Advanced Imprinting Level 1 [AI-L1] Board & Train [B&T]

In-House Litters Only Not For Hire 

 

 

 

At the Advanced Imprinting (AI) levels, 8 weeks on up to 16 weeks, we encourage individual exploration, escalate their physical and mental challenges, and set their minimum standards ever-higher.  Like their human counterparts in Special Operations, these dogs can do more than they think themselves capable off. They just require the support, encouragement, and positive environment to test themselves. But there is a caveat, they need to always leave the training feeling successful and hungry for more for this ensures their desire to push their limits on the next go around, be it five minutes or two days later.  An important note: even though we use the standard escalations from tugs, to pillows, to wedges, to development sleeves, etc.,  we imprint with 'raw live bites'. This means we sacrifice are forearms and calves in order to imprint the dog to bite on human flesh and bone in order to prevent our dogs from becoming equipment based. Our obedience and agility structure is broken down to three levels of commands: basic, practical, and tactical.

 

Beginning at eight weeks the properly imprinted pup can be pushed to greater tolerances. With an average three to five dedicated training sessions a day each pup is catered to and developed at their own pace. We do not use the common European practice of back-tying multiple pups in order to work simultaneously.  In our view this is a precious time in the development of the dog that cannot be wasted and should be done individually. In the end the time invested will pay dividends.

 

During this 8-16 week time period we focus on confidence building, aggression development, introduce and load the clicker, and remain vigilant for offered behaviors that can be captured naturally without luring. At this early stage we only use traditional shaping and successive approximation inside a 'Skinner Box' we've dubbed the K9 Grinder. We run this concurrently but in alternation with bite imprinting, meaning we avoid mixing the two disciplines in the same session as bite work requires a much higher level of unbridled energy than shaping. Well imprinted pups at this stage generally wake up with a taste for a bite. Therefore we merely reinforce this natural behavior by conducting short but dynamic bite sessions at first light and at every kennel (empty) break. Obedience is scheduled at mid morning, and again subdevided into three or four short sessions separated by five minutes that we count as one session. We use routine feeding times to drill agility.

 

As per our training style or methods we use traditional "free shaping" inside the K9 Grinder to imprint basic obeidience: sit, down, hold, come, etc., as well as agility. Our method with agility is to introduce a single individual "complication" (a.k.a. obstacle or challenge) per session. In order to encourage agility, as in obedience, we employ Successive Approximation, rewarding pups for its proximity, interest, inquisitiveness, about the complication until it leads to the navigation or overcoming of the complication. We use this method to encourage the jumping through narrow dark tubes, climbing over unstable footing obstacles, low crawling under platforms, entering a water environment, walking horizontal ladders, etc. 

 

Sure the right blood line is a huge aspect of quality Working K9, but the cold hard truth is that it's early imprinting that plays a larger role. If the opposite were true, then entire raw litters from World Champion dogs with no imprinting would result in High Drive Working K9 but this just isn't so. Development is contingent on the quality of imprinting and development should mean just that: the continued scaling up of stress and expectations. We've discovered that timing is everything and not just in clicker training. In fact the entire strategy and execution requires skilled timing from daily, weekly, and monthly feeding schedules, to a clear understanding of the goals one aims to achieve with each individual K9. Too early on basic obedience and drive is adversely impacted by reducing self-confidence. And a reduction in drive too early can be very difficult to overcome when developing bite work. On the other hand allowing a K9 to remain green and mostly wild for too long can cause a very common problem with overdrive. Overdrive can then override balanced thought resulting in a K9 that requires harsh corrections to bring into line. 

 

 

 

SOK9 soon learn the only easy day was yesterday and that everything they do will be turned into a challenge. But early confidence pays dividens later. While many trainers will not physically challenge their K9 until the age of one in order to allow their bones and joints to fully develop, we have a different philosophy.  Basically if we allowed our children to sit on the sofa until the age of 18 before allowing them to do a pull up, push up, or a sit up they would find that their ligaments and muscles were not given an opportunity to develop gradually along with thier body weight. We are careful to spot them while negotiating any new obsticle and maintain an on call vet in the event of any injuries. Our young K9 are walking the plank, climbing high A frames, walking horizontal and inclined ladders, and conducting searches for their ball at just 15 weeks.  If they are to face failure they do so under a controlled environment.

K9 Model Credits: SOK9 W-Alpha AKC Registered Czhech Shepherd. Also our baby girl DS-X-BM SOK9 G-Alpha.