Schutzhund Training Tips

Tips For Improving Your Obedience Scores

First about mind set. Most people go onto the field with the thought of
making a certain amount of points. If we change our mind set to, when we go
on the field we already have 100 points but the final score will depend on
how many points that you and your dog will allow the judge to take away.
To become more focused and aware of how many points you, as the handler, are
costing the team, you should have someone video your obedience routine a few
times. Look for things that you are not able to see when you are handling
the dog. Look for handler help that you may not be aware, that you are
doing, i.e. bobbing your head when recalling your dog or moving your arms
slightly or twisting your body when you finish the dog.
When you see how many points the dog is costing the team, you will be able
to focus on certain things that will have to be improved upon through
training. Focus on these things first, when training, then finish with an
exercise that your dog does well, thereby leaving the field on a good note
for your dog.
To work your dog with a pattern or mix things up has always been disputed. I
do not work with patterns, for a few reasons.

If you train 2 or 3 times a week and you are doing this whole routine over
and over the dog will become bored and start loosing drive and you will have
to keep giving him bigger rewards. When prey drive is used for the same
things again and again prey drive runs out and you are starting to cause a
burn out.


If you are doing whole routines all the time you are only training for his
problems and the rest of the routine, you are just practicing.


Once the dog has learned all the exercises well he will not have to do them
over and over because he will become so familiar with them that he will be
able to coast and lose focus on you. This will leave him more open to
distractions.


Most people in the sport way over train with their dogs and start taking the
edge off of them.
The benefits of not using patterns :

You can do just a few exercises each session and take him off the field
while he is still up. Work on a couple of his problems then something that
he does well and out of there.


The dog has to stay more focused on the handler and listen for which command
is coming next. Do your exercises out of order.


He will not have to be introduced to a new field every time you trial him.
Obedience is obedience where ever it takes place or which ever order it is
in.

New experiences create spice in life.

When reporting in with the judge you should come onto the field lively and
with a confident attitude. When you go to the starting place to begin your
heeling free exercise, walk up field of it, make a turn and walk at least 5
paces before stopping. This should give you a straight sit and you are ready
to start your exercise. Many handlers go to the starting spot, pivot around
and stop which gives the dog a crooked sit. They then stay in place and turn
there upper body and head to the left and tell the dog fuss. You are not
being judged here but it looks unprofessional and you are keeping the judge
waiting. All exercises start and finish with the dog being in basic position
(sitting at you left side).

By the rule book you are permitted to give slight praise between each
exercise. This should be done in a way that the dog does not move from his
basic position and he is ready to start his next exercise.

The exercise that is most missed is the sit out of motion. Once a handler
has experienced this mistake, I think some become a little nervous and he
will, unknowingly, give his sit command with a different tone which confuses
the dog and he hesitates to sit. This was a 3 point deduction but now they
have eliminated the walking stand and that adds more points to the other
exercises. A missed sit now costs you 5 points.

A lot of handlers, when turning to face their dog and see that he is not
sitting, they get instantly deflated. The shoulders slump and the head tilts
downwards. When they return to the dog their body language tells the dog
that the handler is not happy with them. and some dogs become a little
unsure. You cannot get your 5 points back but you can go back briskly to
your dog and give him a little extra praise, otherwise there is a good
chance that the rest of routine will go down because your dog now feels
pressure.

Every exercise requires heeling except for the 3 retrieve exercises. For
this reason you must make your heeling perfect and your sits and finishes
correct or the small points will eat you up.

All of your moving exercises that require a certain number of steps before
giving a command or changing pace, make sure that you do a couple extra
steps so that you will not be deducted for being 1 step short. Some
deductions are left to the judge's opinion but most mistakes have a
mandatory deduction that the judge must follow.

Obedience is the most difficult of the 3 categories to make high points.
Protection is next and tracking is the easiest.

To people that are new to the sport, focus on your routine and block out the
spectators. You owe it to your dog to "suck it up" and not loose points
because you are a nerve case.

In your recall and retrieve exercises, if your dog stops short by a few
steps, when returning to you, if you give an extra command you will loose
some points but do not take even one step backwards to coax him in because
by leaving the basic position, anytime during the exercise , the judge is
required to take all the points for that exercise.

