THE DRIVE-PART ONE
In the first installment, we discussed power and how either the dog or the helper has the power: there is no vacuum. Nowhere is this better shown that in the drive, where the dog fights the helper for dominance and the helper counters with strength and speed.
The drive is a running attack on the dog. Many helpers treat it as nothing more than a transitional device from the attack to the out, but if any element of protection training truly tests the courage and hardness of the dog, it's the drive. Further, if the helper works the dog properly during the drive, other work such as the stick hits and the out that follow are much more controlled. It's when the dog takes the power from the helper that problems in these other areas start to develop. So our goal in the drive is to powerfully push the dog with the attack, allowing it to show its strength, but never allowing it to dominate the helper. With some dogs, it's easy. With others, it takes everything the helper knows to keep control and, even then, the dog sometimes wins.
The key to a good drive is making everything, the helper and dog, move forward in the direction the helper wants to go. It seems simple enough until the weight and strength of a dog pulling backwards or sideways comes into play. The answer rests in understanding good mechanics and how to use the helper's strength and speed to counter against these forces.
There are two forms the drive can take: the running drive and skip drive. Each has its own benefits and the best helpers use both techniques. We examine the skip drive in Part Two, but start with the running drive as it's the easiest to learn in the beginning. As we shall see, as different as these two forms of drives may take, they share more than they differ in that the helper is still challenged to keep moving forward while keeping good form.
The running drive is nothing more than that. The helper takes a bite, rotates his hips in the direction he wants to go and starts running in that direction. Sounds simple enough, and it is, but the strength and resistance of the dog can make things go sideways–literally!
The first question is: after the bite where do I put the dog? Here is where the speed of the helper and good leverage of the sleeve arm come into play. Helpers describe the position of the dog during the drive as “in the pocket.” This area in shown in Figure #1. Ideally the helper would like the dog to fall into the grey area while driving the dog, but this isn't quite as simple as it appears. Some quick, light footed dogs, will tend to move out of the grey area into the red area, in front of the helper. This is a great example of what happens when the dog takes control over the situation. The helper can no longer move forward in a straight line because the dog's body is blocking his right front leg. The helper then either falls or starts to twist to the sleeve side to get out of the dog's way. In short, the dog has taken over. So how do we avoid this issue of the dog moving forward out of the pocket?
The answer was explored in the first installment where the helper must use athletic skill, speed and good form to escape the trap the dog is laying for him.
In Figure #2, one of our country's better trial helpers, Mac McClellan, shows the form of a proper running drive on a quick Malinois, that prevents some of these issues from ever arising and it comes down to a good platform, with the body moving straight forward. Notice from the vertical lines that both feet are under the helper's body, not extended out in front or behind the helper. The helper's shoulders, hips and legs are all pointed forward, countering the side or back pulling of the dog. While this helper's style is to roll the shoulders forward so he can put more pressure on the dog, note that the back and hips are nearly vertical. Also notice how the helper has curled the sleeve up into the body during the drive, almost like curling a dumbbell in weight training. This keeps the dog high and close to the helper's body, so it can't get into a tugging contest with the helper during the drive.
So our goal is to keep everything moving forward from the instant of the bite. Keeping the dog in the grey area of the pocket and maintaining a platform while moving all result in a clear path for the helper's forward movement, while keeping the dog's options at a minimum.
