Using drive to bring the puppy onto the sleeve

Do not introduce the youngster to the sleeve carefully, by agitating slowly and then gently offering it to the dog. This method gives the dog too much time to recognize that the sleeve is something different, something it hasn’t seen before, and to hesitate. It is virtually the worst possible way to approach the animal. Always remember that it is the puppy’s drive that gives it power, and that drive arises from intense agitation. We must use the animal’s drive to make it impetuous, so that it dives into new situations without hesitating.

In order to prepare the puppy for its first sleeve bite, it is best to run it through several frustration sessions in which it is agitated but not allowed to bite, so that it is aroused and completely in spirit.

We always “fool” the puppy into biting the sleeve the first few times. The agitator wears a sleeve on his left arm and carries a rag in his right hand. He agitates very energetically for a few moments, running past the puppy and letting it try for the sack, and then, when the animal is quite beside itself with excitement, he steps away. Very quickly, before the moment passes, he wraps the sack loosely about the sleeve and, giving the puppy no time to reconsider, steps in and lets it bite the sack and the sleeve under it.

It is important to drop the sleeve the instant the youngster grabs it. Let the animal win the sleeve before its new weight and texture cause the puppy to have second thoughts. The handler should allow it to maul the sleeve for a moment and then break the puppy loose from it and move the animal back, so that the decoy can snatch the sleeve away and begin to agitate again.

^{After the decoy allows the dog to take the sleeve, the handler praises the animal, and then forces it to give up its prey by lifting up on the collar, holding the forequarters suspended in the air until the sleeve is released. (Chuck Cadillac and “Gitte,” Schutzhund III.)}

The agitator “fools” the puppy into biting the sleeve for the first time by stimulating the animal with a sack, and then wrapping the sack around the sleeve. (“Blitz”)