There are bad people in other dog sports. Take a look at the druggies in Schutzhund sometime. It goes with the territory. If we walked away from a sport because of those slugs where would the dog sports go.

There is a PSA club 40 miles from my house. The people running it are very nice people.

Everyone would be well advised to keep an eye on the list of people on my web site. More businesses should "VET" these loosers.

In fact I am adding a new one today that was copying my DVD's and selling them on ebay. I wonder what his company will think about him when I mail them a package of infomration on exactly what he was doing - this guy wasd a computer employee for a health care company.

Alex Balsin
Ext. 1559
Information Systems
Leiner Health Products

I know Ive said this before but the PSA trial I went to was a joke. Ive only been to one but the trial I saw was put on by one of the founders of PSA. I wasnt impressed at all. It looked like a scam, start your own association and give yourself a bunch of title and credabiltiy.From what I saw you could could take any good Sch. dog, train for it and do good in it.I dont have the same opinions about KNPV or other ring sports. I have respect for KNPV and the other traditional ring sports, they have a history and years of accomplished trainers behind it.

I have weakly participated in all 3 sports. It's different training, for sure. Targeting, drive building, even how the dog should work in the bite.
I would certainly come out of lurking to stick up for PSA, Jerry & Joe run a hard show, and only unbelievably great dogs with experienced handlers can title. I have seen this over and over.

I agree Lisa - Joe and Jerry have done awesome things for the working dog world. PSA is here to stay, and in my opinion, the only people that talk sh!t about it are the people that do not have the quality of dog required to compete!

Sammy,
Making statements like that does not help further the reputation of PSA.

And although I've never been to a PSA event, I've seen two dogs associated with PSA at some of the Bernhard Flinks seminars that I've attended. I hope that their owners never have to depend on those dogs to protect them in a real world situation. :rolleyes:

Sammy, you usually have wonderful things to add to discussions about serious dog training. You have a unique insight, and I always enjoy reading what you write. You're accomplishments and contributions to the dog world are notable.

However, blanket statements like that do no one any good.

Like Will, I have not had the opportunity to attend a PSA event, so I cannot comment intelligently on the program. I do know, however, several folks who have competed in and TITLED dogs in PSA (and WON their respective divisions) that don't have many nice things to say about the program or it's participants.

I think every dog program has its merits and detriments. Some I like, some I don't. To train for some of them would be seriously counter productive to the way I like my dogs to be trained. But to say that anyone who doesn't like a particular program doesn't have a 'good enough dog' to compete, is a generalization I think we need to stay away from.

When it's all said and done, those of us who train for these types of activities need to support each other, regardless of our chosen 'proving' venue(s).

Happy and SAFE Training,
Scott

Will, I sent you a PM.
Scott, Insightful posts, thanks

Sammy,
What you saw with the GSD with a SchH title having problems with PSA is close to what I saw with a titled GSD having difficulty with ASR.

I plan to title my GSD to SchH III before I enter an ASR trial with him, I'm beginning to consider that significant previous training in SchH may just not make PSA or ASR titles achievable. I hope I'm wrong about this. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

I have been working with a few sch dogs in protection and i found that they tend to be more likely to go for the toy, or sleve, than the person. after reading over the exercizes in psa i can see why this could happen. i sch they are trained to bark for the sleve and nothing else. once they get the sleve the game is over. in PSA the dog is in a fight with the decoy and the reward is the fight. these dogs will let go of a sleve if you feed it to them and go back at you. More of a defencive drive, not so much prey. alteast thats my take on it. one dog will work great in psa and is making the transition slowly. He is a good sch dog with balanced drives. let me know what you all think.

Dave

I think it depends totally on the dog.

I will title my Mals in PSA FIRST.. then look and see if I can make the transition over to SchH.