JennSLK said:
Sch is work.
It's a true test for working ability and drive.
Is there a difference between a sport dog & service, protection or guard dogs? by John MacDonald and Luc Cendak
The intention of this article is to briefly describe the differences between a
working sport dog (Schutzhund) and a service, protection or guard dog.
Firstly, let's look at the basic purpose of the service dog, protection dog and the guard dog.
The service dog is trained to track down persons, usually criminals, to locate illegal substances i.e. drugs, control crowd riots and stop armed offenders as well as protect the handler from attack. The protection dog is trained to protect its handler from attack and usually to guard property. The guard dog is trained to guard commercial or domestic properties.
The second area we will look at is who trains these dogs and to what standard.
Service dogs are usually trained to a standard of the law enforcement agencies within which they will be operational. This standard varies considerably from service to service, country to country.
Protection and guard dogs are trained and sold as a commercial commodity and the bottom line is to turn over as fast a profit as possible. The standards to which these dogs are trained are self imposed and unregulated.
The sport dog (Schutzhund) is trained and used for a competitive sport which involves tracking, obedience and character assessment (Schutzdienst).
The standards to which he is trained are uniform and world-wide. One must be aware that the intention and purpose between these dogs is very different even though the outward picture may appear to be the same.
The Schutzhund dog is a sport dog and is competing for points: the dog is assessed for the quality of the work and how close it aligns with the standard it's being judged upon. The Schutzhund dog is fixated upon a sleeve which it must grip and counter through particular phases of the competition routine. In the 'Hold and Bark' phase the dog is usually barking to gain access to gripping the sleeve.
Through the whole Schutzdienst phase the dog's nerves, temperament, character, courage and working ability are being assessed. The intention of the sport is to identify animals suitable for breeding. Many Schutzhund dogs will not perform the routines if not exposed to all the associated stimuli which are used in training for the competition.
Even though the dogs are working in a sporting environment the mental and physical pressure placed on them is sufficient to highlight deficiencies within the temperament, character and nerves of the animal.
The service dog on the other hand does not have the associated article or stimuli to place the dog into drive. The dog must be able to work without the help of these secondary stimuli.
When trained properly there appears to be very little difference between the two purposes of training principles but when trained properly and with control as a main criteria, channelling between drives and into equipment is the difference.
The Schutzhund dog's purpose or aim is to bark intensely to gain possession of the sleeve, to either wrestle in a tug of war or to carry the prize/prey away from the helper.
Other facts like the grip, hit backs or rebites are skills the dog is taught to gain confidence or correct itself during a competition.
The service dog is not allowed to eventually channel into the sleeve but rather to remain focused on the decoy remaining more in the defence drive with the aim being to bite or fight only the man and not the equipment. This is usually achieved by the use of under garment protection and body bite suits.
The personal protection or guard dog is usually trained in a high defence drive based on self preservation, countering the stimulus with aggressive barking and hectic biting. These dogs are never allowed to become equipment focused and are usually trained with full body bite suits and under garment protection. In most cases, control is not critically important as the dog is mainly worked on lead as this helps in giving the dog support and in most 'real life' biting situations the dog would be on the lead where the handler could physically control the dog.
Dogs that are used to guard property are either high in instinctive territorial defence behaviour or are trained to be territorially defensive, i.e. a compound or enclosure to entice aggressive responses, the agitation desists and the proximity of the decoy is increased to reinforce the aggressive behavioural response which is usually barking and baring teeth. In both the guard and personal protection dog, social contact with persons other than the handler is usually not permitted.
The Schutzhund dog has to undergo hundreds of hours of training and usually lives in a family situation and travels in public places. The Rules of the Sport are fairly clear in that the dog must undergo a test of impartiality prior to the commencement of a Trial. This usually involves the Judge handling the dog, eg. examination of tattoo in the ear whether it is present or not, examination of the dog by touching, patting or stroking, and the dog being placed in a very tightly closed crowd of people.
Dogs that are trained to have human species conflict, i.e. a mistrusting dislike for humans via defensive self preservation stimulus placed upon them by humans in training, will fail a test such as the test of impartiality used in the Schutzhund Trial and which has been deliberately designed to identify dogs that are trained in civil protection work which Schutzhund Clubs are prohibited from conducting.
The adversaries to Schutzhund sport know little of the training of either dogs for the sport or dogs for service work, personal protection or guard dogs. They most certainly can with great clarity and information give a clear explanation of their views, or can they? But further, we can practically demonstrate that dogs trained for the sport are safe. We wonder if they can not only in written thesis but also by practical example give their viewpoint. We doubt not.
Schutzhund is a sport...originally intended to verify a dogs working ability and worthiness to breed. Now it is so different from real working dogs that anyone in the police services who is seriously interested has advised me that schutzhund is a total waste of time and training. Now you may think that is nuts...each to their own. However those who will be purchasing my puppies will be my guide not complete strangers who grew up believing titles were the only thing that mattered in the breed. I use to believe that too. I learned!
Now this does not mean just any old dog can be bred and claimed a working dog either. Mine are trained and assessed by independent trainers from both the OPP and RCMP to ensure that they posses the abilities to do what we are breeding for. Notice we do not claim Ebony's pups will be police service dogs....that is because she is not able to pass the tests. She is searcha dn rescue type...not nearly aggressive enough to do that more intense work. I know usually everyone jumps when I mention breeding..that is fine. I can tell you all right now I have done the research and nothing said here is going to change my mind. So you might be better off educating someone who does not know what they are doing; that ain't me.
