LOL, but how trainable in tracking was he? I enjoy Schutzhund and I like Mals but you don't see much discussion of training them except ring sports.

 Quote:

Once you can train dogs, and have trained hundreds and hundreds of totally different dogs, then doing a sport for fun is all just learning the individual rules of the sport,

You're kidding right?

Yeah, people use defensive drives to teach dogs to fetch slippers and the newspapers from the driveway- that's the best way.

Sheesh Mike, don't you know anything?

Jennifer, what club do you/did you train with?

 Quote: Mike J Schoonbrood

 Quote:

Once you can train dogs, and have trained hundreds and hundreds of totally different dogs, then doing a sport for fun is all just learning the individual rules of the sport,

You're kidding right?

What are you talking about????

Jennifer,
You said:

 Quote: Jennifer N. Hack

Once you can train dogs, and have trained hundreds and hundreds of totally different dogs, then doing a sport for fun is all just learning the individual rules of the sport...

Then Mike wanted to know if:

 Quote: Mike J Schoonbrood

You're kidding right?

Makes no sense, that question sounds very stupid. Why would I be kidding?

Do you really believe that's all that is involved in teaching Schutzhund or Ring Sport?

"We still do SchH for his fun, as the routine of it makes him happy and is not stressful to the dog like street protection."

You will find, as you become more experienced with training protection dogs, that you can have VERY effective street protection in a dog who is working in a happy, prey-mindset. Street protection does not always have to equal defense, and in fact I'd say the best PP dog is a dog who can bring the intensity of fight without going into stress/defense.

Some of the strongest dogs I've seen (or had the opportunity to handle) were extremely driven, tough-nerved PREY dogs. And you can train a dog like this with all the pressure they'd experience in real life and they STILL won't switch into a stressed, defensive mindset. Some people don't like a dog like this but I'd take a tough PREY dog over a tough DEFENSIVE dog any day.

Pushing a weak dog into defense to get it to bite "for real" is a fairly old mentality. With the right training, there's no reason why biting a hidden suit on a guy who came through the window has to be any more stressful than a SchH routine. But then again, I guess it's all in how you train.

 Quote: Jennifer N. Hack

Makes no sense, that question sounds very stupid. Why would I be kidding?

Ah my dear, perhaps it is not the question which sounds stupid, but the statement that preceded it?

There is very little overlap between training a dog in dog sports and training the general publics dogs. What you suggested, was that anyone that has trained many dogs is capable of making the switch to dog sports simply by reading the rule book. You totally gloss over the fact that most training for dog sports involves techniques, tips and tricks that have been passed down generation after generation, that someone thought up many years ago and have been refined and polished to give us what we have to work with today.

Suggesting that all one would need in order to train in dog sports is general training experience and a rule book is a great disservice to the trainers that pioneered the techniques we use today. Techniques that never find their way into pet dog training because they are specific to the exercises in dog sports.

I don't believe there are many (if any) pet dog trainers out there that would know how to teach an object guard without first being shown the steps involved by someone that already knows. It's not one of those things that you suddenly wake up one day and know. Someone needs to show you. Past training experiences will obviously influence the speed at which you comprehend the exercise, but the exercise must be learnt from scratch.

As far as I am concerned, any time anyone enters into a new venue of training, whether it's flyball, dock diving, schutzhund or ringsports, you are, for all intents and purposes, green, and this doesn't change overnight. I know of a very competent police trainer that humbly admitted he would not be the right choice to teach Schutzhund, because, even though he has many years of dog training and police service under his belt, he understands that he does not know the correct techniques to train exercises for Schutzhund.

Or perhaps you were just a little over zealous in your post. Understandable.