a different take on "Drives" for training

Posted by Butch Cappel on 5/6/2012, 4:21 pm
99.174.201.23

This is from our K9Pro Sports board, but I noticed a few commentsd on Drives and thought it might interest someone. In the early seventies when the concept of using instinctual drives to train dogs was introduced by the German SchH trainers to the U.S. it was revolutionary. It meant that good dogs could be trained in half the time and the worst dog could still become a good dog. The German trainers coming from the country that, arguably started the very first "dog training school for police dogs" (I know I know it could have been Belgium too) and being the very methodical people they are, didn't want a training system that was anything but clear and predictable, so they began using survival instincts known as "Drives". Because these drives are tied to the very survival of the animal, they do not vary like the dogs hunger. This means that training, and progress,will be consistent. All of this is based on scientific terms, which must be clearly definable to exist. There are three drives inherent for the instinctual survival of an animal. Two of them are Defense and Prey (first person to guess the third gets his name, in lights, for 7 days, on the Las Vegas strip) Each drive has an advantage for a dog in a fight. To get a dog to bite with a full mouth, you trigger his Prey drive. To get a very hard intense bite you trigger Defense drive. Could anything be simpler? (notice no mention of Fight drive?) The Germans told us to "balance" the drives, I now know that what they meant was train the best attributes of each drive into the dog equally. Prey work to gain confidence, and Defense to build intensity. But Americans didn't get how you could have 2 drives at one time. So some enterprising young American businessman decided to put it in a term Americans could identify with, He called it FIGHT DRIVE. Didn't matter that no one could really give you a description of it, or that it had no existence in ANY scientific studies as the first three had, it was what you wanted your dog to be if he was an AMERICAN BY GAWWD, DAWG! And this man (whom I will not name on a public forum) is much richer for doing this. After "fight drive" when ever a dog "trainer" couldn't get a dog to do something, it was because the dog lacked a certain drive, "I can't get him to bite the sack, because ...he ..............ain't got no...................Burlap drive" or if it was an obedience problem the dog wasn't listening to you the "Leader" cause it didn't have enough 'Pack' Drive" When ever an American hobby or even professional dog trainer had a failure it was no longer their fault, it was because the dog lacked this or that Drive. "Can't train your dog to run across that slick tile floor? It's cause the dog ain't got no 'Four Wheel' drive. You see in America lack of drive X, Y, or Z, is really just an excuse for lack of experience in the proper use of the Two survival instincts, known as drive, that made the German dog trainers the best in the world. If you'd like to learn how this two drive system works and guarantees a successful training with your dog, maybe it's time you looked into a K9Pro training seminar. You can take a few steps back in time, learn how all of this began, and then see if that will help you learn where you need to go from there to be successful. (and we're still waiting for the third drive to be named???)