# First time at a schutzhund club.



## blackviolet (Jun 17, 2010)

Michelle (schHGSD) invited us out to her schutzhund club and it was fun. My husband and I had never been to a schutzhund club before, so neither had Godric. We have no idea what we're supposed to be doing, haha. She took this video last week for us. (That's her you hear at the end.) It didn't even occur to me to take a video. If he ends up doing well, someday we can be like, "Awww... look, this was him his first day." Like the first day of school, haha. 





 

Awww, look at my tiny little goober. :wub:


He said he definitely has the drives for it. We went again this weekend, but he didn't bark at the rag, he just whined and got distracted. This week, he did say that Godric has a good bite/grip, and that he immediately drops all of his weight after biting. 

I don't know much about schutzhund, and I don't know what's good or what they're looking for unless someone tells me, haha. But it's fun learning. I honestly never knew how many traits are really bred into dogs. I always thought most of it was training. The gunshots don't bother him, but I don't know about cracking a whip near him. How do you practice that at home, or when should you practice that? I kinda think he'd let go and try to bite the whip instead, haha. But he's a puppy, so he wants to bite anything that moves or especially if it makes noise. I only ask because I saw videos of pups his age playing tug with people cracking a whip next to them.


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## Meka09 (Aug 2, 2010)

*too cool!*

Being a new GSD owner - I'm not familiar with Schutzhund. What is it all about?


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## Jason L (Mar 20, 2009)

I would not mess with the whip - and definitely not at home. Just keep taking him to the club. Ask them if you can tie Godric out somewhere to watch protection. It's a great way to "train" the pups without training them and he will get to hear plenty of whip cracking and other loud noises that way.


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## blackviolet (Jun 17, 2010)

I was just curious about the whip thing, just to see if the sound distracted him or not. You don't practie playing tug with him with loud noises like that at home? Okay. I didn't know if you were supposed to or not, and just now thought to ask about it. 

They let us sit and watch protection.  He's very interested, but mostly just because he wants to get to the other dogs. After he's been there about 15-20 mins, some of the excitement wears off, and he mellows out and he'll be good and sit and watch... until they run. Then he goes nuts, yowling and whining and pulling at his collar to go with them.

I swear, he'll bark his head off at the other dogs (until they meet or play with him), but not at the rag, haha.


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## Hunther's Dad (Mar 13, 2010)

Meka09 said:


> Being a new GSD owner - I'm not familiar with Schutzhund. What is it all about?


This is from the United Schutzhund Clubs of America's website:

What Is Schutzhund?

The simple answer is, it's one of the most fun things you can do with your dog. It takes time and commitment to get the title, but there's no other dog sport like it.


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## Jason L (Mar 20, 2009)

blackviolet said:


> You don't practie playing tug with him with loud noises like that at home? Okay. I didn't know if you were supposed to or not, and just now thought to ask about it.


I do but first just focus on getting the pup to tug really well with the helper and the then work on getting the pup to "activate" the rag/helper instead of having to be "activated" by a moving rag. Get to the point where the rag can be "dead" and the pup is still barking, lunging at it to get it moving. The thing about the whip is you don't particular want the pup to get too "aware" of it, that is, you don't want the pup to look at it as something he needs to keep in an eye on. Eventually he should just look at the whip/stick as part of the helper's body. So in the beginning I would not do anything to draw attention to it.


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## GSDBESTK9 (Mar 26, 2002)

Very good! Looks like he definitely has it in him.


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

blackviolet said:


> I was just curious about the whip thing, just to see if the sound distracted him or not. You don't practie playing tug with him with loud noises like that at home? Okay. I didn't know if you were supposed to or not, and just now thought to ask about it.


Each person does things differently, the most important thing is to be on board with your helper because you guys are the ones that know the dog and how it should be worked. Our helper always says he gets one day a week to fix what the owner spent six days messing up, when there's an owner that does way too much at home with a puppy. You don't really have to do any kind of bitework stuff at home. I always play and play tug with my dogs but it is more for fun and rewards, I am *not* trying to simulate the bitework done with the helper. The relationship is very different, at least for my dog. When he was younger he worked mostly in defense, not in prey, and that is not something I can or should do at home. Also if you do the ragwork stuff incorrectly you can be encouraging the wrong type of biting and gripping or giving the bites at the wrong time if you can't read the dog's arousal. If you're not sure, it's best left to the helper or see if he suggests anything to work on at home. 

It is an excellent idea to socialize the dog in general, included loud noises, new places, strange surfaces, different smells, etc. It doesn't need to be in the context of ragwork.


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## blackviolet (Jun 17, 2010)

Yeah, we've been working on socializing him, but it's hard when he hasn't had all of his shots. We've gone to Lowes and Home Depot and stood outside of a grocery store (and he just fell asleep), we take him to my mom's and MIL's house, and to schutzhund.After he's had his shots, we can take him to the park and stuff.

They told us to practice some ragwork at home, but he never barks at the rag for us. I'm not sure what we're doing wrong.


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

Do you backtie him/hold him back while someone else teases him up with the string/rag? You have to really work up the pup sometimes. Karlo was a barker from the get go. 
If he lets out a bark reward him with it, and play a bit of tug, making sure his bite is deep on the rag. This is easy to do by letting him "counter" on the rag(he'll naturally try to readjust his grip stronger).
Some dogs just aren't vocal. Karlo was a barker from the get go...and still barks at his toys to bring them alive.


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## blackviolet (Jun 17, 2010)

What's funny is that he barks at everything (especially the dogs) around the house. When he's playing with toys alone, he'll bark at them. 

I hold him back while my husband teases him, but he doesn't make a sound. If we keep doing that, after a minute, he realizes he can't get to the toy, even if he pulls, and he starts to just sit and look at it. If he's not held on a leash, and you're just playing tug with the rag with him, he's SO much more into it. But still, no barking. A little whining every now and then, but that's it.


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