# Biting in agility?



## Laurelin (Nov 2, 2006)

Just a quick post because I'm half out the door but have any of you dealt with dogs that bite during agility training? How did you deal with this issue?


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## MrsBoats (May 20, 2010)

Sometimes O can get grabby and bitey in agility. It's usually when he's overloaded on adrenaline. What I do and it seems to work for him...is give him a momentary lapse of reason by demanding he sit for a couple of seconds. That helps reset him and gets him thinking again. 

I usually will throw him toys as a reward during agility. If I'm working on recalls into heel or deceleration work...I will hold the toy and he takes it and for the most part my hand stays intact. If he's high on adrenaline and he grabs a toy...I'm going to get bitten. So I throw toys when we're running and then he brings it to me and we tug.

I have a leash he can tug on...I use that to tug him out of the ring at AKC and USDAA. I do that to a) reward him for the run and b) give his adrenaline fueled teeth something to grab instead of me. This is going end up being his thing when we're done with a run....buh bye NADAC since they don't allow tugging anywhere near the ring.


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## Laurelin (Nov 2, 2006)

I've had a hard time telling if the issue is pure overstimulation or if it is more from expecting a reward (tug) and jumping and grabbing when I don't get the next cue out fast enough. He seems much more prone now that I am wearing long sleeves. (insert sadface at my new sweater with large gaping hole in it). He always goes for my handling arm.

We are not doing large sequences, just mostly laying foundation work for some handling moves using 1-2 jump stands- push, out, threadle foundations, being able to call him in towards me or out away. That kind of thing.

A lot of the time he is SUPER amped up. His start line behavior so far is golden but once I release him, he's like a rocket. Often he shoots off and does whatever he thinks he should do without waiting for a cue. Ie: Oh jump stand, I go through it!

Is it better to work these kinds of things slower and just use food? I'm very new to using a toy to train agility but notice he is much faster and more amped for a toy vs food. I'd like to keep speed and toy drive though but he often just shoots off without a brain. 

OR maybe it is like you said and I need to throw the toy always vs have him come at me for the tug... I do both currently but it seems like if Hank thinks he's done his thing and I don't reward fast enough, he bites.


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## MrsBoats (May 20, 2010)

Welcome to playing agility with a young male dog with more drive than he knows what to do with. Now you know what agility is like in my world. LOL What it's going to boil down to is patience...you have a young male dog with crap loads of drive and an immature brain (which is what I still have with O who just turned three.) I'm waiting for O to continue to grow up mentally. When he's 4 or maybe even 5....that's when I'll have a mature thinking agility dog. Lars was about 5 when he finally decided he wanted to play the agility game WITH me. O is a little different where he wants to be a team player...but he gets so amped to play the game, his thinking gets clouded with drive. I've discovered you just have to work with that...I've never, ever been able to bring the drive down. It is truly who the dog is at their essence. 

Toys versus food...it will depend on your dog. Lars, I couldn't use toys much because he would just run off with them & would not come back to me with them. I had to chase him to get him back. Lars' drive has no cap...playing with agility sent him into the stratosphere with drive and his brain would be flooded with adrenaline and playing tug just made him higher and higher. Lars has always been rewarded in agility with food and that works for him because he does have good food drive. 

Like I said, O is different that Lars...his drive does have a cap and he's actually much more handler focused. (Lars has and always will be obstacle focused.) O wants to play tug with me and I can use that for him to release energy and drive. I play tug with him while waiting to run and it will actually bring him down some notches. As a reward...O will 100% turn down food for a tug or a ball. He has the much sought after "Ball Drive" that IPO people drool over. I never use food for him as a reward in agility anymore...it's toys only because toys mean something to him. He wouldn't stick his contacts for food rewards. But that dog will nail his contact criteria to get a tug thrown at him. Using toys fixed his contacts. He will work hard to keep jump bars up for a tug. O will move heaven and earth on an agility course in order to earn a tug game with me. Me giving him a cookie as a reward is like me paying someone a dollar for an hour's worth of work. A tug for him is like me paying someone a hundred dollars for an hour worth of work. Using a toy for a reward for O was the missing link in our agility language...because he knows now when he's right and giving me what I need from him. 

I have always used food as a reward in obedience and it has worked well until I got Ocean. I have to figure out how to successfully use toys in competitive obedience because that's also the missing link in our obedience language too.


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