good dog for coming to you, take him back, and set it up again.

Then watch. Don't walk away and hope.

Film yourself.

Nate said it and I'm repeating it: he catches his own timing mistakes on video constantly. Half a second off can push training back weeks, depending on what you're working on. You cannot feel the mistake while it's happening. You have to see it.

This is what I want every person picking up a board-and-train dog to understand before they pull out of the parking lot.

Nate said it straight: "What I'm doing for you is I'm simply doing the reps."

That's the whole thing.

The trainer works the dog in a neutral environment. The dog learns to heel, down, stand, recall. The trainer gradually increases the difficulty. The dog gets more consistent. Then the trainer hands you the dog.

Here's what nobody explains clearly.

The dog still has to learn that the rules applying with the trainer now apply with you.

The trainer built a communication system. Specific markers. Specific physical cues. A reward event, a reinforcement event, a correction event. The dog knows what each of those feels like with the trainer. The trainer's timing is dialed. The trainer's delivery is consistent.

Then you take the dog home. You don't know the communication system. Your timing is off. You're inconsistent on day three. Two weeks later you're calling the trainer asking why the dog won't listen.

The trainer did not fail. The handoff failed.

Think about a personal trainer at the gym. They can program your workouts. They can coach your form. They cannot go in the gym and do the reps for your body. You have to do the reps. Same thing here. The trainer did the reps with the dog. Now you have to do the reps with the dog. Every weekend during the stay-and-train if your schedule allows. Learn the markers. Learn the physical cues. Learn what consistent looks like before you pick up the dog.

If you don't, you are paying for a foundation and leaving it on the table.

I'm a Generation X guy. Prong collar, e-collar as backup, French commands so nobody outside my circle controls my dogs.

I never used a clicker until Alen Walos started helping me work Cisco toward IGP.

After talking to Nate, I understand why it works.

Your voice changes based on your emotional state.

When your dog finally nails something you've been struggling with for three weeks, your "yes" marker becomes "YES!" The rise and inflection shift. The dog reads your emotion, but your signal is inconsistent.

The click is always the same sound. One flat click. No variation based on whether you're tired or excited or frustrated. That consistency is why it loads faster for most people starting out.

I'm still balanced. Prong collar. E-collar as a safety net when I'm in an open field with a high-drive dog that might take off chasing something.

Not because I want to harm the dog. Because I respect the dog enough to give them freedom that's actually safe.

Nate said it this way: he calls the remote collar his safety net. If the dog takes off for whatever reason because something in the environment happened that training didn't prepare them for, he can stop them. Without it, the dog takes off. That's not good for the dog.

The dog that can go anywhere, fully engaged with the world, and come back on one command, that is a quality life.

You do not get there by being soft. You get there by being clear, consistent, and patient enough to build it right.

Until Next Tuesday,

Be resilient, but be responsible.

Gerald

Alll World Doberman Insider

Instagram: @european_doberman_stud

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