What a beautiful GSD - Page 2

Yes, what a beautiful dog.   Thank you so much for the video.  This is the 1st opportunity I have had to see a trail and I got a much clearer idea on what is involved with the bite work part.

I have a few newbie questions.  Please, do not take them in any way as a negative, as that is not my intent at all. 

1.  It seemed as though many of the dogs knew what to expect coming from the blind.  Do the trials not vary the blind locations and looks?  If the pattern is always the same, does that not lead to a "memory" response rather than showing that the dog can handle any situation if given the command?
2.  Isn't the goal of the bite work part of the trial to show that a dog can protect and assert it's control if the owner/handler gives the command?  If this is the case and the decoy only uses a bite sleeve, other than being able to follow a command and a pattern, what is the dog really showing?

I was expecting to see more aggressiveness during this part of the trial.  More of a "my human has told me that I need to protect him at all cost from the danger before me."   Instead, it looked more like "my human told me to go bite a sleeve."

Again, I am not intending to offend anyone or down value anything.  What I saw was truly great; it was just not what I expected.

Abby I just don't think I'd pick the pattern for me, personaly;  not saying there
is owt wrong with them.  Have known some nice ones (and bi-colours).
You haven't missed an email BTW, haven't sent anything else yet, still struggling
with power interruptions.  Progress IS being made, notwithstanding, I haven't
run away with the Milkman LoL.  Sorry to be so slow.

I can really sympathise now with our friends on the board who were hit by the
hurricane.

Ibrahim - apologies for hijacking


Fawnda, that video is of the German Sieger show earlier this year,  the SchutzHund
test section;  so there are differences between that sport / test environment and the
various other Trials.

Oh.  Ok.  Thank you for explaining.   I will be viewing my first trial in December.    So excited.

Fawn that video is of conformation show bite work, not a Schutzhund Trial.

Here is a video of an IPO (new name for Schutzhund) 3 championship Phase C or protection routine.

Also, it's just an awesome video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn3VghnNEpc

Also Ibrahim, very handsome dog, yes!

Thank you for this.  That is more what I was expecting.     That video did raise a few other questions, but I will wait to see if they are answered at the trial.

Yes RLHAR, he is.

Hi Hundmutter, the gang is doing fine, as you know no dog is perfect, I can see what you're saying, without going into his minute details, he is a beauty ( in my eyes). I like all colors, all patterns, but what I think works like a magnet for me is the dark face, once djc posted a picture of a puppy with a very beautiful dark face, till now I just can't forget that beautiful dark mask.

Aby,

I'm following your posts as usual eventhough I don't reply to them, often times I don't have something useful to ad 

1.  It seemed as though many of the dogs knew what to expect coming from the blind.  Do the trials not vary the blind locations and looks?  If the pattern is always the same, does that not lead to a "memory" response rather than showing that the dog can handle any situation if given the command?

No, the pattern is always the same.  It's not really about searching for a bad guy as much as it is about showing that you can control and direct your dog when he is very high in drive.  The dog knows they are there for protection and knows where the helper is.  People train the dog to actually search (check) each blind to varying degrees but the dog does not need to pause and check each blind to earn full points.

2.  Isn't the goal of the bite work part of the trial to show that a dog can protect and assert it's control if the owner/handler gives the command?  If this is the case and the decoy only uses a bite sleeve, other than being able to follow a command and a pattern, what is the dog really showing?

Yes and no.  SchH is not the only game in town.  I do SDA and the protection phases use bitesuits and offer more "real world" scendarios like direct attacks on the handler, having the decoy show aggression to the dog but then be friendly to the handler so the dog must remain neutral, guns fired at the dog, the handler patting down the decoy while the dog guards, etc.  SchH in general is a breed test that is demonstration that the dog has what it takes inside him to continue.  It is not a demonstration of police work or personal protection, but a dog that can pass SchH with good scores in protection should be able to go on to other things that involve these more practical/real life scenarios.  At the higher level, SchH is more like a sport where people train the pattern to perfection and compete for top points.  These handlers are looking to earn points and win, not demonstrate that their dog is a strong protection "street dog".  To know what a dog is showing you in SchH you have to look carefully at how the dog works and how the dog is *being* worked.  Like during a breed survey, is the helper just running sideways out of a blind holding the sleeve out or is the helper running at the dog and handler?  Is the helper just waving a stick over the dog or is the helper driving/hitting the dog?

Aren't we lucky to have you with us VKGSD, you're handling the difficult sides very sweetly