OK, here we go, the final installment on the Schutzhund clinic with Peter and Connie Scherk and Florian Knabl. I'll start with a very general discussion of handler focus and obedience during bite work. This is a very important aspect of bite work these days. Many points can be lost very quickly for a lack of accuracy or control in these elements. It tends to be the characteristic that separates a real biting monster from a great trial dog. Dogs that don't exhibit superior control in the bite work don't end up on the podium very often any more. Peter, Connie, and Florian recognize that and start working on the control elements of the bite work from day 1.
Like many people these days they actually start working on the back transport before they do much focused heeling with their young dogs. That way they avoid the conflict between focused heeling and the transport exercises. There will still be some conflict when the dog starts to do focused heeling but they mitigate that by increasing the level of distraction over time. So by the time that the dog actually has to do focused heeling in the presence of the big ball that they initially train most of the protection exercises on and ultimately the helper they understand the difference. You can also emphasize the difference by using different commands.
They start on the back transport using a very mechanical/physical technique that requires at least one excellent assistant. The assistant's job is to help control the dog's position using a back line attached to the harness and to keep the dog in a standing position during the early phases. The dog is supposed to maintain their position with the handler's left leg and will only be released to the toy/ball when the handler's left leg is back and right leg is forward, effectively putting the dog in an artificially lagged position. They believe that this is critical to minimize forging and point loss. As the dog starts to learn the position, lightly brushing the handler's left leg, and in a marginally lagged position, help from the assistant is faded.
I think you could probably do more shaping and achieve the same result in terms of position but I think that their focus on when you release the dog to the ball or helper is unique and probably very smart. An awful lot of dogs forge in the back transport no matter how you train it and I think this might help that problem.
They work the side transport as a variation of the back transport.
From there we moved on to the element of focused obedience within the confines of the protection work. Like most people, once their dogs are doing focused work they start adding in distractions of varying type and value. They do lots of that before ever working on focused obedience in the presence of the helper - pretty much the highest value distraction for most SchH dogs.
That was pretty much it for the bite work stuff that I saw. We left a little early because Gata had the first of her more serious collapse incidents here on Sunday afternoon. So they may have done a little more that I didn't see. However they did use a few tools that I thought were interesting and worth talking about.
Dressage whip - I already mentioned how I felt about the abuse of this particular tool. However, when used in the way I would envision I can see it being very useful in creating total body awareness and extremely precise movements and positioning. I think it is something that I will play around with over the winter. I did a lot of this sort of work in horses so think it should come pretty easily. Though I think that there is the potential that you could inadvertently teach the dog to move away from the helper's stick as well. So I will have to keep that in mind.
Big ball - as soon as the puppies have developed a few fundamental skills they start pattern training parts and ultimately the entire protection routine using a big ball (soccer, Jolly, etc.). I think they usually have an assistant on hand as well who can add energy/movement to the ball or remove it when necessary. But the point is the dog already knows the rules of the game before it starts working on the helper so it is much easier to do so without using corrections. I did it that way with Gata but mostly to make training more efficient - I train at least 10 times on my own for every time I train on a helper. Whereas the Germany group do protection work 3 times a week.
Special bite wedge - Team Heuwinkl has a special relationship with the folks at Frabo and have lots of custom made equipment. Most of those designs eventually become marketed items, partly because they are just well designed and executed to meet a general need and partly because of good marketing. I'll do my best to describe the wedge that I saw them using since it doesn't have a specific name. But the folks that are really involved in SchH that read this will understand, I think. It is one of the hard (rather than pillow) wedges with 3 handles that have become so popular recently. The customization is in the cover for the wedge. It has a strip of plastic sewn across it, about 2 inches from the biting edge so that dogs that don't immediately go for a full bite will connect with the slippery surface and either slide off or regrip quickly. Ultimately, it encourages dogs to go for a better grip from very early on. This is something that I will probably invest in since I do so much with my dogs on my own. I have sort of avoided using the pillow wedges with Gata because it is too easy for me to present it badly and/or her to get a strange grip on it. So I really like this idea. Though I didn't actually pick it up when I was at the clinic so don't know what it would feel like to use.
Final take-sways from the clinic. I really like what they are doing and it is definitely revolutionizing the sport of SchH. I don't think it is the most sophisticated training in terms of theoretical elements and basis in learning theory. But I'm not sure that is as important as successful outcomes in the sport of SchH for now. I would definitely audit their seminar again if they came anywhere near me. I would not hesitate to take a working spot with a young or green dog as long as it had a good out or I needed help getting a good out. I wouldn't pay for a working spot with a more advanced dog. For me, it was a very nice way to spend the weekend and start tapping into the SchH community around here.
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