Clicked Schutzhund!

[stardogs]

Aeri, Kes and I attended a great seminar with Guy Penning and Axel Van der Borght from Belgium over Memorial Day weekend. They spent 10 days in Columbus, Ohio at Posidogs covering various Ringsport and Schutzhund topics, all with a clicker training focus - we were able to attend 3 days.

I finally have edited the clips I have from the seminar and have finished Aeri's video. Kes' is coming soon, but still needs trimming before I can upload it (was 45 mins, now about 20 and I need it to be closer to 10 lol). I figured you all might enjoy seeing some live action schutzhund training.

YouTube - ‪Aerten at the Penning/Van der Borght seminar‬‏

I'll add Kestrel's video when it's up as well - his shows more visible progress since we were trying to address his excessive excitement barking and his growling/shaking during bites.

 

[Maxy24]

That's awesome! I love how you can see a lot of progress just in that video, from the first time you're trying to get eye contact to him being able to hold it for several seconds. He's a smart cookie. It's great that there are people teaching Schutzhund in a positive manner, keep posting vids, I'd love to see the progress continue.

 

[AgilityPup]

You are SO lucky! I would love to have that at my hands, honestly. If I could find a clicker based Schutzhund situation I'd have Crash in it, for sure.

 

[SaraB]

Love it!! He's having so much fun.

 

[stardogs]

LOL we only have access if we drive to OH from NC.

Our local club isn't saying no to me using a clicker, but they are veeery skeptical of its use, especially in bitework, which has made for some rather interesting conversations with our training director there. I'm just glad that I have a club that's willing to let me try it even if they don't think it will work.

 

[AgilityPup]

See, I don't think I could even talk our local club into letting me try it for bite work. Tracking and obedience, sure, I don't think they'd have any issue with that at all, but bitework? Psh, yeah right.

I'm hoping though that if I can get my hands on a dog to train in Schutzhund before I have my own to train that I'll be more comfortable with how they train. (Plus, I plan on training and figuring out ways I could do it with a clicker!)

 

[stardogs]

At our club, foundation work is generally very easy to do without +P, which really helps ime - it's not like I ran into hugely different methods at the very beginning.

I've been working with the club for 7 months and I just brought up using the clicker at training last week. Our TD knows I prefer not to use a prong on Kestrel in obedience or tracking and has respected that and I've worked to build more of a "team" mentality to how he and I work together vs. a one-way teacher-student relationship. I really respect all that the club does and in the grand scheme of things their methods aren't bad, though they aren't as +R as I am.

If you're going to attempt something different I think it is imperative to approach the experience with respect first, show them that you are serious, and *then* start trying new things. I know where my line is when it comes to training methods, but I'm not going to advertise or brag on it at club, I'm just going to work my butt off to show them how different methods might work. I *really* like a challenge.

I can't tell you how much I hate seeing people completely close their minds when I tell them I do schutzhund or that I work my dog in a club that uses corrections - and I'm a +R trainer! Go and watch, ask questions, and learn now, even if you don't have a dog yet.

 

[AgilityPup]

I've been working with this club since October, just watching. The trainer has let me work her dogs a few times on obedience, which was my first time with correction based training, and honestly, I'd prefer not to do obedience and tracking with a prong, but I can see how with bitework sometimes it's better. That said, I've seen a dog go at the helpers face (which resulted in a hard correction and a few steps back in the training program). I used to be so against corrections, and then I worked some with this club, and honestly, it's not my favorite thing, but I respect that it works for this thing, with these dogs... am I about to put a prong on Psyche? No way in hell, because I know my dog and I know that would really NOT work for her -- she's too soft.

But yeah, don't get me wrong, I'm not all "I don't wanna train with them because they use corrections." It's been a learning curve for me, and I intend on training my first few schutzhund dogs that way, but I'll also be thinking of ways I could do it with clicker training, just because that's something I'd like to try, and although the trainer wasn't completely against the idea of it, I need to know a lot more about Schutzhund before I try it on my own.

 

[Kat09Tails]

A dirty bite should be corrected and yeah, a few steps back in a training program for a sport dog who hasn't gotten through their head that they belong on the sleeve and no where else.

Where there is one schutzhund club there is usually a few others as well. You might want to poke around and see who else might be around in your area training.

 

[Cheza]

What an awesome video, you can tell she just loves it

 

[stardogs]

Kestrel's vid is up now too!

YouTube - ‪Kestrel at the Penning/Van der Borght seminar‬‏

 

[Danefied]

I saw Aeri's video on my trainer's FB the other day - small world!! Her comment? "Real men do use clickers." LOL

Looks great! Thanks for sharing.