As a starting exercise, stand in front of a dog on lead on the arc, explained in the last installment. Give the dog a bite, showing the same form as I described, but instead of just letting the dog work the sleeve, immediately pull the sleeve up into the chest, rotate the hips and legs under the sleeve and start jogging, not running, forward at a 90 degree angle from the original position. It shouldn't be all that complicated. But as the helper jogs along, he may notice some strange things starting to happen. Depending on the speed, athletic ability and strength of the dog, not to mention its worry about the threat, all the theory can start to unravel. The dog's pulling may twist the helper's hips back into the dog so the hips are facing the dog instead of the direction the helper wants to travel. This starts a chain of the legs then twisting around to face the dog, so the helper is running sideways instead of forward. When this starts to happen, the helper not only slows, but loses leverage so the low back is doing all the work, instead of the sleeve arm, shoulder and legs. As the helper loses leverage, the dog gains the advantage and can really move the helper in any direction. It ain't pretty. Figure #3 shows the problem. Compare this picture to that of Figure #2 and the only difference is mechanics. Further, because the low back is now doing all the work, there's a great risk of injury to the low back and falling on the dog. While some of this may seem theoretical, image the helper in Figure #3 working a 105 pound Rottweiler and you should see the helper doesn't stand a chance of making things go right.
At this point, once things start to come apart, they come apart fast. In an effort to compensate for losing control over the dog, the helper will then lose the platform by trying to take longer strides to keep his balance. As the stride becomes longer, and remember the helper is running sideways at this point, not forward, all hope for continuing to control the dog is lost. Yet, all these problems started in the first few steps of the drive. Once the mistake was made, it only compounded and there was no hope for correcting it because the dog took the power away from the helper. I promise you, the dog won't willingly give it back.
What can the helper do to keep this from happening? The reason the helper rolled his legs and hips under the sleeve at the second of the bite, was to get the body moving frontally in the direction of the drive, before the dog could try to counter with pulling on the sleeve. If the helper's first step of the drive is decisive and quick, the dog will naturally fall into the pocket. But, two things now come into play that the helper must do to keep this position.
The first is consciously keeping the hips and shoulders facing the direction of the drive. This means counter rotating the hips and upper body away from the pocket and continuing to pull them in that direction while running. It's hard to objectively describe this movement, but like some of the other fundamentals, the helper must exaggerate the twisting of the upper body at first. Personally, I find two good indicators of things going right.
1. I will feel a muscle pulling in my sleeve side while twisting. This is actually the side muscles resisting the pulling of the dog against the counter move of the helper.
2. The drive will seem easy, almost as if the dog isn't there. In other words, I have both good position and the dog isn't able to effectively work against my strength.
As subjective as this seems, if the helper thinks: “Boy, that was easy!”, then the fundamentals were all there and working to the advantage of the helper.
Figure #4 shows what the helper should do to counter the upper body and legs in the direction of travel.
The second problem facing the helper is the dog moving forward, out of the pocket, into the red area of Figure #1. Assuming the helper's position is correct, some dogs still tend to move forward, or “dance” into the helper's path. So even though the helper has a good platform and everything moving in the right direction, danger still lurks in the path of the helper.
The first answer is to increase the speed of the drive. Greater speed naturally pulls the dog back into the pocket, but not always. Speed is an interesting subject by itself. The helper should never try to run all out, but keep speed at about 80 percent of maximum. This leaves the helper a cushion to accelerate if things start going badly. Often increasing the speed, not slowing down, is the key to grabbing the power back from the dog. But here's the rub. How do you increase speed without breaking form by taking longer strides and losing your platform? The answer is foot speed, not length of stride. If the helper can increase foot speed without extending the feet beyond the platform, the proper platform and balance can be maintained. This becomes very important when we start doing the long attack, but the helper should practice by driving a dog at varying speeds. Try starting slow on a drive, then speed up, slow again and then take off at a high speed, never allowing the legs to extend much past the front of the body. It will take some practice, but becomes second nature after only a few tries.
The second solution for a dog that tries to move forward out of the pocket is to change the direction of the drive. Assume that everything is going right, but the dog starts fighting and moving forward out of the pocket into the path of the helper. All the helper needs to do is arc to the sleeve side while still driving the dog. An easy curve away from the dog, pulls the it back into the pocket, especially if the helper accelerates at the same time. But be careful, don't turn tightly such as with a small circle or button hook pattern. This can inadvertently pull the dog under the helper's legs and everything will go upside down.
In the next part, we examine the skip drive. It's a very different approach to driving a dog, but offers advantages the running drive can't provide.
