Hi everyone,

Just a quick question, hoping to satisfy a bit of curiosity. As some may have seen a couple of days ago there is a seminar coming up in New Brunswick, Canada in which one can become certified as a helper (provided all the T's are crossed). Btw the club providing it are great people, i luv em! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Now I have more or less missed the boat to get registered for certification (some t's not crossed <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> ) but I will be attending the training portion of their seminar.. But I am wondering what does it mean to be certified as a helper; I know literally what it means, but what does it do for one's dog training career, so to speak? As it is something I may interested in aquiring in the future when my skills have improved. I had no luck finding any previous posts defining this for me.

I appreciate any input as I guess this could be somewhat opinion based.

Sorry I cannot be of more assistance, but I did have a question that might help others answer you... What SPORT are you hoping to certify for? For instance, there's a BIG difference between being a helper in SchH and a decoy in, say, ring.

And to sorta somewhat answer your question... I was attempting to start a club up (Toronto area) and was ONLY considering certified ring decoys, or folks willing to GET certified to work my dogs. Hence the reason the club never got off the ground. No shortage of young toughs willing to get into a suit even though they'd never worked a dog before... But "will work for beer"...

It's a hard game. If you're in the GTA, and you DO get certified, drop me a line I may be interested in giving it another shot at this club idea. My focus is on realistic work, not SchH. SchH clubs are a dime a dozen and I don't want to bother setting up a SchH club. But if you're getting certified for suit work and think you might be interested in French ring, mondio, or even something like Campagne, then let me know. Thx.

As far as DVG Certification of helpers is concerned, you can find out all about it here on the DVG America site.
http://www.dvgamerica.com/helpcert.html
Have fun at the seminar, you'll learn a lot no matter if you are able to certify or not.

Well as I am probably greener than my dog <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> I am fairly unaware of the in's and out's of the different dog sports out there. My next order from Leerburg will include a couple of tapes of recordings of some of the different events that are out there to help educate me. But in the mean time I am trying to become the best possible dog person I can. I am in no rush really to get a piece of paper that says I can or can't do something specific unless it were to open up more opportunity for me to learn.

I would like to learn suit techniques once I have learned enough to justify or rather qualify me to do so as my main interest is in police work (btw not a cop yet but trying). Right now I feel that sport is definately the place to start. Not to mention it looks fun as hell!

As far as working my own dog I think I would be happy with a Sch club for now but regarding me "helping" work other dogs the sky is really my limit!! Thanx for the input, I really appreciate it. I am open to more though...

Thank you!

Hey Brad,

The intent of the seminar isn't to teach us about training dogs, but to safely and consistently work them in trial. However, by learning to be a trial helper you will have a much better appreciation for what the dogs are being trained for. Knowing how things work on the trial field is going to be invaluable when you go out on the training field.

Hope to see you in June!