Starting a Pup - Page 1

How do you start a pup in Schutzhund? How do you know if it has the ability, and how do you bring the ability out?

Find a club.They will help you. Until then play with rags and balls and always let the puppy end up winning the rag. Debby ebinezer052899@yahoo.com

Sunsilver, That's a tough question to answer in a simple post. The good news is that there's plenty of good resources available. Find a club for sure, whatever you can find in your area - if you're lucky you'll have choices, or if you're like me, you'll have to drive 2.5 hrs each way to get to one. :) Check out Ed Frawley's web site www.leerburg.com to see some of his many articles and his Q&A section. I'm not telling you it's gospel, nor do I agree with him 100%, but it is good place to start because there's so much info freely available on his site. You should try to pick up a copy of Sue Barwig's book on Schutzhund. You can get used copies for cheap on amazon.com and it's a good place the start. No book or web site can tell you everything you need to know. No club will have the story 100% perfect either, so have fun exploring the subject and keep an open mind. Yvette

Thanks, Yvette. I just bought a 14 week old female pup, by Erko v Haus Tchorz. When I did a temperment test on her, she chased after the toy, and 'killed' it. She also chased after a plastic bottle full of stones, and in the other parts of the test, came across as intelligent, confident and highly social. When I use a towel to mop dirty footprints off the floor, she chases after it, and tugs. One thing I had trouble evaluating was her pain tolerance. I don't know whether she was responding to pain, or just being independent, and wanting to get free when I tried pinching her toes. She didn't whimper, just struggled and tried to mouth my hand. So, I think she may have potential, but how much can you do with a 14 week old pup? I look at her and think: nah, she's too fragile for anything like this! (And then she head-butts me in the face, and gives me a black eye~!~) Will check out the Leerburg site.

All puppies are a crap shoot. The main thing is to do schutzhund & enjoy the journey. One thing you can do with such a young pup is start tracking. Here is a great site for schutzhund tracking: http://www.schutzhundtracking.com/ Schutzhund is a lot of fun. Enjoy!

Sunsilver, Find a good club and get plugged in with some experienced trainers. There is a lot of imprinting you can do with a young puppy that will pay off later. Do a Google search to find the URL's for the different SchH organizations - once you find their home pages you can search their list of clubs to find the ones closest to you. United Schutzhund Clubs of America DVG GSDCA-WDA Folks, did I miss any other SchH organizations? Yvette

Yes: http://www.gsscc.ca/ I am in Ontario, Canada, so the Toronto club is the closest. They meet tonight, so, I'll see if it's alright for me to drop by their training ground, which is JUST across the road from where I used to ride for many years. (The stable is now gone, but we used to ride through the fields where the club now trains.)