[Hil Harrison]

IMHO, I think, in order to be a good sport dog,you need strong prey. Not so much with a dog for serious work. Then you need to see what, if any defence and natural aggression the dog has. It may or may not be ready at 18 months to test for this. If not, you could ruin the dog. Under a little pressure, does the dog stand and bark? Run behind the handler? Are the hackles up? that often signifies fear in the dog. Not always.
Reading a dogs prey, defence, fight, etc needs a lot of expierience. A misread can, at best mess up a dog. At worst, could create a serious monster.
Hopefull, some of the more informed folks here can give you better answers. :wink:

Connie, I agree with Bob on this one.

Generally, a lot of dogs ( not all I must add) from showlines just don't have the strong prey drive that you would need for Schutzund. We had a GSD(2 in fact) at the club who were half workingline half showline. Tracking and OB was good but when it came down to the bite work they were only working on defence drive. It would drive the decoy's nuts trying to stimulate the dog. His bite was weak and it did'nt seem to interest him at all. And that was a half/half dog.

A friend of mine is a breeder of GSD, and she says a lot of the dogs get maybe a SchI title but don't look for anything above that. If you do get it you have been lucky.

I think the most important thing would be to look at the prey drive in the dog.
Is this a dog you are thinking of buying? or do you have him already?

 

[Hil Harrison]

IMHO, I think, in order to be a good sport dog,you need strong prey. Not so much with a dog for serious work. Then you need to see what, if any defence and natural aggression the dog has. It may or may not be ready at 18 months to test for this. If not, you could ruin the dog. Under a little pressure, does the dog stand and bark? Run behind the handler? Are the hackles up? that often signifies fear in the dog. Not always.
Reading a dogs prey, defence, fight, etc needs a lot of expierience. A misread can, at best mess up a dog. At worst, could create a serious monster.
Hopefull, some of the more informed folks here can give you better answers. :wink:

....Connie, I agree with Bob on this one. ..
Generally, a lot of dogs ( not all I must add) from showlines just don't have the strong prey drive that you would need for Schutzund. We had a GSD(2 in fact) at the club who were half workingline half showline. Tracking and OB was good but when it came down to the bite work they were only working on defence drive. It would drive the decoy's nuts trying to stimulate the dog. His bite was weak and it did'nt seem to interest him at all. And that was a half/half dog...A friend of mine is a breeder of GSD, and she says a lot of the dogs get maybe a SchI title but don't look for anything above that. If you do get it you have been lucky...I think the most important thing would be to look at the prey drive in the dog. ...Is this a dog you are thinking of buying? or do you have him already?

Suppose the dog is not very prey-drivey or retrievey? Could it still be fun for the dog to do SchH training (not for competition)?

He might enjoy it but I think you might go spare trying to motivate him. Most of the training is to do with prey drive and retrieving. If hes lacking some prey drive see when your looking at him what you can motivate him with for example ball or tug. If hes not interested you could I suppose try him out with tracking. Problem is I have seen SCH dogs who lacked in drive with owners still trying to motivate them. They would leave the training each time very dissapointed. I think you need a good look at him and take someone with you for a second opinion, then do a couple of days thinking about what you have seen, and what you could do with him qua training.