Controlled Aggression

Want to learn about K9 obedience, police dog training, learning theory and more? Jerry Bradshaw has been a sports competitor and police dog trainer for 25 years, and as the executive director of the Protection Sports Association he's been around the world competing and training K9s. Welcome to the Controlled Aggression podcast.

Controlled Aggression is a education podcast hosted by Jerry Bradshaw, with 100 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Jerry Bradshaw hosts Controlled Aggression, a education show with 100 episodes published.

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  Episode #163

  Decoys Stop Helping the Dogs!

  Aug 21, 20261h 13mS1

  In this episode, Jerry Bradshaw discusses: Training proactive, powerful dogs in proactivity. Preventing early queues in training to your canine. Teaching your dog that their actions initiate activity from the target. Morphing reactivity into proactivity. Having a training progression to move away from the handler and decoy help of early foundational training. Key Takeaways: You want your dog to be willing to initiate, even if there's no reaction or triggers from the decoy. As humans, it is easy for us to identify that a random extremity is part of a larger human being. It takes dogs longer to look at that picture and figure out that what they are seeing is attached to the target, which is a passive human being. Have a plan if your dog is struggling with proactivity to go back to foundational elements. Don't get in the habit of assisting them with movement every time. Allow context to work for you. Avoid creating anticipation and let the training and context work by changing the picture the dog sees. "So don't be lazy. Set up your civil sessions, your scenarios, and make sure as the dog comes into the training area that we're setting up these situations that were not leaving clues on the ground in the form of equipment." — Jerry Bradshaw Episode References: The Working Grip Foundation: https://workinggrip.org/ Stewart Hilliard's Kynology: https://kynology.org/ Get Jerry's book Controlled Aggression on Amazon.com Contact Jerry: Website: controlledaggressionpodcast.com Email: JBradshaw@TarheelCanine.com Tarheel Canine Training: www.tarheelcanine.com YouTube: tarheelcanine Twitter: @tarheelcanine Instagram: @tarheelk9 Facebook: TarheelCanineTraining Protection Sports Website: psak9-as.org Patreon: patreon.com/controlledaggression Slideshare: Tarheel Canine Calendly: https://calendly.com/tarheelcanine Tarheel Canine Seminars: https://streetreadyk9.com/ Tarheel Canine Student Portal: https://tcstudentportal.com/ Sponsors: ALM K9 Equipment: almk9equipment.com PSA & American Schutzhund: psak9-as.org Tarheel Canine: tarheelcanine.com The Drive Company: thedriveco.com The Drive Company Instagram: instagram.com/thedrive.co Dog Armour: dogarmour.com Dog Armour Instagram: instagram.com/dogarmourpro Rogue Arsenal: roguearsenal.com Rogue Arsenal Instagram: instagram.com/rogue_arsenal_official Kirby K9: k9irby.com Train Hard, train smart, be safe. Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

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  Episode #162

  Attention at a Distance

  Jul 24, 202646 minS1

  In this episode, Jerry Bradshaw discusses: The importance of mandatory eye contact and how to generalize for distance work. Moving from negative reinforcement to positive punishment to move from escape to avoidance. Training progressions to train mandatory eye contact with your dog. Transitioning from lure to reward to variable reward. Key Takeaways: To get your dog to pay attention to your face, consider putting a food reward in your mouth - like hot dogs, cheese, or chicken. Build duration before you build distance in your training progression. If they aren't paying attention at 2 feet, they're not going to pay attention at 20 feet. You have to take the training wheels off as you move between training progression levels. When you get to trial, you have to operate on an extinction condition - there is no reinforcement or rewards on the field, so it is better to have your dog on a very, very thin variable reward schedule by that point. That only comes through training progressions and systematic generalization. "If we never get to the point where the dog understands there's a correction for inattention, then that's not going to be a very reliable tool for us for attention at a distance. We want to generalize it. We want to continue to create a systematic desensitization to all the things that the decoy might do." — Jerry Bradshaw Episode References: The Working Grip Foundation: https://workinggrip.org/ Stewart Hilliard's Kynology: https://kynology.org/ Get Jerry's book Controlled Aggression on Amazon.com Contact Jerry: Website: controlledaggressionpodcast.com Email: JBradshaw@TarheelCanine.com Tarheel Canine Training: www.tarheelcanine.com YouTube: tarheelcanine Twitter: @tarheelcanine Instagram: @tarheelk9 Facebook: TarheelCanineTraining Protection Sports Website: psak9-as.org Patreon: patreon.com/controlledaggression Slideshare: Tarheel Canine Calendly: https://calendly.com/tarheelcanine Tarheel Canine Seminars: https://streetreadyk9.com/ Tarheel Canine Student Portal: https://tcstudentportal.com/ Sponsors: ALM K9 Equipment: almk9equipment.com PSA & American Schutzhund: psak9-as.org Tarheel Canine: tarheelcanine.com The Drive Company: thedriveco.com The Drive Company Instagram: instagram.com/thedrive.co Dog Armour: dogarmour.com Dog Armour Instagram: instagram.com/dogarmourpro Rogue Arsenal: roguearsenal.com Rogue Arsenal Instagram: instagram.com/rogue_arsenal_official Kirby K9: k9irby.com Train hard, train smart, be safe. Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

