 Hi, I'm Richard Hines, and today I'm going to talk about a subject that I personally have never heard anybody talk about anywhere on how to get a protection dog to bark at a random person out in public. If you were to ask in public at a strange person just somebody randomly without the person showing a real threat, right, that the dog was alerted to, if you were to just go watch at a point to random person standing there, most dogs are going to go, what? Who? You want me to alert to that person? That one? Why? Right? They don't understand that game when the person is not in any equipment, right? The person's not moving suspiciously as we do in training. The area that the dogs are trained in is usually at home in a training facility, right? A training field somewhere that the dog knows all the time that when they get to that location, it's party time. They know exactly what's going to happen, how the game is played, and they're already starting to get hyped up and alerting before they even get into the territory, knowing that the game of barking and getting a toy or barking and getting a bite is all going to happen at those locations, right? And this is normal, right? Because for these types of things too to teach, you need designated places to stay away from the public, right? So that's normal. So if you were doing this at your house, the dog is learning that behavior and that the game is on when a certain person comes to do this with the dog, right? Any equipment being used, you know, to do the exercise with the dog, dog knows person and equipment and territory, okay? Always being done in the same location. So we get a sticky problem, right? Person, helper, equipment, movements, and location, and normally all of it is in one location, okay? And usually one person that's doing the work with the dog. So we get a little bit of a problem now that the dog, randomly if you're in public, outside of your training area, and it's not the person that's usually, the dog is alerting at in training or putting on the equipment, the dog is completely confused, right? Which is normal, because the dog has only had that reference in location, person, equipment, movement, whatever, okay? So now we get stuck. So a person who's been having a dog that alerts well in the facility or wherever they've been doing the training. Good, good girl, good girl, good girl, good girl, good girl. And the bite dog that has good bite training, right? Great when it's at the facility or it's being done at the home. I mean, fantastic. And all of a sudden goes out in public and just randomly watch, right? The dog's just like, what? Who? I mean, I know the word well, I'm very fluent at it. The dog is thinking. But this is weird because there's all sorts of people around and they're not moving in a weird way. And I don't know the person. They've never really, nobody else has ever egged me on, right? So we get a totally confused dog, okay? So how do we overcome this problem? And this is how we go about this. So I'm just going to throw steps at you right now of development, okay? So first thing, we are teaching, and this is the question I get all the time, because people who watch my videos or have bought my instructional videos get a little confused with these things. And in this particular scenario, they get a little stuck because we haven't gotten to that on the instructional videos yet, okay? So I'm going to bring this out here. Here, we usually always start, whether it's a bite dog or just an alert dog, we start with barking at a toy, okay? So there, both dogs, we taught them how to bark on cue at the ball, right? Which could be anything that anybody's dog loves. Instead of a ball, it could be anything else. But this is how we start the game of alerting and protection. Go hand in hand in this particular beginning stage, okay? So we're teaching the dog to alert on command, add an object first, not people, okay? And then when we have a dog alerting on cue, watch, and the dog, right? So a protection dog, a personal protection dog that goes through bite development. After we get that talking to toy, we transfer it talking to people in equipment, suit. So you're going to do watch? You have to get off the equipment and we go to hidden sleeves, right? So that when we say watch, the dog goes and there's no equipment here in the scenario. Rocco has no idea, right? About hidden stuff. It's the first time right now you're going to see we've ever done it. So when the owner says watch, he rah, rah, rah, even though I have my sweater on, I have something underneath, he has no idea, right? There's no difference in the look anymore, right? So we're making sure that he'll alert on me and he's never seen me in that jacket. He's never seen the clothes I'm wearing and the hidden sleeve is under that he can't detect either. And we just want to make sure that when I'm dressed normal without being in training scenario and clothing he's never seen, right? Because in Miami we don't wear sweaters ever, right? So I have that sweater that's been tucked away for years and just using it for this day. First time now when we ask we want to see that I'm not in a threat factor. I'm just standing there, no equipment, nothing he can identify. Watch, we want to make sure he does it. And if I put my arm out, he'll bite me as if I had a sleeve on that he was developed with or the suit jacket, okay? We want to see it's all the same that he doesn't care whether or not I have anything on when we tell him to watch, I want to see him talk to me even though it's a different scenario and he's never seen this plain look and no threat factor. Me just stand there and there's nothing egging him into aggression, okay? And by the way me and Rocco outside of the scenarios we do in protection he loves me, right? So I can come over, I pet him, no equipment on after session. Rocco, come