Service Dogs of America - Page 1

Hey all I was wondering if anyone did this? I have looked at it online and on the website and gotten some pretty decent basic information...but I was looking for someone who has actually had experiences in doing the bitework titles that go along with this group and see if I could get some first hand experience with what they do and their training methods and how it differes...the pro's and cons's vs. French Ring and SchH. I read about it in Dog World this past week and was intrigued. Thanks so much for the help and any information you can give! ~Cate

The movie RAIN... deals about GSDs who worked during the Vietnan War.. How a GSD who was loved by a family was given a chance to come back home... Very unlikely to happen

Cate This is the wrong place to ask! You are just inviting a war amongst the frequents. The best thing to do is go out and spend time in both arenas. Judge for yourself. Heck you will probably learn a great deal by doing this anyways. A club won't let you become a member for at least a year. Explain to them that you are very interested in ring and SchH. Tell them you are new to dog sports and you want to know what the difference is before you invest time into one or the other. If they give you a fuss or become aces, you will have your answer. If a club can't recognize that you are willing and ABLE to learn, then you don't need them either. These are going to be the people you are going to rely on. Choose wisely. Look at the club members accomplishments. If the highest accomplishment anyone has recieved is high in trial at their own trial, you are in trouble. Look at how much time you have to invest. Do you have at least an hour and a half for tracking minimun of 4 times a week, minimum 30 minutes for obedience almost every day, and 6 to 10 hours a week at the club with helpers working your dog?

Thanks for the reply Don :) I was mostly asking because I will be at school for the next year and I have *no* clubs where I am...so I am trying to find out what information I can before I get a chance to actually go to a club in a year. Thanks again for the info :)

They have a program with the United Kennel Club to obtain titles. It is very much like Schutzhund with no tracking. The judges I've trialed under are USA helpers and they score tough. The rules read easier than it really is and the helper work was good and put a lot more pressure on the dog than I thought they would. I put a FO (Family Obedience...same as BH with some practical exercises thrown in) and a PA (Protection Alert) on my dog and will try his P1 (Protection 1) this summer. I think it is nice to have more than 1 option to trial/title dogs for those of us that are not close to or active with a Schutzhund club. The SDA guys are very nice and helpful. If you're near Michigan this father's day weekend, there's a big trial in Kalamazoo and you can watch and see what they do. I'll be there with my dog.

I'm in the process of getting a club going near me and the guys there have been EXTREMELY helpful, spending quite a bit of time talking to me to tell me what they expect etc etc. They have a dvd that shows alot of what they do as well. I am a trainer and find it very intriguing that there's titles for everyone. People with pets that just want the dog to bark/alert but not bite, can put a title, and people like me who want even more for my dogs to do, have a title to aim for. And yet because some of it is similiar to schutzhund, it doesn't appear to affect the schutzhund work, so I can do both. It's nice to not fuss over tracking, and yet they will have search and rescue titles for those that want to do it. It's kind of covering all bases from what I can tell. I don't have a backround in the other sports but have of course titled in schutzhund, and much of it is similiar. Some of the obedience is easier (for instance the long down) and some is much harder. Obedience during protection seems much tougher as well...at least from what I saw on the video to what I'm seeing in sch local clubs. I don't know a TON of schutzhund dogs that could sit there quietly without staring hard at the decoy moving RIGHT in front of him. And yet I was seeing that and seeing that they're looking for the dog to do that in the rules. Again, some looks easier, some looks harder.There are also some more practical exercises (I see FAR too many schutzhund dogs that can't walk politely through a gate, or jump politely in and out of a car...basic kennel manners really) Though I'm not coming from a ton of experience in SDA either as we haven't had a trial out here (I'm on the other end of the united states from these guys:-)) but I do know that I've got a club in the process at the moment and they've been extremely nice and very helpful over there. I think a key point to me was the usefulness for protection clients as well as something different to try.

I think I need to move to the North West (seems like that is were everything is!)....I am kind of stuck in a black hole were there are SDA clubs north and south of me but none are very close...I am going to see if I cant travel a ways south next semester to go check one out during a weekend. Thanks Birdwing and Shasta! That was exactly the kind of information I was looking for. Shasta....about that DVD...is it open for others to purchase? I would love to get some video to see what is going on! I was just really interested about it when I saw it...and that they have several different types of titles interested me also :) Thanks again!!!!!