80 Year Old Video of Schutzhund Dogs - Page 1

While searching for videos of the WUSV competition, I came across this 80 year old film! It's very interesting. Notice how common the reverse mask was back then with the German shepherd. I've noticed this before with films I've seen of the old DDR dogs. I have also seen a photo of Hitler with a reverse masked GSD that could have passed for a Littlest Hobo dog!

Okay, can a moderator please fix the video link? Thank you!

And, oooh BEER after the training! :D

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14sXVbpaZ98

well, first part of video i do remember from my youth in 70s and i did hate that "in group training exercise".
pretty stupid idea if you ask me but that was norm at that time.
what was good - dogs did have more freedom in their work on field. there wasn't as much strictness for the manner on how dog does the track. points was earned on the final result of the tracking. no one demanded that your dog must do staring at you upon the "fuss" position.
obstructions on field was not as present day imitation of obstacles. and never seen dog to be disqualified because "dog's aggression
during the fight is in excess".

The dogs definitely had to be agile to do all the different jumps you see in the video. I think it's a shame that they've taken out not only the scaling wall, but also the broad jumps, which you only now see in the advanced levels of AKC obedience.

I also think the decoy firing off the gun shots while engaging the dog is a much truer test of the dog's nerves.

I don't know if attacking the decoy on the bicycle was actually part of the routine back then but it is something I've seen more than once in old videos, so it was fairly common.

i don't know about bike but heard from someone, who was involved back then in prepping the dogs for military,
attack on moving motorbike and on bed of moving truck was mandatory part. but that is preparation of the dogs to special tasks.
schutzhund technically just a basic test to see if dogs can be taken further.
i guess today IPO is for sake of IPO, just a sport and nothing else.
but i agree, softening test for agility do make sense only if that applies only for testing show dogs with their weak build.
for normal german shepherd 6 feet vertical wall or wide pit isn't something insurmountable. much larger east-europian shepherds
and even heavy weight caucasian shepherds can do it with no sweat.

The in group exercises have absolutely their worth. Maybe not in the sense of obedience but in the sense of other dogs and handlers becoming background noise. If you combine new training methods with the old "In Group" exercise you get dogs that learn that other dogs are safe to work around.

That's exactly how we rehab dog reactive and leash aggressive dogs.

Also, a lot of BH Groups still work that way. At least my old Club still worked in a group with the BH Group, because the BH Group was separate from the IPO group itself.

The video does not show the whole exercise; but I have certainly seen Police Display teams do that 'thief on a bicycle' routine more than once in the past couple of decades.

Thanks for posting this gem. Sure miss some of the old ways....important testing of dog's overall work-ability to include scaling wall and broad jump is so important and agree, should not be a problem for working-bred dogs. Love seeing the old-style conformation on these beautiful working dogs. Great post!

Baerenfangs, I totally agree about the group exercises. It teaches the dogs to ignore other dogs, and focus only on their handler. However, there is the risk of an aggressive, off-leash dog attacking another dog. I imagine the handlers know their own dog well enough to prevent this from happening. It's not like the out-of-sight down-stay that the AKC is planning to remove from the obedience routine.

dog's calmness in surrounding by the other dogs absolutely depends on your engagement/bond with your dog. if you don't have it and your dog does have interest in anything but you, no group exercises gonna help you. trust me, i know it not from the tales or videos.