# Kind of caracter it takes to do Schutzhund



## trish07 (Mar 5, 2010)

What kind of caracter a dog should have to do Schutzhund? Nervous dog? sure dog? Strong dog? Agressive dog? Playfull dog?

Phenix is kind of nervous/anxious dog, and we've been told twice that this would be "good" for Schutzhund training....that it will help him be to be more selfconfident....well...

We didn't tried Schutzhund yet because we think Phenix needs to be more selfconfident and sure of himself before we start Schutzhund training, maybe we are wrong....

I just want to know if, one day, Phenix could be a good candidate for basic Schutzhund training? What it takes to a dog to be a good Schutzhund dog.

Thank you!


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

I would say no~a nervous unsure dog will not do well in SchH. It isn't a sport that will build confidence in a dog with this personality. Agility builds confidence...the dog sees what they've accomplished on the course set up and learn to excel(gaining a more confident attitude) There is no threat in agility.
Onyx is an anxious/not real sound in the nerve department and the protection phase scares her. She would be fine in the tracking and obedience phase, but never protection. It could be from the way she was exposed to it, but her nerves played into it bigtime. She saw dogs doing protection(inside) and hid under a chair, then when we had the opportunity to go outside, she released her anal glands...
A potential SchH dog needs to have steady nerves, lots of confidence to begin with and an athletic structure.
Take Phenix to a club and let them evaluate him, he may just be a sleeper and have it in him-or not.
The foundation as a puppy plays into it, too. If you correct a pup over and over, it will take more to bring out what they had beforehand.
When you get a pup for SchH, the way you work with them is a bit different than a companion type pup.


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## trish07 (Mar 5, 2010)

Wow thank you!!!


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

I would have an experienced person check out the dog and give you an opinion. If you want to try it, I would go ahead and do the evaluation. If it helps his confidence (if that is a problem), it will help through the training and development. If you are not sure how to boost his confidence it probably won't happen before you start training. My relationship with my dog totally changed (for the better) soon after I started SchH. I learned things I never would have on my own.


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## R3C0NWARR10R (Mar 26, 2010)

I started the training with both of my pups. One is high drive and loves every bit of what we are doing. My other does well in the tracking and fine in ob but he gets nervous sometimes and will not work much with the helpers. He has gotten better though. I was thinking about pulling him from the training because of the way he acts when we start doing the protection portion but the trainers exclaim that we just need to keep at it with him because his drives are there and that he just needs to come out of his shell.

So I would highly recomend going and having a trainer do a eval on your dog and see what they say. They should let you know rather the dogs will do good at it or not. 

We have a lady who brings her one dog to the club and they have told her that because of the way the dogs drives are that it will be very hard to ever tittle the dog and she can either still train or look for somthing else for the dog to do. She has been persistant with it and still wants to train them and so far the dog has gotten more social and become a better dog for it.


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## trish07 (Mar 5, 2010)

Thank you guys!


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## Mrs.K (Jul 14, 2009)

Just to give you some advise on a good helper. 

Do not let anyone degrade your dog. Depending on how old your dog is, it may take some time to get him into Schutzhund. A good helper won't just write your dog off. A Schutzhund place is very loud, very noisy, there is shooting, snapping, barking, rambling, yelling and whatnot. Don't feel bad if your dog is impressed by it. Don't think badly about your dog if he is impressed by the atmosphere. 
Some dogs need a little bit of time to adjust to the situation but that doesn't mean anything, it depends on how fast your dog recovers from it. 

Again, a good helper will give your dog time to adjust to the atmosphere. He'll let him watch. 

If the helper expects your dog to chase him over the field and bite than it's a bad helper. Run, don't walk but run as fast as you can and look for another helper. 

Listen how the other dog handlers talk about people, how they talk about their dogs and other handlers dogs. 
If you can hear them degrading and downtalking other handlers and their dogs, see that you can find a different club. You can learn a lot about the club just by listening of what they have to talk about.

If he is more the nervous and anxious kind of dog I would suggest to do agility and tracking. 
Agility will give him selfconfidence and tracking will boost the bond between the two of you. 
Also, don't jump into the cold water, give him a LOT of time. Meet with the helper, don't go to the regular training hours because it might actually do more damage than any good. 
The entire atmosphere might be to much for a dog that is a bit skittish. Build him up outside the training-hours.


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

There is a dog in my club who is on the timid side, nerves and lack of socialization in his beginning. The owner is very patient with him and he is brought out for small positive sessions of just getting use to people and maybe another dog on the field during obedience. Or may come out to see the pups play with the helper and be put back up without interacting with the helper.
He watched a session of protection a couple weeks ago and started barking, the helper laid down on the ground after the session was over and cracked the whip, just to see the dogs reaction. Same barking. The dog was far enough away so the helper was no threat at all.
The dog is now biting a sleeve in a tug game with the helper so making small positive steps, we see his confidence level growing weekly, but he probably won't ever be trialed. 
He carried the sleeve to the truck very proudly! It was a nice sight to see.


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## Mrs.K (Jul 14, 2009)

ps: I wanted to edit my post but couldn't get into it anymore. 

So here ya go:

Build him up outside the training-hours and than ask other handlers if they would join you one by one so he can get used to the atmosphere. That is what I would do but that's just me. If your dog can actually handle the atmosphere he might not be as nervous and anxious as you think he is


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## trish07 (Mar 5, 2010)

Mrs.K said:


> Just to give you some advise on a good helper.
> 
> Do not let anyone degrade your dog. Depending on how old your dog is, it may take some time to get him into Schutzhund. A good helper won't just write your dog off. A Schutzhund place is very loud, very noisy, there is shooting, snapping, barking, rambling, yelling and whatnot. Don't feel bad if your dog is impressed by it. Don't think badly about your dog if he is impressed by the atmosphere.
> Some dogs need a little bit of time to adjust to the situation but that doesn't mean anything, it depends on how fast your dog recovers from it.
> ...


Wow! Thanx a lot! A lot of good comments inhere.

First, we have noticed that Phenix REALLY love to thug. His bite is powerfull and he is tugging well and for a long time (don't know if I can say that lol). Also, if I say "Off", immediately, he stops. He doesn't get into this high level of excitation, he still very concentrated.

We, last winter, ran with Phenix in a huge field: each time I ran away, he came to me, hurt me in the legs or tried to "gently" bite my arm (not arsh or agressive, it was play). We NEVER teached him how to, he just do it. I don't know if it's a sign to be a good candidate.

I would love to do a lot of obedience with him before, and maybe some agility (but he pounds 95lbs, we've been told it was a little too much for agility) because he loves to jump, run, turn etc. (unsured about the tunel lol).

I don't want to "scrap" all the work we've done with him....I don't want him to get efraid by a bad helper you know....I, also, think the dog/owner shouldn't be degraded. I will never let someone degrades my dog.


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