here, good boy. Right before sessions I can pet him and be around him, no issue. I take photo shoots with him, right up in here, he licked me in the face. So me and him have a very good relationship but when it's on it's on, right? That's the beautiful thing about Rocco, right? He's the most social dog and we have a great friendship but if you turn him on and even like here I have no equipment on, he didn't know a training session was coming, nothing. And he barked and alerted at me like he's supposed to and he did the bite, okay? As well. So perfect, right? And we didn't need the bite but in this case because he's a bite dog I need to make sure he bit me without seeing the equipment and that we know that he's doing things for real and not being orientated to the equipment, okay? And Axel here because Axel also, we did the bark at the ball, then we did the equipment in the suit, right? I tell him watch, he watches Stacey here in the suit and bites when ready when he was supposed to and then here just make sure, right? I tell him watch Stacey first time we've ever used a hidden sleeve. Now we didn't have a jacket that day so I told Stacey to hold it on that side and block off that he cannot see that arm, right? So when I said watch he never even saw anything on Stacey, just her regular shirt, regular clothes, no equipment and he was barking at her normally as if she had the equipment on. We want to see an immediate barking response, aggressive response towards without the equipment on, okay? And then when she came around him still hiding the sleeve he had no idea that she had it there until eventually she came in and went like this and he bit her not knowing that there was anything there, right? Until he went and grabbed her. So he was clueless about that equipment on her side, right? Because he never saw it, right? So he was alerting to the regular clothing and just regular, okay? So now how do we get the dogs then to alert out in public or in the streets, okay? So like here Rocco, you're gonna see Sue walking in the street, have the camera, I have no equipment on, I have the camera and I'm filming her doing her thing and I was just petting him just before that and I told her, tell him to watch me out of nowhere because he's not thinking it's coming. We've never done any bite training in the street outside that house. He has never had any training out there in the street out in that block, none. So he has no repetitions of that or even thinking that in the front there in the streets that we would even go into any kind of bite work or aggression. So it's a perfect scenario for me to test him while I was just petting him and got into the house, right? And then just went out to film him doing his obedience and just had Sue randomly because knowing he's never done it there, I want to see if no matter what, any area would he cue on me when she said watch, right? Perfect. So me behind the camera and as soon as I said tell him watch, Rocco watch him, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, right? Perfect. Immediate response in an area he's never done protection, never had any aggression training. I have no equipment on. I was just petting him there as a friendly visit, right? And that's exactly what we want to see. Now, how we cross this over to strange people that the dogs have never seen out in those areas that they've never trained in. Again, confusing dogs and making them just locked up that they don't know what to do. So I personally have run into many times in my career, so I quit doing it for years now, doing surprise scenarios out in public parks, right? Where there's any people, any, because when I used to do that and go into areas to teach dogs this, anybody that's around would always call the police, right? That we were doing dangerous things doing bite work in public places and people weren't even close to us, right? We always make sure it's safe. For sure, always safety's first. So we're not even really near anybody when I'm pulling surprises on these dogs, right? And I just had to stop doing it in an aggressive way because I used to bring hidden suits out and jump out and give the hidden stuff in public and make sure the dog would bite and talk and alert, right? But then I couldn't do it anymore because every time we would do it out in public, somebody would call the police. And the police would come, kick us out of the park and always tell me, no more of that anywhere in Miami, right? You can't do it. That's dangerous stuff. You're teaching aggression. So I had to find another way of being able to at least get the dogs to queue on command to make threatening behavior without having aggression and bite work attached to it. You would be crazy, right? When we do that through toy stuff also, it's ra ra, right? They look like they want to kill you, right? But those dogs, even though now the things I'm going to show you are not going to be done with a decoy and in biting, bite work, right? To keep the sanity in the public. The bite dog, if you made any threats, right, and you really needed that dog, if they were trained well like ours, they're going to take action whether they've ever seen you, not seen you. If the threat is on and you do something crazy, it's going to go from talking at something to you're going to get hurt. So we don't worry ever about our trained personal protection dogs, not having bite development out in the public like that, right? Because first of all, you got to be crazy to go through that barking threat. You got to be crazy, right? And if you decide to go through that and ignore it, those dogs, because they are trained already for it, no matter where they are, it doesn't matter if they've ever done it there before, they will take action, right? So I never worry about that. So how do we do it? Okay? Without the bite and true aggression. So here, just give me an