Schutzhund Dog Training - The Ultimate Obedience Dog Training

     In Germany during the early part of the 20th Century, Schutzlund dog training was introduced as a sport to find out if the German Shepherd breeds could be used as police dogs. Rather than taking the looks of the dog as a means of determining if the dog would be effective, Schutzhund provided a way to find a dog that was best suitable for the job. The training is very rigorous and while many dog breeds are allowed to participate in Schutzhund training, very few candidates ever pass.

A Look At the Basics of Schutzhund Training

For over 100 years Schutzhund training has slowly developed and as a result the process is highly structured and very strict in its process. It has since toned down the abusiveness toward dog than when it was originally started, however there still are strict requirements that are needed to evaluate each dog. While in the past, Schutzhund training for the most part was taught from very few manuals and organized course, with the wealth of training materials offered today, dog owners have a variety of video or DVD's which allow them to begin faster.

The actual training will test a dog in many different specific behaviors that are ideal for police work, including tracking, sniffing, protection, and retrieving. A large amount of Schutzhund dog training will begin if the dog is only a few weeks old and the training will last for a few weeks or even months which ensures the dog will be right for the job.

The 4 Pillars of Schutzhund Training

Schutzhund is comprised of many different aspects. The training course you choose will depend on the type of obedience program you decide on. However, many of the Schutzhund course will be focused on these four:

1) Obedience - The first real assessment in the Schutzhund training is that of dog obedience. Most programs use about ten to eleven basic obedience commands. Examples include "focus and attention", "sit, down and stand", front, pointing out of an object, targeting, heel positioning, heeling, retrieving, jumping, motion exercises, and "go out". Once the dog has master all eleven training points, that would be considered full completion.

2) Tracking - Once the dogs are trained to track things like drugs, bombs or cadavers, they will be expected to specifically trained in tracking. Once the dog starts using targeting and pointing out of an object obedience cues, the Schutzhund training teaches dogs to identify a certain scent and they will pursue their target until it hears the command to be called off .

3) Protection - Another important part of the training dogs will learn protection as in the case of police dots, guard dog and attack dogs. They are specifically trained to act on specific commands to identify a threat then attack that threat. In addition, these dogs will be trained to protect a person or a specific object even without commands.

4) Clicker Training - Not all Schutzhund trainers will use clickers, but it is considered a nearly universal method that works extremely well with German Shepherds and other Schutzhund suitable breeds. Training with a clicker should be begin at a very young age - around 10 weeks.

The essence of Schutzhund is to provide a dog with a very highly specific set of skills they can use to complete a given task quickly and efficiently. In official training programs, dogs might complete training at the rate of twenty percent or lower. Nevertheless, a Schutzhund trained dog can be very effectively as an obediece trained dog for homeowners.

When considering using Schutzhund to train your dog, do as much research as possible on the many training courses available and base them on their success rates and philosophy behind the program. In conclusion, if you choose to train your dog with the Schutzhund dog training method or another method, you probably agree that your German Shepherd will need to have some kind of training so your dog can develop to its fullest potential.