Fritz Biehler question - Page 1

Does anyone know the name of the dog ( & the year that Herr Biehler competed with him in BSP) that Fritz made a point of training to high level even though the dog did not have strong nerve? Just proving good training can cover inherent temperament faults. I've heard this story more than once.

I'm sure it wasn't Enno, Drigon, Falk, maybe it was his dog from around 2005-7. I forget his name. But Fritz is probably greatest BSP trainer/handler of all time, so whatever he does is an anomaly and not something that most mortals can do.

II hadn't heard of this great story, and I don't know which dog. But there is a complete list of dogs that Fritz Biehler brought to BSP, European and World championships. Googling Friedrich Biehler und seine deutschen Schäferhunde leads to a link with the downloadable Excel file. A long list!
The incomparable Fritz Biehler.

there are plenty of dogs with weak nerves competing and winning........

It was Kanto v Strothheide.

Why do you think so?
Kanto was good for 2 times BSP ( 1984 and 1985 ), absolutely no "one day wonder".
Biehler trained and handled two of his sons, too ( Cando Wittelsburg and Hero Nebelsberg / both of them BSP participants / Cando European Champion in 87 ). I don´t think he would have trained and handled two sons out of Kanto in case he didn´t believe in the sire.
Maybe people define "strong nerves" differently.

susie, Val may well be correct--consider the females he put Kanto over: both Drigon daughters, no reason to expect weak nerve there, so perhaps his lesson was not just to show that stellar training can mask an innate insecurity in a dog to the point where the dog can compete at world levels, but to also demonstrate the results of taking that same dog to a much stronger breeding partner. The next question would then be whether those two good bitches were able to pass their resilience to their pups, and to what degree...

Hexe, I don´t know, but trainers of this calibre don´t tend to waste their time with mediocre dogs...
To choose Kanto puppies out of Drigon daughters makes perfect sense - he handled Drigon and he handled Drigon´s father Enno -
and because of his reputation he had access to the best puppies out of the breedings of his own studs.

Having a nerve weakness does not necessarily make a dog mediocre, he may have had other talents that made it worth working through the nerve issue and seeing if he could get the talents without too much nerve in the next generation. Depends on how the nerve issue manifested itself, a bit of nerve can make a dog buzz. Has anyone ever asked the guy?


Margaret N-J

That´s why I said ( politely ) : " Maybe people define "strong nerves" differently."

This is part of the original post : "...even though the dog did not have strong nerve? Just proving good training can cover inherent temperament faults..."

Faulty for someone else may be just fine for me, or for IPO...

We even don´t know what we are talking about, given that there is no "perfect" dog ( and I have seen several LG / BSP participants during training ) it´s always about the whole picture. Although Fritz Biehler is one of the best trainers/handlers on this planet only some dogs are able to go through Landesgroup / BSP stress with good to excellent results ( in this case twice, 2 years on the row ) - simply because they are better for this "job" than most of the others.

Because of that I doubt that someone like Fritz Biehler was willing to spend his training time with a dog with "inherent temperament faults".

But again, I don´t know the truth.