example. This is Axl Black Shepherd that I did the other video clips there with. I have a helper. First, how you start this. I'm going to have Stacey come out, no equipment, no nothing. Just show the ball, right? So you're going to see there, she just goes like this and shows Axl she has the ball. Okay? We just want the idea right to get him started to learn the process of how this is going to work. So she's showing him, right? Puts it behind her back, hides it, and I give the command, watch. Okay? And then he rah, rah, rah, rah, because he knows that she has the ball, his favorite thing in the world. Now it's not in sight though, okay? And this is just how you connect the game to start, right? Because if she just came out and went like this, and we said, watch, he's going to be confused. Never did bite work there. We've never done that. Him and Stacey are tight. They're very good friends, right? So he's going to be very confused. So there he barks at her like you see. And as a reward, the person who's holding the object will throw to the dog from where they are to give the reward at the dog for talking at them. Okay? Even though it's for the ball, we're getting acute behavior with no equipment, just to start the process. Now, so then here, I just have Stacey reset. Don't show it to him. Just have it behind your back, right? He's probably assuming she has it, but he can't see it. So when I say watch, he's barking at her. He's gambling, hoping by talking, right, to her not knowing whether she's got the ball now or not. After he talks enough, Stacey again throws them the ball for the right guess. Okay? So, and this could be anything we're talking, right? The ball, it could be, right? I could have a bite pillow or a sleeve behind my back if that's what the dog really loves. And I try to stay as natural as possible, hiding it. And when the dog the only difference would be with the bite sleeve that you can't throw it at him, you would have to take it and go at him and give him the bite. Okay? And the reason that we wouldn't let him come here and get the bite is how I've explained on YouTube that I don't usually allow the dogs to come off the body to take the bites like that. I want the dogs to get the bites at the position and learn to hold control, right? And things will come to that, right? And occasionally I'll send them off and they can go bite. So we have both, but preferably you're trying to go in if you're going to do a sleeve. But I would try not to do these things, right? Like a sleeve unless it was absolutely necessary and this was the thing your dog loved the most. I would try to stick with a ball, something smaller, something you can throw at the dog, easy. Okay? That's toy. All right. So now that we have that, I get a random person, right, that the dog doesn't know. And I stick them out in the street, right? And I have them hide the ball and we go, watch, right? Never seen the person doesn't know the person. They're out in different territory now. Now it's going to be sometimes our dogs, first time after they've done this pre-exercise will bark at the person, right? If they do, perfect. The person throws the ball to them from across the street, right? If not, if the dog doesn't talk to them, the person then will pull out the ball and go like this and then put it back. And then we wait for some good barking. Then we throw it to them. The person will throw it to them. So what are we creating? We're creating a dog now going, wait a minute. So when we're out in public, anybody you point to that I don't know, it's probably going to have my favorite thing there with them, behind them, even though I don't see it. Yeah, in the beginning, right? So I pull, you know, different day or same day if I have another person, I'll have them go in a different area, ready, watch and if dog goes, of course the person throws. If not again, we go like this, dog talks, second person, okay. And once you get a few people in with this in different areas, right? I don't need to keep having a ball. I just randomly go out now and point and have a friend go out there with nothing, right? Watch, right? So it's not going to be a toy every time when I go out in public. I'll randomly do that to keep the dog sharp and have somebody planted, right? And throw the toy, okay? So and it can't be the same person all the time because they're going to be learning on the person. I'm trying to use people that dog does not know and know well, okay? So over time very quickly, I'm talking like a week or two, everywhere I go when I go watch, the dog just goes, whoever I point to that. God boy, good boy, right? And every so often I'll have another person out there and I'll have them do it so I could keep it going, keep it fresh. And if I ever need the dog, right? I know I've built it and it will be there for me, whether it's a bite dog or a watch, just a watch dog. The behavior is built and they'll bark at anybody I tell them to bark at because they have no idea if the person's going to have a toy or not for them. The person I'm telling them to bark at if I ever need them is not going to know the difference whether it's play or serious aggression. Right? Because if you look at Axel here and you see him barking at you. What? You would be crazy, right? I mean, you have to be crazy to not know. You don't know if that's serious or he's just play talking to you, right? So we have on cue and we have a built behavior, right? So this is the way I go about it with my protection dogs or any client that wants to do just talk on cue, no bite work, just threat. And that's how you build the behavior to be solid, right? That I don't need to go do bite work out in the public and have a problem with the public that I'm doing bites out there. All right? So that is how you build a public watch on command. So Richard Hines, till next time, Mimey Dog Whisper.