When the judge sees a performance that shows speed and a willingness for the
work while at the same time being correct and the dog and handler works as a
good team, the judge does not want to take points away and sometimes will
forgive very minor mistakes. The reason being is that this is the picture
that is desired for a Schutzhund Obedience routine. On the other hand if
your dog is slow to respond and he acts like he does not want to be out
there, you will be deducted for every minor error and in your critique the
judge will comment that this is not the attitude that is desired in the
sport.

If you train using very quiet commands, except for your recalls, retrieves
and the platz on the send away, your dog will respond much better. If the
handler is having a bad day and his tone changes on the loud commands it can
cause negative results.

On the retrieves, speed both ways is required but placement of the dumbbell
is very important. Except for the retrieve on flat you should hold the
dumbbell by the bell end and throw it underhanded in an arc with a back spin
on it. This way when it lands it will stay within a few feet of where it
lands. You should spend a lot of time throwing the dumbbell without your dog
being there. For your retrieves over the 1 meter jump and the A frame, the
dumbbell should be far enough past the jumps to allow the dog to get enough
speed to return easily over the jumps. If the dumbbell rolls to the side and
the dog can see it, you risk the chance of him going straight to the
dumbbell without taking the jump. This would be a major deduction.

For the retrieve on flat you should hold the dumbbell by the shaft and throw
it without a back spin. This is especially important for the female handlers
as this dumbbell is heavy and you want to make sure that it goes the
required distance.

If at anytime you make a bad throw, you can ask the judge to allow you a
re-throw.

On the 3 retrieve exercises your dog is required to go out quickly, pick up
the dumbbell and return quickly. The biggest problems with some dogs is they
go out fast and then drop back to a trot when returning. If you have this
problem and you have not been able to work it out in training or sometimes
he comes back fast and sometimes not, there is a way to eliminate this
deduction when doing the 1 meter jump and the A frame.

You must stand closer to the jumps in a place that your dog can still clear
the jump without touching it. When finding this spot you must always train
from this position.

When the dog is returning he must get enough speed to clear the jump and the
A frame and if he lands a few paces from you, his forward motion will bring
him to you and it will not be possible to be deducted for this.

When training for the send away some clubs use a fence post at the end of
the field to place their objects. Some will put a separate post in for this
and some will even paint them white so the dogs will see the better. This
being done for an extended length of time can bring problems later. In
regional and national events they usually use a high school or university
stadium which usually have white goal posts at each end. I have seen many
dogs fail to go down when the command is given, trying to reach the goal
posts. In training you should always mix up your distances and at times go
in different directions. You should bring him to the point of being able to
do a send away on any field that you take him on without working him there
in advance.

To consistently do faultless send outs the dog must have a high build up of
drive training and be 100% on his down command. The down should be done as a
separate exercise by itself using compulsion. Once the dog will take his
down command instantly , when it is given in a whisper, you are then able to
incorporate it into the send away.

For the long down out of sight of the handler you can reinforce this for
reliability. The handler leaves the dog and goes to a place not far away
where he can see the dog but the dog cannot see him. Instead of having
another dog doing obedience and the gun being fired, have a dog on the field
doing bite work. If you can reinforce the dog to stay under these conditions
he can be considered 100 % trustworthy on the down exercise.

In my opinion complete and reliable obedience training can only be achieved
by strong motivational training to show great attitude and joy for the work.
He can only be considered 100 % reliable under distractions by later use of
compulsion. The right combination of drive and compulsion brings complete
obedience work.

The judges must look for the dogs that show a joy for the work, go together
well with his handler as a team and obey all commands quickly.




Protection Training Without Conflict


Most people are now training in the protection phase using mostly prey
drive. The following article is for dogs 1 year or older. A lot of the
trainers are agitating the dog, then giving the bite and slipping the
sleeve, having the handler run in a big circle and stopping 5 meters or so
in front of the helper. NOW IS WHEN THE CONFLICT BEGINS. The handler is
grabbing the dog by the collar and hanging him while they are stepping on
the sleeve and screaming "out". Once he releases the sleeve it is quickly
kicked out where the dog cannot reach it. Then the helper challenges the dog
for the sleeve. This not working through defense drive, it is still working
in the prey drive.

