# Schutzhund to Agility Transition



## GSDElsa (Jul 22, 2009)

So the hubby has been doing agility with Elsa with Tracy Skelnar (we are soooo blessed on the dog trainer front). I had put a pretty solid foundation on her a couple years ago but never wrapped things up enough to trial before Medo came along. 

Anyhow. Elsa is a very good agility dog but does shut down a bit when stressed (hence why stress a SchH washout) so well probably never be a super stellar agility dog. DH had planned on starting Medo in agility after I got our SchH titles, however, Tracy's schedule is rather crazy and she isn't around all the time. And I'm not getting to train as much since I'm caring for a little one. So I was thinking he could go ahead and start Medo in agility soon (for fun he did all the obstacles one day with Medo... he's gonna be FAST).

For the people who do both SchH and agility with their dogs did you have any confusion with the jumps and a frame or are the dogs able to differentiate enough between the two sports that it isn't an issue?


----------



## wildo (Jul 27, 2006)

Might send a PM to Liesje. She does both, and I'm fairly certain she uses Mecklenburg's jump foundation for both, and teaches a proper a-frame for both. If you treat SchH "agility" as competitive agility, you should have no issue. If you've been quite lax in your criteria for SchH, then you might have to work harder to develop set criteria on those pieces.


----------



## mycobraracr (Dec 4, 2011)

I don't have any useful information, but I know it is possible. A friend of mine just got an agility title on his IPO 2 dog. The dog is now actively competing in both venues.


----------



## GSDElsa (Jul 22, 2009)

Oh definitely know it's possible. 2 people in my club do both at the same time. Just haven't gotten a chance to pick their brains yet. And the more thoughts the merrier! I'm not so worried about the foundation but for SchH it's always jump and come back to a front.


----------



## Merciel (Apr 25, 2013)

mycobraracr said:


> I don't have any useful information, but I know it is possible.


Yep, same. A friend of my cousin's (the one who owns the sire of that super agility pedigree litter I was looking at) titled her dog in IPO first and then moved to agility and is now active in both sports simultaneously.

There's no reason you can't cross-train in multiple sports. As long as you're clear in your handling and training, it is often a tremendous benefit to be able to see different ways of tackling the same problems.

Be careful though, from what I hear agility tends to turn into a lifestyle, not just a hobby...


----------



## Merciel (Apr 25, 2013)

GSDElsa said:


> I'm not so worried about the foundation but for SchH it's always jump and come back to a front.


Okay, this one I _do_ know the answer to because there's a very similar exercise in comp OB.

It's just a difference in handling and cueing the dog. In agility you're not going to be standing in one position, you're more likely to be moving with the dog so that you can continue to signal down the course. Even as the dog goes over the jump, you're already telling the dog where to go next. In OB (and probably also in IPO, I'm guessing), you _must_ be rigidly static because if you so much as move one foot, bam!, NQ.

So the picture that you are presenting as a handler is very different to your dog, and it doesn't take much for a reasonably smart dog to tell the difference between "go over the jump and return to Front" vs. "go over the jump and go on to the next obstacle." The course itself is another cue that things are going to be different. Dogs can tell an agility course from an obedience ring pretty easily!

It does take practice to get this down clear and fast, but it's not a hugely difficult training problem for most teams.


----------



## MilesNY (Aug 12, 2010)

Dante did agility foundation for 6 months and IPO. I have stopped agility just because of lack of time because of nursing school, but there was no confusion for him. Dogs are good at telling the difference between the venues. If anything it helped because I have never had an issue with him jumping off the top of the wall. 

My new female puppy will be doing both competitively. 


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


----------



## KristiM (Oct 18, 2011)

I did schutzhund with Odin until he was 3 and then completely transitioned over to agility. The picture is so different that there was never any confusion for him with either the jumps or the A frame.


----------



## GSDElsa (Jul 22, 2009)

That's what I was thinking. .. that contextually it was so different for dogs that their wasn't going to be any kind of an issue but just thought I'd check with people that have done it. We'll just have to come up with some different words. I'm super excited to see how he does. Elsa is a big and long female and Medo is a very compact and super agile dog so I think he's going to kick some butt.


----------



## cliffson1 (Sep 2, 2006)

Medo is very athletic, so DH should have a blast. Good Luck!


----------



## Saxtonhill (Jan 9, 2007)

We had no conflicts while training for both agility and schutzhund, and I know of several successful teams in my area that actively do both agility and schutzhund with their dogs.


----------

