One of the Best Instructors in the World on the Sport of Schutzhund.

By Ed Frawley
Copyright 1999

Bernhard Flinks

In Feb. 1999 I went to a Bernhard Flinks schutzhund seminar in New Mexico. It was GREAT! I started going to schutzhund seminars in 1974 and this Flinks seminar was the best I had ever attended!! Bernhard Flinks is a German police officer (23 years on the job) who competes in the sport of Schutzhund (he has finished 3rd in the Bundessieger) and in Police DPO/WPO Championships (he finished 2nd in the 1999 International Police Dog Championships. To get a feel for his experience take a look at his resume. To say that it is impressive is an understatement.

When I first got interested in schutzhund (in 1974) I went to every seminar on the sport that I could find. Back then all the seminar instructors came from Germany, there were certainly no Americans qualified to go out and teach. The feeling was that if an instructor spoke German he had to be an expert. As the years passed I began to tire of the arrogance of guys like Helmute Riaser and Fritz Biehler. Humility was certainly not a word that was part of their vocabulary. I found myself asking, " who do these guys think they are?" They treated Americans like a pack of rabid dogs with billfolds full of cash. It became a status symbol to own one of Biehler's cast off dogs, none of whom ever amounted to a hill of beans. So in 1984 I quit going to German Seminars.

I will not say that the sport did not benefit. I can remember Biehler coming to Paul Hombachs kennel in Milwaukee in 1978. Fritz brought his recent bundessieger winner (Drigon Furnmenshof). Everyone (including myself) was duly amazed that a dog would run all six blinds even though he knew the helper was standing in the sixth blind. That was an impressive accomplishment. The fact is Biehler was a good trainer who enjoyed showing off his dog, (I actually had a chance to put on an old body suite and do a run away from Enno Antreftal (the 1974 Bundessieger). Enno proceeded to knock me on my butt. Unfortunately the training information that Beihler offered in a 3-day seminar could have filled a 20-minute videotape.

Then I remembered the 2 five day seminars Riaser gave in Colorado and Missouri in 1982. I attended both. What he talked about concerning bite work made sense, but looking back it was basically a repeat of what Bernhard Mannel (and Conrad Most) had been saying for years. The only problem was Bernhard (who is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet, and certainly not cast from the same mold as these others) could barely speak English. Much of what Bernard had to offer was lost in the translation of what he was trying to say. He would spend 5 minutes answering a question and the interpreter took 30 seconds to translate. You found yourself saying - "WAIT A MINUTE - WAIT A MINUTE - HE HAD TO HAVE SAID MORE THAN THAT!!!"

After Riaser's second 5-day seminar I was fed up. It was one thing to know something about dog training and quite another to have your ego procede you into the room. Has anyone seen Riasers dogs work in obedience? The word "drive" does not come into his obedience vocabulary. His dogs follow him around (barely) and look like they would rather be back in the kennel than doing something with Helmute.

Now, 14 years later Bernhard Flinks has come to America. He is a breath of fresh air. He is friendly and more knowledgeable than any of the instructors from the past. When I try and describe Bernhard to people I say, "This is the kind of person you would like to have as your best friend." That pretty much says it all.

I first heard about Bernhard from my friend, Kevin Sheldahl. Kevin and I went to Europe together in the fall of 1998, I had to film the Belgium Ring and Kevin had to compete with his police dog (CJ) in the International Police Dog Championships with Bernard in Germany. We split up shortly after arriving and then hooked up after the competitions. Kevin could not say enough about a German Police Officer (Bernhard Flinks) who took second place with his police dog Pako. Kevin said he knew that Bernhard was good when several German police dog handlers came and got him just before Bernhard was to compete with Pako. The Germans said that he had to watch the performance of this 10-year-old police dog (who Kevin said looked like a 6 year old dog). Pako won 2nd place in the competition. Before Kevin left Germany he made arrangements for Bernhard to come to the states to do a seminar at his schutzhund club.

I had to schedule a trip to New Mexico. Kevin and I needed to film a training video on teaching police service dogs to search buildings. I decided to do it the week before Bernard's seminar just to see what Kevin was talking about.

Bernard Flinks is not only one of the best dog trainers I have ever met, he is also a gentlemen. He offered more solid down to earth training information in 3 days than all of the other German trainers I had seen in the early 1980's.Bernard trains all phases in drive. This is why he has a 10-year-old dog that is coming in 2nd in International Police Dog Championships.

Bernhard is a teaching helper in Schutzhund and police work

The first day of the seminar involved a lot of theory. Bernhard brought everyone up to speed on his approach to dog training. He tries to get into a dogs head and look at training from a dog's perspective. Once you can accomplish this you can easily understand that the only way to train dogs is through drive. There are other trainers selling books and videos on training through drive, but the contents of these books does not come close to what Bernhard does on a daily basis.

Bernhard spent time showing how he approaches obedience training. It was not so much that he has reinvented obedience training (no one is ever going to do that). But watching his training is like watching a master at work. It's the small points of fine tuning timing, compulsion and drive that makes the difference between a good trainer and a great trainer. Bernhard is a great trainer.

His approach to bite training is based on taking dogs through three phases of work. He emphasized the mistakes that so many people make by getting ahead of themselves in bite work. Bernhard re-emphasized the fact that a dogs grip is effected by genetics and training. He did not go into genetics but did talk about and demonstrate the finer points of setting the grip. A calm full grip is the result of a dog that has a clear understanding of every step of bite training. Once the dog understands his job and how to reach his drive goal his grip is going to be calm. This sounds simplistic but the training steps to get here are not that simple. Bernhard used young dogs to demonstrate how to do this. He also pointed out dogs with problems that resulted from being rushed through training and missing a solid foundation.

What really got my attention with Bernhard was when he explained to the entire group that table training is crap. It's 100% avoidance training and has no place in sport work. He impressed me with how tactfully he presented his ideas. I believe he (unlike myself) demonstrated how to get his honest opinion across without offending anyone.

The real purpose for this article is to tell people that if you ever have an opportunity to attend a seminar by Bernhard Flinks you should jump at the chance. It will be an experience that you will not forget. I can guarantee you that once word gets out about his training skills the seminars he teaches will be filled months in advance. Many people can train dogs, not a lot of people can train people to train dogs. Bernhard has this gift.

If you are interested in seeing one of the best instructors in the world in the sport of Schutzhund, give Greg Momonee a call (734-269-3427) His club is sponsoring a Bernhard Flinks seminar in Ann Arbor Michigan on the weekend of June 19 and 20, 1999.

Bernhard explains how to target a young dog that is coming in for a flying bite

Bernhard Flinks place 2nd place in the Bundessieger show on 10/4/98 with his dog Packo vom Hollbachgrund. They scored 291 (99/95/97)

Bernhard Flink’s dog kennel & home in Germany