Introduction to Bitework
with TTCanines
Tap into your dog’s natural prey drive and instincts in a positive, fun way.
Harness your dog’s natural prey drive
Does your dog love to chase, catch, and bite? This bitework introductory session with Keith from TTCanines is a fantastic way to channel those natural predatory instincts in a positive and controlled manner.
Designed for pet dog owners to have a go at a new activity, this session introduces you and your dog to bitework, offering a fun and stimulating activity while teaching your dog important self-control.
Why try Bitework?
Bitework taps into your dog’s inherent drive to chase, catch and bite! – instincts that can often be misunderstood. This session shows you how to harness those natural behaviours constructively, without encouraging undesirable habits like chasing wildlife or other animals. The training is context-specific, meaning your dog will learn that bitework is an activity done with you, in a controlled environment, so they won’t start chasing prey more or biting people because they are in bitework training.
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Who is Keith at TTCanines?
Keith has been training, rehabilitating and working with dogs for over 30 years, helping pet dog owners with reactive and fearful dogs (amongst many other behaviour issues!) and training dogs who become working dogs in the Police or Security work.
Keith also ran a rescue for many years for dogs who were seized by the police for aggression, and rehabilitated them to get them re-adopted again into a safe environment. He has also worked teams of spaniels in gundog fieldwork.
Keith is a really interesting, inspirational trainer – he’s also very no-nonsense and has helped me personally over the years with rescue dogs and very challenging cases.
Common Myths about Bitework
“Bitework will make my dog more likely to bite people.”
Bitework training is a very context specific activity – meaning that the dog learns that they only bite the target ‘thing’ such as the tug toy or bitework sleeve. They learn to do this activity in this specific context, not to generalise it to other situations.
“Bitework will make my aggressive.”
Bitework training is actually not about aggression – it’s a play activity, like playing tug. But with control, where the dog learns lots of impulse control about when to stop and start tugging, and the ‘rules’ of the game. It’s not part of the aggression brain chemistry, and that’s why we don’t allow dogs who are reactive to people to engage in bitework as it’s not about harnessing aggression or nervousness in any way.
“Bitework will make my dog chase prey.”
Dogs are very clever and they know a bitework sleeve is not a cute bunny running across the field, so they do not become more likely to chase prey or kill prey. Bitework instead provides a fun, constructive way for dogs to engage in activities that they naturally enjoy like tugging, biting etc to harness some of those natural instincts and provide an outlet for them.
Who is bitework not for?
Unfortunately, we can’t welcome every dog to the session, for their sake.
- Dogs who are people reactive or show aggression to people/strangers. This is because your dog has to be comfortable playing tug or games with a stranger as part of the training.
- Dogs who are nervous of strangers – again, dogs need to be comfortable engaging in play with a relative stranger in order to train.
What you can expect on the day:
Keith from TTCanines, will guide you through the fundamentals of bitework in a safe, controlled environment. Whether you’re new to this or have some experience, the session is designed to be educational and enjoyable for both you and your dog. We have both handler and spectator spaces available.
Key Info
- Time: 10am – 2pm
- Location: Greenhills Farm, Skelton, Penrith, CA11 9SQ
- We’ll be in a barn under cover, but bring warm clothes as it will be as cold as being outside!
- Tea and coffee provided
- Toilet onsite
- Bring your own lunch
Agenda
- There will be a demo to start with from Keith with his own dogs, ex-Police dog Gas and new recruit to Keith’s pack, Pink!
- Dogs will then be brought out to work, some one at a time, and sometimes in groups, if the dogs are comfortable.
- Your dog will work for a bit, then go back in the car for a rest, and then come out again and so on – as it’s quite physically and mentally taxing – so dogs won’t be working for 4 hours nonstop.
What to bring
- A tug toy that your dog likes playing tug with, or a toy they like retrieving/playing with
- No squeaky toys – Keith will explain why in the session!
- A harness for your dog instead of a thin collar
- Your lunch!
Ticket options
- Handler space: £35.00 – if you plan to bring your dog to train in the session
- Spectator space £20.00 – if you want to come without a dog and watch the session
If you are coming as a couple with one dog, then please just book under 1 ticket and drop me a message at hello@wellyandtails.co.uk.
If you are bringing two dogs, then you’ll need to book two tickets for each dog as we can only accommodate 6 dogs training.
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Any questions?
If you have any questions, or you’re not sure if your dog is right for the session, then please get in touch at hello@wellyandtails.co.uk or drop me a message on socials!
