By Me
Michael Lee
www.tigerlandk9.com

World Union of German Shepherd Dog Associations
www.wusv2009.com/english/index.html

I started with luring my first puppy into the correct position with food and then gradually pairing that with the desired command word. This works great for teaching a puppy basic sits and downs, but free-shaping with the clicker goes one step further, the dog learns to be aware of his own body. When you lure a dog into position, he is thinking about the food rather than what he is doing. When you use free-shaping, you either wait for him to take up the position naturally and let him work out what you are rewarding, or you break down a more complicated sequence into small pieces and gradually ask for more each time. Click here for more information about Luring, Moulding and Shaping.

Clicker training is great fun, for both dog and trainer, and as the dog learns to offer more and more behaviors, he learns faster and faster. My dog learned the articles for tracking using the clicker, starting in the living room, and then gradually training in different locations, then pairing the action with a word, and finally using it on the track. He knows when we are going to train with the clicker, I usually leave him off leash or on a long line, and he gets to be free and offer all kinds of behaviors, we have also free-shaped tricks and seemingly useless actions such as putting his foot on a box or pushing a container with his nose. But this allows both dog and trainer to relax and do something different from the more serious competition exercises.

One of the most important concepts to teach a competition dog is focus. The clicker is an easy way to teach this, because you can catch the behavior you want precisely when it happens. It takes some practise to get the timing just right but the results are well worth it. You also need to be very clear about what you are trying to train and break it down appropriately for your dog. Something I learned from the Monty Roberts Intelligent Horsemanship technique, if you approach something like it will take ten minutes, it will take an hour, but if you allow for an hour, it will take ten minutes. Never be in a hurry to train something new. If you are getting a lot of failures, you may be pushing too fast, take a step back and think about what you are asking for. You must have a high rate of reinforcement so that the training can progress.

When starting training with the clicker, I used quite a few lures and the leash to help achieve the results I wanted, but as I train more exercises, and with each subsequent puppy, I am using free-shaping more and more. It gives me a chance to watch the dog’s reactions, and natural inclinations, so I can tailor my training to each individual dog. For instance, I was teaching articles to two pups recently, one went from sniffing the article to biting it, the other went from sniffing to pawing the article. The first pup investigates things much more with his mouth, which should make the retrieve easy! The second likes to play with items with her paws. Once the pup pawed the article, I rewarded that, and soon she tried a play bow, and then a down. After 4 short sessions of 10 repetitions, she had the basic idea of lying near the article. Then I just had to teach her that the article must be between her paws.

By Louise Jollyman
from schutzhund-training, brimwylf, bodeus

Thanks to Louise Jollyman suggesting and provide great article. He been training in Schutzhund since 2001. In that time, I have titled my own dog, Bodeus, from 8 weeks to SchH3 IPO3 FH UD NA CGC TC AD WUSV. United Schutzhund Clubs of America . By Me

People worry that Schutzhund will make their dog aggressive towards people. In my experience, dogs which have not been aggressive towards people beforehand do not suddenly become aggressive after Schutzhund training.

Some people who like to avoid aggression try to train Schutzhund protection as an obedience exercise, where the dog learns to bark to “ask for a reward”, and gets the sleeve or “prey object” as this reward. They argue that Schutzhund is a game and their dogs will only bite a sleeve. This may be a good way to relieve their conscience when asked if they train their dogs to bite.

Schutzhund is however, supposed to be a test, a dog should show aggression in the protection phase, the decoy, helper or bad guy, should be a worthy adversary, and the dogs courage should be tested. The protection phase at a trial should be more like a boxing match, not like a choreographed movie-fight. All dogs of any breed will bite if they feel that they are being threatened or cannot escape, so dogs do not need to be trained to bite! When we are training protection, we build the dogs confidence and encourage him to enjoy the fight, we often let him win, by carrying off the sleeve, we also work on control, we teach the dog when and where it is ok to bite and when it’s not.

 
A dogs basic character, socialization and training affects whether he will be aggressive towards people. A dogs genetics will define whether he has the protective instincts and courage to protect his family. Schutzhund training will not change this basic nature but will give the owner some idea of how their dog might react, and also enable the dog to remain under the control of his handler. As far as home and family protection; in general, just the presence of a German Shepherd will deter any would-be attackers or thieves.

Schutzhund Titles:
BH – basic obedience and temperament test
SchA – obedience and protection only
SchI – first level
SchII – second level
SchIII – top level
OB I,II,III – separate obedience titles
TR I,II,III – separate tracking titles
IPO 1,2,3 – international schutzhund degree (International Prüfungsordnung)
FH I,II – advanced tracking titles
WH – watch dog title
AD – endurance title (for breed-worthiness)
Schutzhund Information and rules:
United Schutzhund Clubs of America
What is Schutzhund – Big Sky Schutzhund
Schutzhund Rules Tracking, Obedience and Protection – Top Working Dogs
Your First BH
DVG – BH 2004 Rules
DVG – IPO rules
DVG – VDH/SchH Rules
DVG – FH rules

By Louise Jollyman
from schutzhund-training, brimwylf, bodeus

Thanks to Louise Jollyman  suggesting  and provide great article. He been training in Schutzhund since 2001. In that time, I have titled my own dog, Bodeus, from 8 weeks to SchH3 IPO3 FH UD NA CGC TC AD WUSV. United Schutzhund Clubs of America . By Me