[kr_egan]

We took Athena for puppy kindergarten at the Petsmart in my town in MA. The trainer was great, had a lot of great advice, seemed to know a decent amount about GSD and most of all, Athena loved her.

Unfortunately, we moved out of state soon after and we're still looking for another good trainer in our area. We don't really like the trainer at the Petsmart or Petco in our area and haven't been able to get ahold of private trainers, but I'm veering off topic.

Well, I'm back in MA to finish my last semester at school while hubby is staying in Iowa with Athena. I had free time yesterday and went to visit the trainer that we loved so much at Petsmart. I was catching her up with Athena's progress and happened to mention that hubby was looking into doing Schutshund with Athena.

I was then treated to a five minute speech about how Schutshund will make GSDs aggressive and that if I put her through the training that she will one day bite someone on the street during one of our walks

among many other things about both the sport and GSDs

Needless to say, I was less than enthusiastic about her diatribe and misconceptions against both Schutshund and GSDs and managed to excuse myself as politely as I could considering I was seething inside.

Where do people get these ideas?

 

[MacknCody]

I think its mostly ignorance. Before I got Mack and researched EVERYTHING on GSD's, I knew nothing about almost everything in dogs(had them for years but never trained them or learned about their psychology) so I knew nothing of agility or obedience or schutshund. Maybe if I had seen something of schutshund before I got Mack I would have been confused and only seeing the people hit the dogs with sticks. Now that I have Mack and have learned/still learning so much, I really see Sch. as just another game and the dog when it is attacking thinks that is a game and he gets a reward at the end. And I now I know the sticks are very flexible and are mostly for noise. Right?

Maybe you should have told her to find a Sch. club around her and go see whats its really about. That way she learns and maybe changes her mind.

 

[big_dog7777]

Originally Posted By: Hillyard Farms Now that I have Mack and have learned/still learning so much, I really see Sch. as just another game and the dog when it is attacking thinks that is a game and he gets a reward at the end. And I now I know the sticks are very flexible and are mostly for noise. Right?

Yes and no. As with any type of training, there is variance in the way different clubs train. Some train only in prey drive purely for sport application in which case you are correct. Ideally the protection exercises are taught to young dogs this way and then as the dog matures the training transitions into something like sparring in boxing or martial arts where it's more adversarial. Either way, when done properly does not create an aggressive out of control dog. Actually 100% the opposite.