sport vs. Real life - Page 2

 teach your dog to target humans instead of a sleeve and you'll have a better chance

your dog will react to a  real life threat better then a sport dog that's always looking

for a sleeve then a threat.

                                                   50% prey+50% defense= fight drive
                        

Wasn't the initial point of SchH (what we now call the 'sport') a breed worthiness 'test'?  

This expectation some people have that a dog trained in a sport should be able to reproduce their form from the SchH field in a real life situation and that the dog is crap if they can't is just silly.

I mean just because football is a rough, aggressive sport you don't expect the men who play on the football field to be able to go out and automatically know how to drive a tank or field strip a Marine sniper rifle while under enemy fire the way a man or woman who has been trained for Military service do you?

That comes from training.  The original intent of SchH was to help breeders identify individuals who had the physical, emotional and mental fortitude to withstand and excel in the 'real life' training and scenarios.

I personally agree with bazza..You give north carolinians a bad name.JMO

Hey Jim !    I agree with you totally ................................  unless you been there and done it in real life it is difficult to make the understanding.......... .not to poke humor at the post but is much different looking in at the glass house than looking out from within.......   Greg

Schutzhund was and is a Breeding Worthiness Tool... and not a guarantee that any dog trained in the Sport will have Civil Drive... How you use the Breeding Tool is totally up to the individual breeder...
I think the dog or type of dog you eventually get is the dog you need...If you want a dog with a good nose then you search out for that type of dog...If you want a dog with great obedience then you search out and get that type of dog...If you want a dog to compete in Schutzhund then you search and find a dog that's able to do the Sport at whatever level you want...but you must also be able to handle each of these types of dog...
When looking for dogs that will Protect for real or for Police Work you can have a dog that's trained in the beginning levels of SchH but if they are trained in the Sport at higher levels...such as SchH3...then they are more acclimated to that and not towards Personal Protection...
So to get back to the original question...To what extent a SchH dog would protect in a real life situation depends totally on it's training and/or it's own personality and temperament...
I personally...when training a dog for Sport also like to teach them to bite for real...To do some Man-Work...I think it adds a lot to the aggression level of the dog...
All in all...I think we would all agree that we would like to have a Balanced-Dog...but then do some specific training for whatever we'd like to have for the situations we need...

~Bob~

Alkster, your attitude makes my blood boil, along with many others on this board. How are the inexperienced suppose to learn? You send us away to learn on our own then laugh at all the mistakes we make and label us as clueless.

Q-man, why would a German Shepherd, of all dogs, have to be taught to bite for real? A good dog should instinctively bite for real to protect his master or his property.

Tridegirl...Why are Police Dogs "Trained"....maybe they should just be instinctive in what you want...You don't need to train a dog to do what they know instinctively...like protecting them self...But if you train dogs...then you know that you never expect your dog to do something that you haven't proofed ...This is also why...although I do Schutzhund...I train all my dogs to do Man-Work...It just adds to their knowledge base...and like I said in the other post...it adds to their aggression level...

~Bob~

Personally, I don't ask my dogs to sacrifice their health and safety to amuse or protect me.  I protect myself,,,,,,,,,come to me looking for trouble???  Zero will shoot you.

High 5 Phil !  Leave the guard dog training to the wimps that got beat up in high school and now need to hide behind their doggies to make up for a mental insecurity complex.  Yes I know that was an offensive statement and likely would upset many.  Yet I stand behind the statement because more often than not it is completely true.  Dogs are not weapons.  History shows dogs were used as sentinels to bark warnings that someone or something was coming.  Which allowed tribes or villages or families a heads up to get their real weapons in time to prevent ambush.