New Training For My Dogs

Zane has been going to a Schutzhund club (where the Bernhard Flinks seminar was held a couple of weeks back) for a short time now.

Tomorrow is his first "official" time as there are a couple of other people new to it also who want to get involved. A lot of people have been turned away because they've insisted on their dogs doing the protection work without anything else; whereas I'm happy for my lot to do the tracking, obedience and BH in any case. If they then go on to do the protection work then great. If not then so be it.

The only problem is that Jenzi can only do the BH and the tracking but I'm sure with some very hard work she can attain her FH1/FH2. The others can do the obedience too.

So they all will have something more to think about and keep them occupied. They will be better trained and hopefully it follows that they'll be better behaved - although I don't really have any complaints about any of them in terms of behaviour.

It's something for me to get my teeth into also. As i'm not studying in my spare time at the moment I need something that will test me mentally; if only in terms of how I can make the training more interesting or easier for the dogs.

If anyone has any tips for starting this sort of training please let me know. I think I'm gonna need all the help I can get.

Go and watch some Schutzhund surveys; the dates and venues are on the GSDL-WDG site.

If you can get DVDs of J Plumb on tracking they are fabulous.

FH1 and FH2 are great qualifications but they are not put on often in this country.

When I got mine, my dog was the only dog in those years to get them.

Most clubs do not allow people just to do protection work, they have to show their commitment to the sport by tracking training and obedience training.

If you cannot do protection you can always do the different parts, Mike or Paul will tell you more about this.

Good luck.

Many thanks Smokeybear. I will do everything you've suggested.

I spoke at length with Paul before I first went along. I would very much like at least one of the dogs to do the protection work but for me personally, it's not the end of the world if they don't. After all, the dogs don't care what they do so long as they enjoy it and if there's anything they really don't enjoy, they can do another element of it.
I first contacted Paul when I was looking for something more for the dogs to do. I think it's a real shame to have GSDs and for them to only do the pet obedience - which is all my dogs have done so far.

I must admit, I think it would be amusing if none of my GSDs did the protection work but if my Longdog managed to become successful at it. Sure she'll turn a few heads charging across the field!

The reason I'd like them, Jenzi particularly to go for the FH!/FH1 is because it gives ME something to work towards. If I have a goal then I'm more likely to work harder for the dogs' benefit (if that makes sense). That's not to say that I wouldn't work hard for them anyway.
I didn't realise it was so "rare" in the Country. Well done to you and yours for gaining that. How long did it take you?

Having said that, I'd rather it be fun for the dogs, even though there is a very serious element to the protection work in particular.

TBH I did not do any special training for the FH1 and 2. As my dog already had several Tdexs so was used to tracks with more than 20 legs and over 4 hours old, and I train from the start with cross tracks.

So I just asked for one to be put on, toddled up and did them, getting VG for both. Tracking is a bit of a passion of mine.

To date my Weimaraner is the first and only dog to hold both an FH2 and a TDex to the best of my knowledge.

Good Luck, maybe our paths will cross soon.

Well done. What's a TDex? (LOL - shows how little I know )

Hopefully you're right - Wiltshire isn't so far away so I may pick your brains and blatantly steal you rknowledge!

TDex = Tracking Dog Excellent in Working Trials.

Dogs have to:

complete 3 hour old track with 3 articles
recover 4 articles from a search square within 5 minutes.

Clear a 3ft hurdle
Clear a 9ft long jump
scale 6ft twice

10 min down stay out of sight
Speak on command
Sendaway and redirect up to about 300 yards
Heelwork off lead at slow, medium and fast pace

Have obtain 70% marks in each of the three sections and 80% of the marks over all.

so a minimum of 176/220

Well my lot could do the long stay and heelwork already. Look slike I would have a hell of a lot of work to do to reach that standard. You must be very proud of your dog - I know I woujld be if it were mine who had attauned TDex.

Is thwe tracking that much different for Sch than WT? I've been told Jenzi can do the tracking at the Sch club but because of her hips she'll not be able to do the obedience etc. If there are jumps in the tracking she won't be able to do that either? Or is it different again for TDex?

Yes I am proud she has qualified TDex on 14 occasions, being in the top ten of qualifiers at 10 of those, with 1 x first place (and thus a WTC) and 2 x 3rd places.

The are two main differences between Schutzhund and WT tracking.

The first is the number of "legs"; a TD track can have up to 30 legs in it some as short as 10 yards and the patterns can be extremely complex. In Schutzhund it will have no more than 5.

The second is that Schutzhund demands a certain style; deep nose, footstep to footstep tracking, consistency of pace throught the whole track including corners;

In WT style does not matter.

Both require that you move from A to B preferably on rails, with as few casts as possible.

A couple of other differences.

In schutzhund the handler must either remain at the END of a 10 metre line or track free; in WT your line can be of any length and you cannot track free.

You may only track a dog in Schutzhund on a fursaver collar or bottcher harness; neither is allowed in Working Trials it is a regular what I call figure of 8 harness.

Although there are three articles on both SchH3 and TDex you can still qualify with NONE in SchH but you need a minimum of 2 in TD.

The Tracking elements of Schutzhund and the FH1 and FH2 do not include any agility.

I get the impression that thet tracking for WT is far more complex and required far more intense and detailed work.

How on earth can you qialify with no articles in Sch? So does that mean effectively you can fail miserably and still qualify?

Your last line tell sme why Jenzi can do the tracking for Sch then.

[QUOTE=Stumpywop;2335725]

How on earth can you qialify with no articles in Sch? So does that mean effectively you can fail miserably and still qualify?

[\QUOTE]

TBF you do not fail miserably, there are 100 marks available for tracking and 20 for the articles, so you could get 80/100.

As the whole purpose of tracking (IMV) is to find things, it makes the exercise pointless IMV..........