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Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie

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

Notes on K9 Certifications – Scentwork

September 7, 2023 ciera 1:13:17

In this episode, Jerry Bradshaw discusses:

Things you need to know before starting certification.
Having a training methodology that allows for compartmentalization, repetition, and isolation of skills if needed.
Understanding rewards throughout and at the end of the track.
Creating the behavior you want to create and working around distractions.

Key Takeaways:

Run your training for certifications like you would run a real scenario.
Pay attention to all directions and information in the scenario briefing.
Be careful not to overvalue the end of the track by always putting a person at the end.
Ritual is going to give you a really good reset when you’re lost. Ritual will also help a dog distinguish when you are on a search rather than just a normal day.

“Context is everything. As handlers and as trainers, we need to start thinking in terms of context. It is possible to have an extremely successful tracking program where the handlers lay some proportion of their own tracks. This allows the handlers to isolate things and skill sets that they need to isolate.” — Jerry Bradshaw

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PSA (Protection Sports Association)

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PSA & American Schutzhund

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Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie

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

Defensive Dogs in Protection

July 27, 2023 ciera 1:15:44

In this episode, Jerry Bradshaw discusses:

Having patience with your puppies.
The three types of defensive dogs.
How decoys can affect defense or prey.
Identifying early signs of avoidance in your defensive dog.
Tips for working the dog in defense properly.

Key Takeaways:

Once the dog’s foundation work is where you want it, then you can start adding in skills. Don’t rush the foundation work.
All drives have intensity. The intensity will be completely dependent on your experience. Working with and seeing more dogs will give you a better understanding of what is high, medium, and low.
The avoidance threshold does not come out of nowhere. You want to watch carefully for where the defense is breaking down into avoidance.
The younger the dog, the touchier the training will be. The thinner the margin between defense and avoidance, the more difficult it is to train the dog.

“You’d be surprised by what you can get out of defensive dogs when you really understand how to work them.” — Jerry Bradshaw

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PSA (Protection Sports Association)

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PSA & American Schutzhund

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Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie

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

Tarheel Canine Police Dog Info

July 15, 2023 ciera 0:13:45

Today, Jerry answers your burning questions about the available police and civilian dogs and their training at Tarheel Canine. Tarheel provides trained, duel purpose, explosive, and narcotics dogs of various breeds. They also provide green dogs ready to be trained by your officers. Jerry also explains the different options for handler courses, selecting dogs, your personalized experiences, and the guarantees at Tarheel Canine.

For more information email Jerry at [email protected] or call the office at 919-774-4152.

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PSA (Protection Sports Association)

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Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie

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

Drive Suppression v Drive Capping

July 14, 2023 ciera 1:09:36

In this episode, Jerry Bradshaw discusses:

Mistakes made that lead to suppression, avoidance behavior, anxiety, or hesitancy in your canine.
Building thoughtful release behavior into the pressure.
Training your dog how to sit when in drive.
Rewarding the capping with something expressive, even if not a bite.
Tips for training drive capping properly.

Key Takeaways:

Excitement, expressiveness, and forward movement aren’t wrong. But you want the dog to learn how to hold that excitement in until released, not turn it off.
Suppression happens when you do not allow the release at the end of the wait.
You want to help the dog learn to find the advantage both in the quiet behavior and in the alert or expressive behavior.
You want to balance the capping and the expression. The dog needs to understand his advantage at every stage of the drive, including when capped.
When you’re learning capping skills, having a really good decoy who understands capping, who can read the dog, and understands every aspect of the situation is invaluable.

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PSA (Protection Sports Association)

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PSA & American Schutzhund

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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

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PSA (Protection Sports Association)

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PSA & American Schutzhund

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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

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PSA & American Schutzhund

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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

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PSA (Protection Sports Association)

Slideshare: Tarheel Canine

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PSA & American Schutzhund

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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

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PSA (Protection Sports Association)

Slideshare: Tarheel Canine

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PSA & American Schutzhund

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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

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PSA (Protection Sports Association)

Slideshare: Tarheel Canine