HELPER CORRECTIONS

Gary Patterson

In protection training, a very common and typical solution for dogs that won't respond to the trainer is for the helper to give the corrections. A dog that's dirty on the hold or won't out is often corrected by the protection helper and not the handler-why?

One answer is that the handler is often some distance from the dog, so unless the dog is on a longline, proper corrections are difficult.

Another, I suspect, is that it's often easier. Even with an experienced handler, and many are not, the helper is in a better position to sense what is going on, so he can instantly read the problem.

While all this is true, the dilemma is still there. If the dog has been taught to respond to the trainer and the helper is always the focus of the dog's commitment to confront and conquer the adversary, doesn't a helper correction create conflict? The dog is in the situation where it must fight the helper because its past training has taught it to show aggression against the helper, but then stop at some point because the helper demands it.

One expression that always made my skin crawl is: “The dog must respect the helper.” Yet, most good training doesn't teach the dog to respect the helper but the trainer. If this bit of philosophy confuses me and many other trainers, one can only image the dog's state of mind when the helper corrects the dog. Its commitment starts to weaken and, because of the conflict, it becomes more handler sensitive.

Instead, we must come up with a method where the helper's role continues to be the focus of the dog's aggression, but the issues of conflict with the handler and helper are minimized. In another training article, I describe the issues of conflict when contrasting obedience on the protection field with that of control; obedience training on the protection field has the potential for creating conflict and control training doesn't. See: The Difference Between Control And Obedience in Protection.

Understand, when I describe helper corrections, it's about the helper physically correcting dog for being dirty or not outing in most cases. In each of these situations, the helper corrects the dog and it isn't allowed to retaliate for what, it must perceive, as acts of aggression by the helper. Helper corrections don't include giving verbal assistance to aid the trainer in teaching an exercise. As one example, when I am working in the blind, teaching the dog to cleanly hold, I might yell, “sit” at the dog when it comes into the blind, but I won't physically correct the dog. In other words, I am only reinforcing what the handler is doing and it certainly isn't an act of aggression toward the dog on my part. So I am repeating what the trainer is commanding, but I won't take the control away from the trainer.

The conclusion is that, in many cases, the trainer has shortcutted some of the steps in establishing the proper level of control in the first place; the dog's drives are leaky and the trainer allowed it to happen without fixing the problem earlier. Even at more advanced work, I would rather use a longline or electric collar to control the situation than the alternative of conflict in a situation where the dog should be at its strongest.

Dog training is interesting in that once we establish a hard rule, such as no helper corrections, the situation often demands that we break the rule. In other words, nothing works 100% of the time and the answer is often doing exactly the opposite of what good training would otherwise dictate.

Helper corrections are valuable in one specific situation. Supposing we have a very aggressive dog that is also strong nerved. Instead of the creating conflict in this type dog, as would happen with the great majority of other dogs, helper corrections have the opposite effect of making the dog more intense on the training helper than before. The picture is easy to read and can be tried if there are problems with handler sensitivity or some confusion about what the dog should do when it is holding the helper. If the dog tries to nip the sleeve, the helper will slap the dog's muzzle and shout “no”. If the dog should grow stronger after the correction, then the trainer knows that the dog is becoming more, not less, focused and its aggression will actually grow while becoming more focused on the helper. On the other hand, if the dog shows instant confusion or wants to move away from the helper, then this work by the helper must stop.

The fact that it's easier or the helper is more experienced than the handler, shouldn't give a license to the helper to step into the trainer's shoes. In many ways, the serious problems of conflict that arise in the future all start at this simpler and more fundamental level.