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  Episode #161

  Dogs Under Pressure!

  Jul 17, 20261h 21mS1

  In this episode, Jerry Bradshaw discusses: Different ways to deliver pressure reliably to your canine while tracking how the dog is doing while under that pressure. Understanding the baseline bite pressure. Reading your canine's body language while in a bite. How training under pressure is a progressive thing that never ends. Training emotional regulation in your dog from a young age. Training under the assumption that something is going to go wrong and, at some point, something will bother your dog. Key Takeaways: When we don't bring civil aggression and pressure into the biting, we can get failures in the bite. Build in the training now, build the resiliency, give your dog something to lean into when things get stressful. When trained to handle pressure, police canines can be used to bring suspects into custody in a way that is safer for both the suspect and the officers involved. Where most training gets in trouble is when an inexperienced decoy is working with an inexperienced dog, or when training progressions are rushed. You do not have to go to the lengths of physically hurting dogs in order to create resilience. People do that when they don't actually understand what they're doing. Stress inoculation is an ongoing training process for the dog's whole life. It is not something that will be finished at any point. It must happen both gradually and variably. Not everything boils down to genetics. Environment and training are also key to getting the most out of any dog. "Conditioning is training. You have to show the dog the pictures. You have to run through the processes. You have to be aware of what you can do with this dog and where he is in the levels of training. Stress and pressure then become predictable and addressable by the dog. This is so important. If they never see stuff, it's not predictable." — Jerry Bradshaw Episode References: The Working Grip Foundation: https://workinggrip.org/ Stewart Hilliard's Kynology: https://kynology.org/ Get Jerry's book Controlled Aggression on Amazon.com Contact Jerry: Website: controlledaggressionpodcast.com Email: JBradshaw@TarheelCanine.com Tarheel Canine Training: www.tarheelcanine.com YouTube: tarheelcanine Twitter: @tarheelcanine Instagram: @tarheelk9 Facebook: TarheelCanineTraining Protection Sports Website: psak9-as.org Patreon: patreon.com/controlledaggression Slideshare: Tarheel Canine Calendly: https://calendly.com/tarheelcanine Tarheel Canine Seminars: https://streetreadyk9.com/ Tarheel Canine Student Portal: https://tcstudentportal.com/ Sponsors: ALM K9 Equipment: almk9equipment.com PSA & American Schutzhund: psak9-as.org Tarheel Canine: tarheelcanine.com The Drive Company: thedriveco.com The Drive Company Instagram: instagram.com/thedrive.co Dog Armour: dogarmour.com Dog Armour Instagram: instagram.com/dogarmourpro Rogue Arsenal: roguearsenal.com Rogue Arsenal Instagram: instagram.com/rogue_arsenal_official Kirby K9: k9irby.com Train hard, train smart, be safe. Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

