Dog Sport Network

Last weekend, I took my shep out to do three phases in preparation for a Schutzhund trial coming up early next year. I figured, this dog exercises every day, no problem. Besides which, he’s done his AD, so he must be in shape. Well, not so much.

We tracked, it was cool outside and he did just fine. Then we went through a very rigorous obedience session, with lots of focus and attention drilling, stressful stuff to say the least, on top of him doing two send outs and a few retrieves. Okay, I put him up for about forty five minutes and figured he’d be rested up.

Sledding is a big time sport in the northern US and Canada. It has been for around a hundred years or so. Why is that? There has to be a good reason for a person to go out in the sub zero and get pulled around by his dogs while he or she freezes his or her ass off. I wondered about this, then I went on a mini search for some meaningful videos.

This post was supposed to show the differences and similarities between Schutzhund and French Ring Sport, particularly as regards obedience. I really wanted you to see where both sports excel in this area and maybe compare notes between the two. You know, take a look at a couple of trial videos, maybe inspire a few people.

After searching Google videos, I found the following, which has been preserved by way of a screen shot.

You may agree that the need to train and proof a dog into proper heeling, sitting, downs, recalls, and so forth, can become very frustrating if there isn’t a clear cut approach to correction. After having done quite a bit of reading, research, debate and discussion on the subject and diligently working on it for the past ten years, here is my opinion on the sometimes controversial subject of compulsion.