Foundation work for beginning schutzhund - Page 1

With the advent of popularity of the German Shepherd dog,
more and more people are seeking friendly information on
how to begin training their dog for schutzhund.

This topic is for starting the foundation work on a
young dog who you will try to title.

Unlike the AKC you must find a club in your area
that will help you get started in Schutzhund. This is a little harder,
but will put you on the right path and allow you to see older dogs
trained for schutzhund.

Test the dog on 3 levels to see if he makes a good candidate.

#1. Protection...This score takes priority over the rest of the scores

.#2 Tracking....I put this 2d because it will more times than not
bring your score down.

3#.. Obedience..or trainability..this is much needed in all phase
of schutzhund.

To compete on a national level you should figure 4000 hours of
training.

Having laid the foundation for your foundation work.

Lets start from a virtual club, and you are just starting a
new dog. He has  his puppy training and puppy bite work.
He can sit ,stay, fetch a ball and bring it to you.

He does not know the long down, or worked with a helper
in his bite work.

WE will call this imaginary dog Rupert.

He is about  8 to 12  months old.

What is needed to routinize him to the
3 phases of schutzhund?

Remember to win you must do well in all 3 phases.
And you need a dog that has these traits..not just one
that bites.

So if you owned Rupert, what would you do for his foundation
work?

 Max,,,Good thread....

Max, if you want to bring Rupert over, I can help you. Don't be bashful. You're welcome anytime.

i thought the magic number was 10,000 hours.

Max, what exactly do you want to know? I guess I don't get what your asking. You have a 8-12 month old dog that you've already done the foundation? Well if someone has to search for a club, who says the foundation was correct? How much does a person know before they are involved in the sport? The cool thing about training, is that you can always go back to square 1 in training, but hopefully the dog isn't too f'd up to overcome garbage foundation work. Even if an 8 month old has little to no work done on them, you can always start at the beginning. How you train and advance in the training depend on the dog.

"i thought the magic number was 10,000 hours."

I think both numbers are high...4,000 hours = 40 hours a week for 100 weeks or essentially full time for two years assuming a couple of weeks a year off for sickness, vacation, etc.  10,000 hours is 5 years.

Keith, I am not making this up!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expert 

 I strongly object to the club culture. I had a very bad experience at visiting the local club facility . The training director was smoking cigarettes on the club grounds and lying down in the grass. The whole atmosphere was of chit chat and socializing. There is just too much of BS going on in 90 % of the clubs too much of politics and BS in general. Rather I would suggest any new person to take under the wings of a experienced mentor and take a one on one with him or her. I have seen serious clubs also but the general atmosphere is too laid back and BS in general.

cheers

Keith, I put in 50,000 hours in one year on a dog to wash it out! Are you calling me a liar?