Cheating titles, dogs don't even have to turn up!! - Page 1

I personally know of one situation where it is suspected that someone falsified records. It was reported to the SV and I know, for a fact, that the SV is looking into situations where fraud is suspected. It is a slow process.

Most people and judges are honest. And you are correct, a quickie title is just that, and it shows when the dog cannot do the work under distraction or worse, just cannot do it. There are those all over the US and in Europe who would take a quickie title, but there are many of us who would not. I sometimes train clients dogs for a SchH title and I will NOT do quickie titles. It is tough because at a minimum, for most dogs I have trained, the time needed was a year. This is because I do not believe it is a good thing to train every single day and in my view, the dog needs time to absorb each new skill. Even with some outstanding and intense dogs, they sometimes need rest and a break from training. My goal, whether I train my own dogs or a clients, is to be able to take the dog to any field and work with any helper. To that end, we have multiple helpers come in during the time the dogs are in training and that makes for much more confident dogs in the end.

So, the bottom line is, yes, there are some who cheat. There are many who do not. There are people who buy dogs who are  rushed through the training (such as the people who tell me as we discuss my contract that someone else will title their dog to SchH 1 in two months and then in 2 more weeks to SchH2).  If they saw some video or the dog in person and were astute and knowledgeable observers, they would know immediately that the training was poor. Some people don't care if the training is poor because they simply want to be able to breed the dog and make money. Who gives a damn whether the dog really is a good dog? I do, but many don't. So all one can do is hold up ones' own standards and not back down.

I find it hard to believe that anyone would be ignorant enough to believe that a dog could be titled that quickly, chances are the people sending these dogs know full well they are buying a title, not training for one. From what I understand, it's nothing new.

I would point out that some people in the UK, and I believe it is a growingt number, do some or much of the training for their dogs titles here in the UK, then they take them to Germany to polish up and obtain their titles in Germany. This process clearly reduces the training needs and therefore time spent in Germany, and I suppose the cost. It would be unfair to generalise that when a dog spends a short time in Germany obtaining its titles it is therefore cheating. I applaud any careful examination and scrutiny of all aspects of our GSD sports, but I equally deplore unfair allegations and/or 'kangaroo court' or 'lynch mob' mentality at any time, especially where genuine reasons exist.

A lady I know had a show dog and her breeder sent the dog to Germany to be titled.The lady did nothing with the dog.

So this dog got a title of Sch1 in two months. I thought there is no way!!

 Sending dogs to trainers here or in Europe for a title that starts from nothing and suddenly, two or three months later the dog is titled is most likely to be shoddy training. But yes, people here in the states do it all the time, and yes, some I know who do it know that it is shoddy but they don't care. I do. And I would never do it that way. What is the point? If I cannot train a dog properly, be it doing it myself, or with a competent training program, why bother?

To Len and Matthew - It is possible to do titles in 2 months with the right work before the dogs go to Germany and also may I say with the right dog.  I have recently had a female complete her SchH1 and Koerung in 2 months and another who has spent 12 months in Germany and come home with only her BH and AD.  They are very different types of dog and more work was put into the first female and it payed off.  The second female is just not cut out to bite the sleeve - any other sort of toy but cannot handle the sleeve.  This does not make her a bad dog but just a little soft.  Yago has just taken 6 days to take his SchH2 and believe me he had to work very hard for it but his basic training was good so it was possible to do it that quickly.  Had he had a title gained in the way you are talking about it would not have been possible.  Please don't class all trainers in Germany with the same attitude - there are some excellent trainers over there who will put a lot of effort into training your dog for you.