# Recommendations for a sleeve for a young dog



## jim stevens (Jan 30, 2012)

My dog will be a year old at the end of the month, so thinking she needs a new bite sleeve for her birthday. I have been using a typical puppy sleeve, but starting to get a lot of teeth bruises. I am thinking a Ray Allen jute intermediate sleeve, but am open to suggestions if there is something better/more appropriate. 

\My dog is a mali roughly 60 pounds or a bit more at the moment. 

I don't have a nearby club/decoy so my son and I do most of it, but do plan on making a trip to maybe St Louis area to let someone else work her when the weather eases up a bit.


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## Thomas Barriano (Mar 27, 2006)

I really like the Ray Allen intermediate half sleeve. Gives you all sorts of different targeting options


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## Keith Earle (Mar 27, 2006)

I like the set of sleeve from Horton sleeves 1-4 covers all types of dogs and work


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Hey Jim, as a heads up, one of the decoys from the other St. Louis club is likely moving out to Overland Park in the next month or so. I will keep you posted if you are interested.


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## Bart Karmich (Jul 16, 2010)

If you train for Schutzhund or Ring you will want different things. In ring I think you are going to want to get the dog to bite the sleeve without getting your arm or leg in his mouth so much. I understand that's how the competition weight suits work. You give the dog some suit flab. For Schutzhund, you are going to work the dog up to a bite bar. The only way you are going to do a lot of training on a human arm is with a long string of decoys. I mean, a little hidden sleeve work is good but you can't train everything that way.

I have one of these: http://leerburg.com/JN030.htm It's a good step-up from a jute soft sleeve. I haven't got to use it a lot though.

I like the soft sleeve with velcro down the length so you can put in on your arm or your leg and you can do bites inside and outside, not just on a bite bar.

But young dogs react differently to the feel of the sleeve. I think most dogs like to feel a live sleeve with some action in there to stimulate the grip. A bite bar is kind of dead feeling especially the harder ones. But my dog creeps out when he feels me inside the soft sleeve. As much as I try to encourage him, he doesn't think he should be doing that.


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## jim stevens (Jan 30, 2012)

Bart

Mine is the opposite, if she bites and just gets sleeve, she wants to adjust and get some arm in her mouth. Actually she is the same way with one of the bite builders, I have it stuffed with kongs, and she wants to bite where my fingers are, for some reason.


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## jim stevens (Jan 30, 2012)

Maren Bell Jones said:


> Hey Jim, as a heads up, one of the decoys from the other St. Louis club is likely moving out to Overland Park in the next month or so. I will keep you posted if you are interested.


Let me know on that! That is only an hour away, so I could definitely find a way to do that, and I'm sure it would help, and probably I could pick up some things that would help when I worked her myself as well. I've just taken it pretty easy, as I don't want to mess her up, although I think it would be kind of hard to, since she likes to bite and tug.


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## Bart Karmich (Jul 16, 2010)

I think most dogs want to bite something live not dead. That's why they don't go around biting all kinds of inanimate objects.

If the pup goes for hands or fingers I'd have them on a line with a good handler or on tieout and work on targeting. If they target the wrong place, they get a miss. With more advanced dog you can use a bungee to slow down the strike and give more consequence to the miss but I wouldn't do that with a young dog . Feed them the wedge on target. A good handler can give a little back pressure after the bite to keep them on grip so they don't try to regrip

My dog will go for the tug or roll handles. He doesn't want to take a full mouth. He's a complete sissy. I would stake him out and work on forcing correct targeting like I just wrote about but he just looks at me like he can't bite because he's staked out. So I'll cover the handles with my hands and then he gets wigged out and whines because he'll mouth my hands but isn't willing to bite down on them, and he doesn't want to bite the fat part of the roll, just the ends. He does the same thing on the soft sleeve which is why I won't even use it.

What I'm saying is to factor targeting and grip development into what equipment you use with the pup


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## Kat Hunsecker (Oct 23, 2009)

I love the Bende stuff, have the bite pillow and now the bite wedge, they have one you can replace the cover instead of buying new wedges all the time. The Bende Hybrid Bite Wedge
Would let an older dog brake it in a couple times though.... i even use it with my older dogs.

and i love their sleeves... their stuff is a little harder to come by but it is great equipment, have a couple of sleeves from them,too.


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## jim stevens (Jan 30, 2012)

I ordered one from Horton's, one of the Belgian style sleeves. I'll see how I like it in a week or so.


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## Joby Becker (Dec 13, 2009)

cool. what level?


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## jim stevens (Jan 30, 2012)

I ordered a level 2, she has a pretty good bite already. I'll try to get some videos up for criticism, since I've been doing my own training, if everyone won't be too harsh!


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## Joby Becker (Dec 13, 2009)

jim stevens said:


> I ordered a level 2, she has a pretty good bite already. I'll try to get some videos up for criticism, since I've been doing my own training, if everyone won't be too harsh!


just don't film while you are sitting in a chair, you'll get hammered for that one.. 

let us know how it goes, and if you still get bruises


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## Gerald Dunn (Sep 24, 2011)

why not just use a phone book\\/


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## jim stevens (Jan 30, 2012)

Heard that a guy did that once! I don't have that much vodka.


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## Joby Becker (Dec 13, 2009)

jim stevens said:


> Heard that a guy did that once! I don't have that much vodka.


I think he was 100% sober for the phone book,,,but also think that guy had a couple rum and cokes with the catalog...not sure though


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## Gerald Dunn (Sep 24, 2011)

Lol lol lol lol lol :-\"


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