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PSA (Protection Sports Association)

Slideshare: Tarheel Canine

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PSA & American Schutzhund

Aaron’s Superior Canine Email

Train hard, train smart, be safe.

Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You’re the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

Sport Culture for Pet Trainers

July 5, 2023 ciera 0:55:06

In this episode, Jerry Bradshaw discusses:

The positive impact PSA and American Schutzhund have had on pet training.
Creativity and innovation in training your dog.
The objective standards of canine sports to create better dogs of all ages.
Getting involved in the culture of canine sport.
How sport can change the way you think about dogs.

Key Takeaways:

Being part of a canine sport club will allow you to have conversations with other dog owners who are also training their dogs and can make training your pet feel less isolating.
It is the application of ideas that matters. You want to be a trainer that can do, not just talk about doing.
Behind the rules and standards of evaluation, canine sport shows the breeding of the dogs who participate and compete.
The tighter the training, both in pet training and in sport, the better it will be over the long term. The looser the training, the looser it will get over time.

“Part of the culture is you get a sense of place where you have belonging, you’ve got some safety, there’s some humility that has to be shown, you get to share success – nobody does this alone.” — Jerry Bradshaw

Get Jerry’s book Controlled Aggression on Amazon.com

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PSA (Protection Sports Association)

Slideshare: Tarheel Canine

Thanks to our sponsors:

PSA & American Schutzhund

Aaron’s Superior Canine Email

Train hard, train smart, be safe.

Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You’re the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

Countering, Pushing & Pulsing Grips

June 30, 2023 ciera 1:01:09

In this episode, Jerry Bradshaw discusses:

Bringing out the traits in your dog that are (or are not) genetically in them already.
The difference between countering, pushing/pulling, and pulsing bite grips.
Working with the dog and not creating an unstable grip through overwork.
Actively teaching your dog when and how to counter, and how and when to fight out of a pressure trap using the different grips.

Key Takeaways:

Countering happens when dogs do not get the ideal strike and an ideal grip in the initial bite. You want the dog to be biting all the way back to their molars whenever possible (which can be difficult when the dog is coming in full speed on a decoy).
Biting with the back teeth allows for more leverage power in the jaw which can help with pain compliance even through layers of clothing on a pushing grip in a police dog situation.
The decoy and trainer both need to understand what you trying to get out of each training session with dogs at all stages of development. Training with a puppy is very different from training with an older, veteran dog.
A lot of decoys and trainers are neglecting to teach the dog to counter off of the transition.

“Countering is a very important technique in training a protection dog, but we may go too far in focusing only on that.” — Jerry Bradshaw

Get Jerry’s book Controlled Aggression on Amazon.com

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PSA (Protection Sports Association)

Slideshare: Tarheel Canine

Thanks to our sponsors:

PSA & American Schutzhund

Aaron’s Superior Canine Email

Train hard, train smart, be safe.

Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You’re the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

Setting Up Successful Training Sessions

April 26, 2023 ciera 00:54:22

In this episode, Jerry Bradshaw discusses:

Teaching your dog lessons through action, feedback, and prevention.
Understanding the queues that you are creating in your dog.
Planning your training sessions in advance and understanding the variables.
Preparing with the correct equipment and rewards for the training session you are heading into.
The importance of evaluating your training sessions, and getting a second pair of eyes on the training and evaluation when possible.

Key Takeaways:

Your training session begins as soon as the dog comes out of the kennel, both what is and is not happening matter from that moment on.
You should have reasons for doing everything that you are doing in training. You do not want to create associations with equipment or locations
Know the sub-skills that you want to work and the variables inherent in those when you are planning what skills and subskills you are planning on training in each session. Do the research if needed to understand how to support that training and make it better.
You must know what you are doing before you even put your hands on the dog. There is a lot happening and if you don’t have a plan things will get chaotic and not go how you want them to go.

“I plan out before I work my dog exactly what I’m going to work on before the session starts so I know what I want to do on the field. Setting up for success is about figuring out what you’re going to do before you go and try to do it instead of just going out and doing what other people are doing and mimicking them.” — Jerry Bradshaw

Get Jerry’s book Controlled Aggression on Amazon.com

Contact Jerry:

Find us on social:

PSA (Protection Sports Association)

Slideshare: Tarheel Canine

Thanks to our sponsors:

PSA & American Schutzhund

Aaron’s Superior Canine Email

Train hard, train smart, be safe.

Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You’re the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

PSA Rituals and Field Awareness

March 9, 2023 ciera 01:02:04

In this episode, Jerry Bradshaw discusses:

The secrets to success on both the training field and trial field.
Why consistency matters.
Benefits of having an engagement ritual and how it can help provide a reset for your canine.
Variable reward systems and proper reward frequencies.
Advocating for your dog and understanding what is supposed to happen on trial day.

