2/3 a Schutzhund GSD? - Page 1

Scarlet,
Your question about training is actually a bit funny/ironic because most training directors at Schutzhund clubs would be very happy to have club members who actually track and do obedience with their dogs.

On a more serious note, I think that you will find that a good club with a good training director will be more than accomodating with what you want to do with your dog. If not, they probably are not a club that you want to train with. I will also add to this that you may not want to do your tracking training with a Schutzhund club unless there are SAR trainers there. The tracking that is done is Schutzhund is different from SAR. Pick one and train your dog that way. Trying to do both could very likely make your dog not very good at either.

As for the kennel, I don't know them, but, they have some nice dogs, as do a lot of people. They seem to "get it" in that they "have occasional litters". They don't look like they are trying to get rich off of breeding. I did contact their Canadian kennel partner Randy up in Whitehorse, Yukon about a puppy four years ago. The pup was a brother to Randy's dog Axle. It was turning out to be somewhat of a nightmare getting the puppy from him to me in Chicago. Randy was an extremely nice guy to deal with and he cared more about where the pups went and how they would live their life with their new owner, as opposed to just worrying about the dog being trained for titles. I am sure I would have liked the puppy and Randy did contact me later to tell me that he found a nice home for the puppy.

Yes, you can do SchH training with dogs and not do all three phases.  If you were inquiring about the club I belong to, we'd have to meet you and your dog to see if you are a good fit for the club, since we train and help develop each other and our dogs as a team.  Only doing certain phases would not be cause to immediately write you off, not at all.  We've had people join that did not even have a dog yet.


"I think that you will find that a good club with a good training director will be more than accomodating with what you want to do with your dog. If not, they probably are not a club that you want to train with."

  I disagree with this statement.  For me, being in a SchH club is about far more than what the TD will accomodate for just me and my dogs, but how we fit into the club as a whole, what we can offer the club, how we can help out, etc.  If everyone in our club was only concerned with training their own dogs, to me that is not a club but just a bunch of people paying the same trainer/helper for private training.  When I go to CLUB training I try to be one of the first there and the last to leave, I'm not just showing up to take my turns and tip the helper.  Sometimes a novice has more commitment to the club as a whole than someone who is very experienced and/or has a great dog.  At our club we definitely have dogs that don't always do all three phases (I have a dog that only does obedience and is just starting with SchH style tracking, no bitework) but everyone is still involved in the group's training of all three phases, if that makes sense.  Our club votes who is in or out, it is not just the TD's decision.  We are there to encourage each other and promote the club, the sport, and the breed, not just to accomodate anyone.

Liesjers,
Maybe you should do a better job reading and see the first thing that I wrote, "good club", which you also quoted me as saying.
If you are disagreeing about this person finding a "good club" then I guess we disagree!
You also seem to want to put words in to my mouth. I also included training director because I have seen some great clubs with nice people who had a shit-head for a training director.
Where did I say that the training director also had to be the helper. I know a lot of clubs that have a training director that is not the club's helper.
The rest of the mullarkey that you wrote sounds like it came from the pages of "How to Form a Hunky Dory Schutzhund Club"!

OGBS your statement to me sounded like a club that would not "accomodate" the OP is "not worth training with".  I'm simply saying that it is not the purpose of a good club to "accomodate" every person under the sun.  It doesn't have to matter who does what phases but each person has to be fully involved in the club for it to be a good club, IMO.  It is about more than each person only looking out for their own interests.  I was not making any statements about who is TD or helper or both, I'm disagreeing that just based on this person's one post you can say which clubs are or aren't worth training with.