28/07/2024
UNDERSTANDING WHAT IS DRIVE WHAT IS INSTINCT AND WHAT IT MEANS WHEN SOMEONE SAYS THAT THE DOG IS "CIVIL".
Some people are mixing term "Civil" with term "Defense". The 101 fact is that "Civil" is a characteristic of the dog's training and personality and it is NOT and INHERITED drive. Where prey and defense ARE INHERITED drives. The "civil" is descriptive characteristic which shows in prey drive or in defense drive.
So what does term CIVIL really means":
The term "Civil" is all about targeting> The so called "Civil dog" targets the man without any benefit or presence of any bite equipment or any other equipment (like stick) on the decoy or near by (on the ground) of the decoy. Civil dog does not have any undesirable associations as well. Period. Imagine in military you have uniform. Dog training decoy's uniform is the bite like sleeve or suit. If the soldier is in civil then he has no uniform> Thus civil dog is biting people in "civil" clothing and not because they do have on a bite equipment/"uniform". If the dog has to see decoy in "uniform"/bite equipment or even if the equipment is near by on the ground, in order to bite then he is not civil. That is my test #2.
The EQUIPMENT in civil dog training is ONLY used to protect the decoy from getting injured AFTER the dog is trained to be bite and is engaging/biting the civil decoy. There are other aspects and conditions which render the dog to be or not to be civil. Such is an called association and there are three different types of associations.
* Undesirable association is any association dog has to have in order to perform bitework. Undesirable association in a dog renders dog not to be civil.
**The only desirable association for civil dog is a command to attack (or training to bite in area protection). If the dog is unencumbered by anything and targets a man after he hears the command to do so then such dog is civil.
*** then we also have supportive association. Supportive association is an association which is not necessary but it is helpful when present because it increases he dg's intensity to perform his civil work.
Example: Is when the LE dog hears over radio a K9 call and gets into serious drive.. Such dog does not need such supportive association to perform apprehension,... but due to anticipation it helps to increase his intensity if he does. Civil dog's bitework is not necessitated by undesirable association.
FYI DRIVE: A drive is helping animal to satisfy basic biological needs and compensates for for example hunger with drive to obtain food, or safety by drive of self protection or procreation by sexual drive and it is an instinctual need that has the power of driving the behavior of an individual; or it is said that it is an "excitatory state produced by a homeostatic disturbance". Homeostatic disturbance can be hunger in Prey drive and self-defenses in Defense drive. There are other dives like pack drive, sexual drive and so on. Some include in drives what other call instincts. But instincts are only and automatic automaton like behavioral pattern like nesting - instinctual building of nest, or ants building an anthill and bees honey comb, and so on. Instinctual reflexes are often subsection of drives. Like prey drive incudes chasing reflex instinct to automatically attack a moving animal or any moving object, retrieve instincts to bring the prey object back to den, pack member or pups,...and so on.
There are 2 "civil" characteristic . One is natural - like dog just opportunistically biting a person's flash (because that is all is there) and the other one is learned /trained targeting of a person and not an equipment.
let make on thing clear. When we are talking about civil ability of the dog in training or during dogs bitework in work of protection like in LE or PP, then we are talking about a learned behavior or also natural behavior supported by our training. But "civil" ability is no drive per se, nor instinct per se, nor reflex per se, because drives and instincts are strictly inherited and can not be changed or established by training, where "civil" can be and is learned behavior and it can be changed or unlearned. Inherited drive, inherited instinct or inherited reflex can not be learned or unlearned they are inherited. They can be only developed and enhanced by training. The dog can be civil naturally like an untrained dog will coincidently and opportunistically bite flesh naturally but that is based on opportunity and it is not driven to be civil naturally through genetics so it too is not a drive per se.
In dog training the term "Civil" merely describes preferential targeting of the dog a "civil" person = person which does not have any bite equipment and it can be and it is part of prey or defense. So yes the dog can be civil in prey drive or in defense drive as an learned characteristic of these drives.
