Of mother-in-laws and Schutzhund dogs - Page 1

I was reading the 'to kennel or not' post and it got me thinking about a situation I run in to in my own working GSD day to day life.  However as my experience doesn't really tie back to the original thread, I figured I'd better go off on my own because this is something different.

As most of you know, I have a 2 year old Czech workingline GSD female who I am doing Schutzhund with.  She lives with myself, our West German working line male, my husband and our 4 year old son.  I don't kennel her but I do have a 1/3 acre fenced in yard that is her domain and she is crated durning the day when we are all gone from the house.  She is only allowed in the house on special ocassions and then only for a couple of hours.  While she is house trained, she is no means a 'house-dog'.

When reading the USA magazine article that someone mentioned in the other thread, my own heart sank a little because the majority of contributors seemed to come down on the kennel side of the discussion.  NOT THAT I ASPIRE TO HIGH LEVEL COMPETITION with my bitch and many of these people are much higher level than I ever expect to be.  She is my first dog and I'm just having a good time learning the ropes with her but I did read one point that stuck with me and which I have personally experienced with her.

The challenge of having to issue corrections for proper 'house' behavior vs what you want in the field. 

For me, in particular, jumping up.

When my in-laws come over, my mother in law in particular expects a dog to be seen but not heard.  My sister in law's kids are used to fairly small dogs who don't jump and even my parents expect a dog not to jump up.  Thus, there were 6 people in my girl's life (7 until I smacked my husband upside his head) who corrected her, yelled and ran from her or otherwise gave her a negative response to her jumping up.  (She really got anxious when my nephew busted out in hysterical tears after she bounced by him one time.)

This isn't very fair to her (especially when she was much younger) for me to be inviting her to come in to me to jump up and play with the tug or whatever but then other people who came around her, yelled at her for the same behavior.

Talk about confusing a dog.

So I realized I had to seperate her from the negative influences and this means, she's kept out in the yard or crated when these people are around.

I think that it is a very careful balance we're asking for, to give a Sch dog (I have no experience in SAR, ring sports, herding to know the commands and speak for them, so I'll say Sch) one set of rules for house/interacting with 'non-Sch' people but then expect a different set of rules out on the field.  People say 'my dog knows the difference' to which I have to wonder, are you sure?  Are you sure you're dog knows the difference without experiencing conflict within themselves and believe me, that conflict can be really subtle.

I believe my girl to be very clear headed with an amazing on-off switch but in this instance I can safely say that she did experience conflict and only after 18 months of working with her and reinforcing that I do want her to challenge me, is she now regaining the confidence to really bring the game back to me and jump up.  So in at least one instance I can see what those people in the magazine were talking about in their discussion over keeping a sport dog 'kenneled' vs 'house-dog'.

Clarity of expectation.

(PS - Before people get on me about it's my house/my rules, it's also my husband's house and my son's house and they like to see these people so you work with what you've got. )