Key Takeaways:

You want to have rituals for both you and your dog. If you do it correctly, the trial day is just another training day.
Don’t underestimate the importance of building your dog’s bathroom habits into your rituals. You don’t want them to be relieving themselves on the practice or trail fields.
If your training is going well, you should be getting away from micromanaging their behavior. They need to be able to function without a lot of feedback during trial.
You need to know your dog. Each dog will have a different strategy for parking, getting out of the car, coming on and off the field, etc.
Practice what you will do during the critique. Practice your transitions between exercises. There is more to trial than just the trained activity.

“It is what we develop in training that becomes a habit for trialing.” — Jerry Bradshaw

Get Jerry’s book Controlled Aggression on Amazon.com

Contact Jerry:

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PSA (Protection Sports Association)

Slideshare: Tarheel Canine

Thanks to our sponsors:

PSA & American Schutzhund

Aaron’s Superior Canine Email

Train hard, train smart, be safe.

Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You’re the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

Building a Relationship with Communication & Emotion with Derek Beckelman

February 23, 2023 ciera 01:34:29

In this episode, Jerry Bradshaw and Derek Beckelman discuss:

Building a relationship of trust with your new dog, both pet and working.
Being consistent with the rules with your dog.
The emotional nature of dogs and handlers.
The clash between attention and anticipation.
Increasing the effectiveness of your communication with your dog.

Key Takeaways:

Using food, treats, or toys to motivate, especially in the early stages of building the relationship is not a bad thing. But you want to avoid becoming a treat dispensing robot.
There are two sides to training – classical and operant. You do not want to focus only on operant conditioning and forget about the aspects of classical conditioning that can help with your training.
Dogs will try to anticipate everything. We, as humans, fall into routines. These can clash and create conflict within the training.
Training can be frustrating. But the dog just wants to do dog things. You can’t get mad at them for being a dog.
You have to pay attention to where your dog’s head is at in any given moment. Sometimes they aren’t listening, not because they don’t want to, but because they cannot due to other circumstances.

“It’s not up to me how quickly a dog makes progress. It’s up to the dog. But as long as we’re paying attention, and we’re reading what the dog is trying to tell us is going on, we can make jumps and progress when they’re ready. But you have to see it. You have to feel it, and that just takes experience.” — Derek Beckelman

Get Jerry’s book Controlled Aggression on Amazon.com

Contact Jerry:

Find us on social:

PSA (Protection Sports Association)

Slideshare: Tarheel Canine

Thanks to our sponsors:

PSA & American Schutzhund

Aaron’s Superior Canine Email

Train hard, train smart, be safe.

Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You’re the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

Notes on Neutrality

February 11, 2023 ciera

In this episode, Jerry Bradshaw discusses:

The importance of neutrality in all aspects of dog training (not just obedience).
Creating reflexes, capping at the right time, and building a powerful dog.
Reversing reflex actions with desensitization – and doing it properly.
Developing behaviors then pushing the threshold.
Training neutrality at your PSA club.

Key Takeaways:

Create more neutrality than you need for the level that you are in.
Capping is the first stage in creating neutrality and allows the dog to hold on to the emotionality for a short period of time before they express it.
Start training neutrality with dead equipment. You can start training capping around the objects on the ground.
Training neutrality will work at different paces and through different variables depending on your dog. Be patient, maintain technique, and don’t rush.

“Different dogs will be more or less susceptible to creating neutrality. Don’t compare your dog to others. Twitchy, reflexive, or defensive dogs are going to be tougher to manage neutrality in.” — Jerry Bradshaw

Get Jerry’s book Controlled Aggression on Amazon.com

Contact Jerry:

Find us on social:

PSA (Protection Sports Association)

Slideshare: Tarheel Canine

Thanks to our sponsors:

PSA & American Schutzhund

Aaron’s Superior Canine Email

Train hard, train smart, be safe.

Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You’re the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

Feedback, Confidence & Corrections

January 6, 2023 ciera 01:11:18

In this episode, Jerry Bradshaw discusses:

The impact of the e-collar and social media on dog training.
Making and molding behaviors.
Variable reward schedules and recourse for non-compliance.
Changing the problem to clarify the problem when there is a lack of understanding.

Key Takeaways:

You’re looking for about an 80-20 rule – with 80% compliance – you can look to start moving to the next training session and work on a different type of system to clean up the final 20%.
You want the dog to understand the behavior in a number of contexts before saying it is learned.
Many handlers are staying too long in the guiding correction, negative reinforcement phase of training.
You need to understand what frame of mind your dog is in when you are training. If he is not in the right frame of mind to make a good decision, it needs a different correction than willful disobedience.

“I’ve found that in a lot of these discrimination exercises, what I’m battling more than anything else is stimulation and lack of clarity because of that stimulation the dog is trying to deal with. And sometimes pressure or pain, however you want to term it, can increase that stimulation that the dog is feeling in that moment and create an even more stimulated animal.” — Jerry Bradshaw

Get Jerry’s book Controlled Aggression on Amazon.com

Contact Jerry:

Find us on social:

PSA (Protection Sports Association)

Slideshare: Tarheel Canine

Thanks to our sponsors:

PSA & American Schutzhund

Aaron’s Superior Canine Email