We get to bite things for the Holidays? All right!

Had clients come out today to instinct test one of their GSD, and work on tracking and herding with their other one. We booked 3 hours and they also brought their protection equipment - I wanted to try Pow and Charlie.

And the boys did have fun. Pow loved loved loved it, took to it right away, played hard and didn't want to stop. When I put him up in a run, he spent the entire time crying the first time, and barking and running the second time around. Both times when I let him out, he ran over to the pile of gear and looked for the sleeve. Not bad for a 10 yr old dog, huh?

Charlie we haven't worked much on his playing tug or biting, so he was learning quickly to regrip and take the puppy tug and eventually the puppy sleeve. At one point, he pulled the helper over onto the ground by tugging - and went into Lassie mode. The look on his face "Oh, MY GOD! I've hurt you! You shouldn't be on the ground, on NO!" Took him a couple minutes to start tugging again after that, but he recovered.
Interesting comparison in grips, between the GSD's and the Collie and Sheltie, and between what they do on the sheep and what they did on the tugs/sleeves. Collies and Shelties tend to be nippers, using the front of the jaw, grab and release. We saw this on the sleeve as Charlie lacking full mouth bite and the tendency to just barely grab it with the Canine and premolars. Pow doesn't count, as Pow has had 10 yrs of me reinforcing full mouth biting. With the GSD, Ulli who we instinct tested, he wanted to do the classic GSD full mouth bite on the back of the neck wherer it runs into the shoulders. Just like he would do to a sleeve. And it isn't all nuture - ie, Pow doesn't full mouth bite the back of the neck, he hits heads and legs, even though in play I've reinforced full mouth. Just really neat to see the grip on the sheep, followed by me picking up the sleeve and observing that the thickness of it is the same shape as the back of the neck of the sheep. Good example of a way to maintain a trait in a breed, when access to the original trialing of the behavior (sheep herding) is restricted.