There are many different correction collars that can be used for obedience training, ranging in severity from a plain leather or nylon webbing choke collar to a tightly fitted pinch collar. The choice of collar depends upon the character of the dog and the temperament and ability of the trainer. It is interesting to note that, although it does not look harsh, the nylon cord choke collar—simply a thin cord connecting two steel rings—is, in our opinion, among the most punishing of collars and must be used with great care.
As a general rule, it is far better to have a powerful collar, and to use this collar precisely and with little physical effort, than it is to be “undergunned” and compelled to use a great portion of one’s physical strength in order to dissuade the animal from some misguided intention.
To bring the dog into spirit, some sort of prey object like a ball or kong is indispensable. For the dog, chasing and retrieving a thrown toy is analogous to chasing fleeing prey. Retrieving, therefore, excites and arouses the animal and provides a ready source of energy for work.
A .22 caliber starter pistol (firing either crimped blanks or the longer blanks packed with wadding) is the most common revolver used by American Schutzhund clubs. However, there is sometimes great variability in the types of gun used in trials, ranging up to .38 caliber and 9mm. Therefore, during training the handler should expose the dog to as many different types of gunshot as possible. Starter pistols are available from a number of the training equipment vendors.
The hurdle and wall are normally built by Schutzhund club members. See the illustration above. Hurdles used in sanctioned Schutzhund trials are normally brush jumps and topped with either vegetation or broom bristles. Training hurdles, however, are made with wooden slats so as to be adjustable for height. The scaling wall is most commonly made of ⅝- or ¾-inch plywood and is adjustable for height.
The dumbbells used in Schutzhund are made of hard woods and are specifically weighted. The best and more durable ones are made in one piece, lathed out of a solid block of wood. They are available from a number of vendors in the United States. The various sizes and their uses are:
14-ounce dumbbell—Schutzhund I retrieve and jump
1½-pound dumbbell—Schutzhund II and III jump
2-pound dumbbell—Schutzhund II retrieve
4-pound dumbbell—Schutzhund III retrieve
10
Obedience: Basic Training
The Traditional wisdom handed down from Germany is that one should never begin obedience training a Schutzhund dog before the animal is at least one year old and both biting hard and tracking confidently.
Protection and tracking are—in contrast to obedience—somewhat independent activities. In a sense, the dog tracks on its own and bites on its own. In both these phases we are forced to rely upon the animal’s initiative to carry it through a task that we have prepared it for but in which we cannot help.
According to tradition, early obedience training kills the dog’s initiative, and should therefore be avoided. Some trainers, both German and American, carry this idea to an extreme. They neither obedience-train their young dogs nor give them any commands that might inhibit them, not even “No!” They forbid their puppies nothing, and basically the animals run wild, free of any obligation, during their first year of life. These trainers believe that the dog must first develop adult strength and resiliency before it can withstand the stress of obedience training.
Their assumption is that obedience training is a demoralizing experience and, in the context of traditional German training methods, this was often the case. If we think about it for a moment, we realize that a young adult dog that has never been forbidden anything in its life, and is completely new to the idea that anyone might place restraints upon its behavior, is hardly likely to enjoy obedience. Not only has this animal never learned to take pleasure in doing for its handler but also, because it has now grown tough and headstrong, a great deal of force will be required to obtain its “cooperation.” German training techniques are therefore traditionally very forceful, and only the most willing dogs retain their spirit and liveliness when suddenly encountering these methods after a puppyhood spent in freedom.
The drawback in waiting until the dogs are one year of age before beginning obedience is that this practice virtually wastes the entirety of the animals’ young lives, when they are at their most impressionable. When they could be learning to be willing and eager, they are instead learning to be willful and independent. When they could be learning how to learn from us, how to quickly grasp what we teach them, they are instead learning to be headstrong and inflexible.
At the same time, it is sheer folly to begin obedience training a young puppy using conventional compulsive techniques. However, the inducive training revolution provided knowledge and techniques that enable us to begin meaningful work on obedience early in the dog’s life, with absolutely no fear that we will damage the animal’s ultimate potential for character.
We therefore begin teaching puppies their obedience exercises as early as eight or nine weeks of age. At this time we also begin rudimentary tracking and the rag play that will eventually lead to formal agitation. All the obedience training is inducive. The pups are rewarded by being patted, played with and fed tidbits, and they are punished by not being patted, played with and fed.
This does not mean that the youngsters are not disciplined in everyday life. In order to not resent and fear discipline, the pups must experience it as a normal, consistent and predictable part of their lives from the very beginning. They are housetrained, physically punished for mouthing and physically punished for indiscriminate chewing. All punishment is impartial—that is to say it does not take the form of vengeance or arise from anger. In addition, it is consistent and predictable so that the puppies know when they are in trouble and why, and it is always appropriate in severity to very young dogs.
Unfortunately, this book does not allow the space for a treatment of puppy training. But we do describe in some detail how we introduce older dogs to obedience training. Because we perform the teaching phase of any dog’s training entirely inducively—no matter what its age—the reader should be able to get an idea of how we perform the same work with puppies.
GOAL 1: The dog will learn to play before it learns to work.
Our discussion of obedience training is based on the assumption that we are working with a naive adult—an animal that knows nothing of obedience, but is crazy about its handler and plays intensely and joyfully. This animal, no different than a puppy, should be worked inducively in the beginning—while it is learning to understand the concepts and skills involved in training—and then more and more compulsively, if necessary, in order to hone its performance and make it absolutely reliable.