How to Use a Bite Pillow

When training dogs to serve as protection dogs, after you've mastered obedience and a host of other puppy issues, you'll eventually need to move on to bite training. Bite training is an integral part of developing both prey drive and defense drive in a protection dog. Dogs must have strong and confident bites to serve this role adequately. Using a bite pillow is one of the stages of bite training.

Things You'll Need

  • Ball on a string
  • Rewards
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Instructions

    • 1

      Complete obedience training before moving on to trying to enhance the dog's prey drive. The dog should at least know the commands to release a toy and pick it back up.

    • 2

      Begin bite training using a ball on a string. This primary stage should be reinforcing prey drive, not defense drive, meaning that the dog should be having fun and not be stressed. Just teach the dog to play the tug of war game.

    • 3

      Move on to using the bite pillow after the dog's grip has grown strong and it knows how to play well. A bite pillow should have three handles for you to grab onto and should be made of jute, making it healthy for the dog to bite.

    • 4

      Continue playing the tug of war game with the dog for several months. The dog should not have any stress during this time, and should be completely obedient. Do not allow the dog to play with the bite pillow between training sessions, though. It is not a chew toy, it is a bite trainer.

    • 5

      Send the dog to a specialized school for protection dogs or Schutzhund. A novice trainer has neither the knowledge nor the facilities to train the dogs in the next stage, which is defense drive. The trainers will also work the dog's fight drive. Depending on the school, the trainers may give you exercises to keep the dog sharp when it comes home.