Transition Phase Example 1

Basco is very vocal while in the Transition Phase. We do not want the dog to growl, shake, or rebite while on the Helper.

The goal of this session is to calm the dog down a little bit and also teach him comfort while breathing. When the dog is on the sleeve – Tobias comes up and slowly pets Basco while speaking softly – 00:50 sec. We do not want him to begin countering. When the dog is cradled – he is asked to lie down to help relax a little bit – 01:07 sec.

While the dog is on the sleeve, Robbie walks with him backward. Tobias approaches and pets the dog. This brings Baso confidence – 01:55 sec.

A short spur of action – Robbie spins – and the dog is back next to Tobias – 02:15 sec. If the dog is not full – Robbie lowers the sleeve and Basco rebites. This way he has to breathe through his nose.

To help the dog remain full while cradling – move your hand firmly from the beginning of the skull to the bottom of the jaw and cup firmly.

To bring Basco back to action – we do a Short Escape with a miss – 06:10 sec. The second Escape is finished with a bite and we switch to the Transition Phase – 06:50 sec. Once the Helper locks up, Tobias steps in under 2 seconds to prevent countering.

A possible issue with the Transition Phase is when the dog is on the Helper, he slips just a little to be able to breathe with his mouth. It only gets worse when the dog is stressed.

We teach the dog to counter and we teach the dog to rebite when the sleeve is against the ground. When the dog rebites – they usually go fuller and must breather through the nose. Once the dog learns to breathe through his nose when full – we can fix rebite in a few sessions.

It helps the dog to be lower in drive so he can learn to breathe better.

In the second session, the process is repeated. The dog is on the sleeve, Robbie locks up, Tobias approaches and pets Basco to keep him calm and also closes his lips, then Robbie moves away with the dog, locks up, etc. The dog learns how to remain on the sleeve on the Helper while calm and breathing through his nose. If the dog is fighting too much before he learns how to breathe – it will be just more difficult for him to learn.

To keep the dog in a lower state of drive after cradling, the dog is not OUTed but brought back to the Helper. Helper picks up the sleeve with the dog on it. To make sure Basco stays on when Robbies moves away a slight leash pressure is applied. If Basco starts chewing – Tobias gives a quick pop on the leash.

Towards the end of the second session, Basko counters in the Transition Phase while being quiet. This shows that he thinks clearly, is no longer conflicted, and is not worried about being able to breathe.

On a side note. When we teach Long Bite, we keep the sleeve low for a long time to give the dog confidence. When we lift the sleeve – we lift very slowly. As long as the dog understands that the sleeve always goes up – the Long Bite is more successful.