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  Episode #159

  Podcast Short: PSA2 Muzzle Attack

  Jun 19, 202619 minS1

  In today's podcast short, Jerry Bradshaw discusses issues with muzzle attacks in the PSA Level 2, noting that many dogs and handlers struggle with this exercise. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the fundamentals of a good muzzle fight and suggests starting with unsuited muzzle work to build civil aggression. Jerry advises limiting strikes in training sessions to manage your dog's frustrations and to gradually introduce other equipment, such as bite suits and hidden sleeves. He stresses the need for decoys to provide accurate feedback and to avoid distractions in early training sessions, especially when starting out on muzzle work. "We want the dog biting through the muzzle. The muzzle is just something that's keeping him from biting that decoy." — Jerry Bradshaw Get Jerry's book Controlled Aggression on Amazon.com Contact Jerry: Website: controlledaggressionpodcast.com Email: JBradshaw@TarheelCanine.com Tarheel Canine Training: www.tarheelcanine.com YouTube: tarheelcanine Twitter: @tarheelcanine Instagram: @tarheelk9 Facebook: TarheelCanineTraining Protection Sports Website: psak9-as.org Patreon: patreon.com/controlledaggression Slideshare: Tarheel Canine Calendly: https://calendly.com/tarheelcanine Tarheel Canine Seminars: https://streetreadyk9.com/ Tarheel Canine Student Portal: https://tcstudentportal.com/ Sponsors: ALM K9 Equipment: almk9equipment.com PSA & American Schutzhund: psak9-as.org Tarheel Canine: tarheelcanine.com The Drive Company: thedriveco.com The Drive Company Instagram: instagram.com/thedrive.co Dog Armour: dogarmour.com Dog Armour Instagram: instagram.com/dogarmourpro Rogue Arsenal: roguearsenal.com Rogue Arsenal Instagram: instagram.com/rogue_arsenal_official Find out more about Hold The Line Conference 2026 at https://htlk9.com/ Train hard, train smart, be safe. Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

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  Episode #158

  Ditch Your Bite Suit!

  Jun 19, 20261h 28mS1

  In this episode, Jerry Bradshaw discusses: Keeping in mind the olfactory and visual cues of a bite suit that we don't often consider. Reducing equipment fixation, creating habits of engagement, and training the behaviors you want into your dog. Why your dog needs to believe the bite suit is irrelevant. Focusing training on the most likely scenarios your dog will encounter. Key Takeaways: Too much suit work creates a false sense of security for your dog. Active aggression is a trained response, usually to an invasion of territory or other behaviors soliciting that reaction. Through classical conditioning, we can train dogs to show that behavior in training and, in turn, active scenarios in deployment. Create a habit of engagement. During the development of your younger dogs, you want to develop that habit so they know where they're going to bite, so they don't get into a state of choice paralysis. Train leg bites - it is typically the easiest and most likely place the dog will be able to get a bite on in most engagements. You're increasing the probability of real engagements every time you deemphasize the cues of odor and visuals from suits. "We want to camouflage these suits with different visual patterns, randomize the visual cue of that suit, and so that means different colors, textures, covering those suits with, jeans, jackets, raincoats, sheets, layers of blankets, right, all of these things to make the picture look a lot less like a guy in a bite suit, and a lot more like what a suspect might look like on the street." — Jerry Bradshaw Get Jerry's book Controlled Aggression on Amazon.com Contact Jerry: Website: controlledaggressionpodcast.com Email: JBradshaw@TarheelCanine.com Tarheel Canine Training: www.tarheelcanine.com YouTube: tarheelcanine Twitter: @tarheelcanine Instagram: @tarheelk9 Facebook: TarheelCanineTraining Protection Sports Website: psak9-as.org Patreon: patreon.com/controlledaggression Slideshare: Tarheel Canine Calendly: https://calendly.com/tarheelcanine Tarheel Canine Seminars: https://streetreadyk9.com/ Tarheel Canine Student Portal: https://tcstudentportal.com/ Sponsors: ALM K9 Equipment: almk9equipment.com PSA & American Schutzhund: psak9-as.org Tarheel Canine: tarheelcanine.com The Drive Company: thedriveco.com The Drive Company Instagram: instagram.com/thedrive.co Dog Armour: dogarmour.com Dog Armour Instagram: instagram.com/dogarmourpro Rogue Arsenal: roguearsenal.com Rogue Arsenal Instagram: instagram.com/rogue_arsenal_official Find out more about Hold The Line Conference 2026 at https://htlk9.com/ Train hard, train smart, be safe. Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

  ListenShow Notes

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