HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT SDA - Page 3

Breed, you make a very good point.   I want a dog who will protect me.  Your comment makes me think about the young woman who was walking her dog in a park in North Georgia recently and who was  found murdered.  This world in which we live has some crazy/sick people in it.  I want a dog that will protect me with his or her life if need be.  I want my dog to be trained to "turn on" when needed and to also be trained to "turn off".   I was recently told a true life story about a man attempting to rob a single lady at her home.  Fortunately, she has a well trained SDA Malinois and needless to say, the robber was unsuccessful.  This dog was "turned on" by her owner and the dog literally could have saved her life. . .  just think what could have happened had she not had this dog!   

"I"m just saying, the minute it becomes about the titles and not about the dogs, is the minute I would walk away from it all because that defeats the whole purpose. "

The whole purpose of the titles is to evaluate the GSD's breed worthiness.  Up until recently the AKC did not accpet schutzhund titles.  This thought process was changed after Sept. 11 and the need for competent working dogs.  Police titled dogs and herding dogs are titles that prove a working dogs breed worthiness.

There are many misconceptions about schutzhund.  Schutzhund is first and formost a training METHODOLOGY used to evaluate tempement, drive, structure and nerve of the German Shepherd Dog.  The recent rule changes has made it easier for dogs to obtain titles in the SPORT of schutzhund.

Kyle

Shasta - that was a great post, ad I agree - I think it is more important that you make sure you work the dog...the how doesnt have so much importance as long as the dog is a good dog.

~Cate

You might want to check the dates on the AKC bandwagon thing. AKC started forming their WD program in 2002 which was long before SDA came on the scene.

The only thing that I have against Schutzhund is that years ago Schutzhund was designed to be a test,evaluation and to see if the dog was suitable to be bred.Now it seems that it is more of a sport hence the reason why we are seeing so many GSD's being bred with drives so over the top .I believe when you turn a test or an evaluation into a sport,then you are taking the breed through a detour.

The best example I can use is someone that is brave and a good fighter v.s. someone that is awesome at playing a street fighting game on Sony Playstation!!!!!

I am not trying to offend any Sch enthusiasts,just sharing my opinion.I too participate in Schutzhund,but the main difference with me is that I do it the way it was intended to be and not as a sport.

My preferene is to have real dogs not sleeve happy dogs.I have not had the opportunity to view first hand an SDA event but I intend to one day.

Kreiger,   Hope you do get a chance  to check out a SDA trial and/or some of their trainning. I think you will find it is designed to truly test a dog, by your earlier comments that's what you are interrested in. There have been quite a few Sch. people with the same mentality as you getting interested. The obedience work very simular to Sch ,lets face it schutzund has probably the finest obedience routine as any.

The protection routines and titles have been designed to really put a dog to the test. Also the search and rescue titles designed for more real world situations.