I live in Dayton Ohio and would like to learn how to start a Schutzhund club. I would like to recruit people who know how to train or work with schutzhund dogs. I have a very high drive GSD and would like to allow her to work to her highest potential. I have shown in AKC obedience, but my dog's high prey drive has gotten us in trouble. I don't want to retire my dog, but would like to continue to work with her. Please respond if you are a serious Schutzhund devotee.

Becky Garltic and U-CD Maya Von Der Garltic-Haines CD, RN, CGC

Becky,
DVG America has an easy to follow set-up on their site ( look on the area to the left about half-way down and you'll see "How to Form a Club" ):
http://www.dvgamerica.org/


It's a fair amount of work to form a club at first but once the club is formed it gets a lot easier!

And finding members is the real trick, one member that knows what they're doing can pretty much get the club up and running.....it's getting that knowledgeable member that's the trick...

Good luck!

Will gave a link access so you can look up on DVG website to see if there is one nearby. If you couldn't find anyone, you can make phone calls to different dog training classes in your area. I found a decoy who used to teach petsmart classes, and introduced me to schutzhund. Just ask around if they know anybody that does schtzhund or ringsport. They might know somebody.

Starting a club ...

1) find a good helper -- very important ... a bad helper can severly injure or otherwise screw up a good dog.
2) secure a training ground for at least one evening and one weekend afternoon. Don't forget tracking areas.
3) Talk to one of the Schutzhund organizations -- USA, DVG, WDA, and establish an affiliation.
4) Get club insurance( Sportsman's does the bulk of this underwriting -- the rates are surprisingly reasonable.)
5) Buy or make the training equipment - blinds, hurdles, scaling wall.

Will has provided the link to the DVG group.
You can probably find the WDA website.

USA & DVG lean more towards the working dog side of the equation. WDA is oriented more towards the needs of the show breeders.

USA is the largest and most active group. Each USA club must have at least one trial each year. Many clubs will have two, three or more. The USA actively promotes helper training through numerous helper seminars and classification events. USA has established a Judge's training program that provides a number of home-grown judges. Many clubs will also bring in SV judges (travel expenses are shared amoung the clubs that bring them in.)

( http://www.germanshepherddog.com/ )

You would be in their Mideastern region. Contact the regional director for help on setting up a club. The basics are a minimum number of members, holding an affiliation trial, holding at least one trial each year, and adopting an organizational structure (officers)
http://www.germanshepherddog.com/members/USA_ByLaws.pdf (pg 5)

In terms of trialing, USA is the most active.
The USA Mideastern region has over twenty trials scheduled in 2009 and will probably schedule another 10-15 as the year progresses. Nationally, USA has in excess of 120 events currently scheduled for 2009. There will probably be about another 50-60 organized as the year progresses. The number of trials is significant because it provides more opportunities to get your dog titled without turning each attempt into a trans-continental trek ($$$).

DVG has 6 trials listed nationally. WDA has about 25 trials listed nationally.

In Ohio, DVG lists two clubs - one in the Columbus area and one in the Youngstown area. WDA lists none in Ohio. USA lists eight -- two in the Columus area, one in NW Ohio, one around Cincinnati, and the remainder in NE Ohio. Access to surrounding clubs is important because they tend to provide support for each other -- helper resources, judges and moral support. Another factor is that with more surrounding clubs, you will have a better chance tend to fill the available slots in your trial. This spreads the cost of paying for the judge among more people.

Dayton is not exceptionally far from the established clubs in Cinncinnati and Columbus. You may want to spend some time visiting those clubs before starting your own. Many folks travel quite a bit to work with a club. Our club is in the Akron area -- we have members that regularly travel from Dayton, Bellaire (SE OH) and Sandusky (NW Ohio).

You may also want to check out the clubs in the Indy area. Mike Diehl has a pretty nice group over there.

Looking at some of your other posts, it seems the dog you have is at least 5 years old. Realistically, that may be too old to get her started and titled in Schutzhund. However, it CAN be done with the right dog a good trainer.

You may want to talk to a trainer at an established club and get a realistic evaluation of the dog's potential. You will learn quite a bit in the attempt and what to do and not do with your next dog.

Remember, Schutzhund is Tracking, Obedience and Protection.

I realize that my dog is too old to compete in some aspects of Schutzhund,but she could learn the obedience and perhaps the tracking elements. It would also prepare me to train another dog.I would like to continue competing in UKC and AKC obedience trials, but my dog bit another dog during a class. I had let my guard down and another handler allowed her dog to come right up beside mine. They were nose to nose and my dog nipped the other, tearing part of his ear off. Needless-to say, I have to keep my dog muzzled when around other dogs and can't compete for six months. It shook me up enough to have doubts of the other dogs safety during the out-of-sight sits and downs in Open class. Thanks for all the information you sent my way. There are others in my area that are interested in starting Schutzhund training and your info will be very helpful.

First, your dog will need to pass the BH exam. This is a prerequisite for all other titles.

If she has dog agression issues that can not be controlled, then she will not pass that test. You will not be able to compete for any titles until the BH is sucessfully negotiated.

Uncontrolled dog agression is no more welcome in schutzhund than in other venues. Your dog attacking another could ruin years of work someone else has put into a dog.

A good trainer can help you address this. It's generally a pretty compulsive process as in making the dog know it doesn't ever want to go to that place again.

In USA, the penalities for dog agression have recently been ramped up,
http://www.germanshepherddog.com/policy_dogaggression.htm

I assume the other organizations have similar policies.

Many handlers have very strong and direct responses to attacks on their dogs. You may want to check out the various threads on this forum regarding "my dog was attacked by a loose dog".

I realize that my dog is a liability, I just don't want to isolate her and make the problem worse. I was hoping to find more knowledgeable trainers who are adept at working with dogs who have a very high prey drive such as mine. I am well aware that my dog is been a bit more than I can handle at times, but she is such a good worker and I just can imagine keeping her in the back yard for the rest of her life or worse, having her destroyed. I probably won't compete with her anymore, but I still enjoy working with her. We are doing Utility work now and she loves the "go outs" and the directed jumping. She is also coming along nicely with the scent articles and the gloves, so we are still having fun!

Becky. I know his is an old thread....4 years is a long time but I just moved to Dayton and am curious as to what you finally did. If you are still watching this please let me know. Thank you. Polly