I know I've read threads and seen posts on people here who have a working line GSD (or mals, etc) who is first and foremost, a family pet and works SchH secondary.

Did you train house manners and if so, how did this affect SchH training?

Have any trainers in your club had you "undo" anything in your dog?

IMHO if you can't have your dog in the house or take her with you in normal social situations what good is she? because of time constraints I had to drop SchutzHund shortly after Erika started to get on the sleeve really well. Roxie has a nice calm bite but still spins on the leash. I take these two to the parks, restaurants and did school visits with Erika. Along with the Sch training they received, they also have a collection of cute tricks. Of course the Sch people that compete on a national/international will have a different opinion. Again IMHO I got better pets BECAUSE of SchutzHund training

House manners are a completely different training from sport work. I in addition to different commands, I use different training.
I have no problem correcting for bad manners in the house, with the grandkids, etc.
On the training field my SchI GSD has never had a physical correction. All motivational training.
If the dog has good temperment and brought up correctly, There should be no reason why you can't have both.

My dogs learnt their manners just by how I handle them. They aren't totally perfect because I don't care about as much as some other people might, but I've never put any effort into it. My dogs just kinda figure it out as they grow up.

Hi Michelle, if you investigate a little further you'll find most of the national competitors buy the dogs already trained, they don't "waste" their time on pups. Sch doesn't seem to care if the dog is H.O.T or not, to bad really. I have a Sch 3 dog that i got from Will that is a safe as it gets in a family situation, so i guess it just depends on the pooch's temperament etc.,

AL

 Quote: Mike Arnold

Maybe there should be a required training course for people to take before they get a dog. Maybe a trainer/owner license that has to be renewed annually... I mean, people have to have a license to drive a car.

There really are those who should not be allowed to have a dog... Like Michael Vick.

Amen!

michelle: i think most would agree that schutzhund training and a well-mannered family dog aren't mutually exclusive. however, i didn't spot anyone else mentioning this, but if you want your dog to have any chance at schutzhund you'll probably have to think about how you train the house manners, and make small modifications that you wouldn't have to do if you weren't raising a working pup. it's been a while since i've been to this website, but i seem to recall most of these being covered by ed in his ebooks + videos about "raising a working puppy"... one thing that immediately comes to mind is how you will deal with "mouthiness".

at the end of the day, i decided not to train my dog for schutzhund, not because of how i thought it'd affect her manners or anything (there's a common misconception that a bite-trained dog is somehow more prone to unauthorized bites than a completely untrained dog, which had crossed my mind but i've since dismissed as a fallacy), but simply because i lack any kind of support other than what i receive off the internet (which i decided isn't enough).

i'm also inclined to agree with dennis' position: you get a better family dog because of more training. good luck to you.