The longer the dog is worked this way, the more he becomes imprinted to not
release the grip on the sleeve. Later when you want to teach the out, it
becomes more difficult and eventually it takes more force. These are the
dogs that when they are finished have problems with the outs i.e. slow to
release or double commands to out.




Alternative Method


This method will start to channel in some drive in defense. It will give a
safety margin to dogs that are not real hard. It will make the handlers job
easier. It will make the helpers job easier, with a margin of safety to work
close with the dog, as it will be in done in a controlled manner. It will
start to imprint the dog in a way that he will understand that if he wants
to bring more action when the helper stops fighting and locks up and bring
the sleeve back to life, he has to release the grip and challenge the helper
by barking. He must understand that the out is not the end of session but a
way to bring the sleeve back to life , fight the helper and be able to win
the prey and take it back to his den (car or crate). This method eliminates
the conflict between dog, handler and helper, which often becomes a 3 ring
circus.




Details


You build a fenced area. It can be off to the side of the training field. It
should be 25 centimeters high and 50X50 with an opening 1.2 or 1.5 meters
wide in the rear for entering and exiting. A gate can be used hear if you
want to do defense work without the handler inside , at a later time. There
should be a stable bench built along the front of the pen and up against the
fence. It should be .75 or 1 meter wide and run the entire length of the
front section. The helper will be using 2 sleeves and a whip or stick for
agitation purposes. I work dogs with a fur saver collar (the long links) and
clip the leash on the live ring and then come back to a dead ring and clip
the leash again. The collar should be snug so the dog cannot back out of it
but it is not on choke. I've read other post where it was suggested to use a
wide leather collar so it is more comfortable for the dog. My opinion this
is hooey!!! The chain collar is only going to bother dogs of soft
temperament. This is protection work. When wide leather collars are used,
the dog starts associating it with protection work, the same as he does when
he see the sleeve or the helper in scratch pants. When challenged he must
come in full drive without training aids. No this will not hurt the dogs'
throat.

Now we are ready to start. The handler comes into the pen about half way and
the helper agitates the dog coming in and running back. The handler should
let the dog go to the fence and try to bite the helper. The handler should
not be talking to the dog or praising or patting him. This only distracts
the dog. It is the helpers job to bring the dog out. If this is a beginner
dog you can use a young dog sleeve. When the helper knows that the dog is in
high drive he puts on sleeve # 1 and goes up on the platform, bends over the
fence and puts the sleeve down to where the dog can bite it. He can then
pull the dog up slightly giving him a very short fight and slipping the
sleeve . The handler takes the dog out the back of the pen while he is
carrying the sleeve. The handler doesn't have to run like a nut case just a
fast walk making a circle of medium size and returning to the pen about half
way. Still no talking to the dog. The helper starts agitating with the whip
or stick and the dog will drop the sleeve and go to the fence. At this
moment the handler throws the sleeve over the side fence and the helper gets
# 2 sleeve that is behind him. One or two bites in the beginning and the dog
carries the sleeve to the car. You should stop when the dog still wants to
fight . Put him away frustrated. When a dog reaches his peak in drive you
must stop or you will be doing negative training.

When the handler returns to the car or crate, stand and relax. Do not give
the dog out commands, just ignore him, he will get tired of holding dead
prey and release it. As training progresses the helper can start to stay
more up right making the dog come a little airborne to get the sleeve and he
can at times lift the dog off the ground. These high bites will make the dog
bite hard and full or he will lose the grip. This is just basic build up
work and getting the dog to learn a system. The out is not the end of the
game. You are not doing true aggressive, defense training but you are at
least mixing prey with some defense. The young dog working behind the fence
will be more sure of himself. When you are satisfied with this basic work
you can take the dog to the training field to start the outs. If there are
questions of this article, Please no e mail or PM's. Address them to the
post. There are many other members that can give good input and alternative
methods.
 

 

Contact Thomas Sauerhoefer ThomasSauerhoefer@gmx.de
or call 1- (530) 749 - 8861