I wanted to share some Schutzhund joy with you all and then what I realized after seeing a real maturation in my dog.
I mentioned in an earlier post that due to my rural location our local sheriff can't always be at our church quickly when the alarm goes off. (45 mins to 1 hr.) We have lost three safes and broken into 4 times. I volunteered to do a building search with my pastor with my older female who will bark and bite only if really threatened and my 1.5 year old male to help clean out the building. The male has been going thru the church almost weekly tracking as a game, playing with kids and searching for imaginary bad guys.
This Sunday well before anyone was there we had someone the dog didn't know stage a fight out side of the building and run into the building. I fired up the male during the fight and then proceeded to take the path that I would use to clean out the building. When the male saw the supposed bad guy he went ballistic and we had the BG run away twice. Both times the male responded like he was supposed to never backing down. This is a major victory and a reassurance that all the bite work training I am doing for SCH is applicable to real life situations. I have heard so many condescending remarks about SCH dogs. Chunk wasn't in his usual sleeve biting mode as my trainer has pointed out the fight drive shows when he has no sleeve on and the prey drive comes out when he sees the sleeve... I plan to talk with him tonite to make sure I'm not hallucinating.
I realized (after experiencing SCH glee) that he really is a working dog and all due respect to the environment was always necessary. No longer is it just a fantasy to have a dog that bites and can protect your safety. Much like owning a gun there is a tremendous amount of responsibility with its operation and handling.
Phil
I mentioned in an earlier post that due to my rural location our local sheriff can't always be at our church quickly when the alarm goes off. (45 mins to 1 hr.) We have lost three safes and broken into 4 times. I volunteered to do a building search with my pastor with my older female who will bark and bite only if really threatened and my 1.5 year old male to help clean out the building. The male has been going thru the church almost weekly tracking as a game, playing with kids and searching for imaginary bad guys.
This Sunday well before anyone was there we had someone the dog didn't know stage a fight out side of the building and run into the building. I fired up the male during the fight and then proceeded to take the path that I would use to clean out the building. When the male saw the supposed bad guy he went ballistic and we had the BG run away twice. Both times the male responded like he was supposed to never backing down. This is a major victory and a reassurance that all the bite work training I am doing for SCH is applicable to real life situations. I have heard so many condescending remarks about SCH dogs. Chunk wasn't in his usual sleeve biting mode as my trainer has pointed out the fight drive shows when he has no sleeve on and the prey drive comes out when he sees the sleeve... I plan to talk with him tonite to make sure I'm not hallucinating.
I realized (after experiencing SCH glee) that he really is a working dog and all due respect to the environment was always necessary. No longer is it just a fantasy to have a dog that bites and can protect your safety. Much like owning a gun there is a tremendous amount of responsibility with its operation and handling.
Phil