I am in the same boat as Van Camp. I got my female at 5 months, but helped my friend, who was the breeder, "start" her from the beginning. I was lazy about registering her and sent it in when she was 7 months and being new to Sch., had no idea about H.O.T. or anything else. At a seminar this weekend with T. Floyd and Dean Calderon, they said that for a one year old, she can't be any better, and Dean said that her pedigree is one of the best he's ever seen, so maybe there is some potential to at least compete at a regional level. The BH age minimum was just changed to 15 months, yet the minimum age for HOT at the nationals remains 6 months. Being new to schutzhund, i obviously have no idea if i will make nationals with my first dog, but if I do, after all this time and effort she still won't be HOT. I see the point on having a cut off, however, I wish (selfishly) that they raise the HOT cut off an additional 3 months like they did with the BH minimum age.....

then you have to think about cases like ours...
We bought a bitch just over a year ago. Her life was mostly running in a kennel, had a little foundation bitework when she was young. We bought her at 3yrs of age. Today, she's doing extremely well, bad habits have been fixed, training has excelled. It was ALL H.O.T., except for her very basic foundation bitework, and all to the credit of my wife, who this is her first dog to get ready for a Bh & AD.

As always, I don't know much. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />
My thoughts on H.O.T. are that it just lost it's appeal to most!! Myaybe I'm wrong, but I doubt it!!

The one with the MONEY always RULES. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />
What a SHAME!

Hello:

For what it's worth, I think it isn't such a good idea. Also, this will drive the price up even further for an untitled "green" or "untrained" dog. I am starting to think that in the next few years, the only people who are going to be doing this sport are the people who own race horses and have money to burn.

Regards,
Brandon

I don't think prices are going to be driven up.

I doubt that the prices of a young dog will be driven up by this new rule. The events of September 11 have done this already. USA is not that big?

This may give USA more entries into the HOT Championship, and alot of people will be showing dogs that were imported green, we will know who did what with what dog for the most part. The dog world is small.

Alot of the dogs that compete in the WUSV are not trained by thier owners, but someone else. Take Orry for example. There are guys over there in Europe that will not raise a pup, but buy a young dog that is hitting the sleeve, and hips are done already. They see what they are getting. And for the most part the one's that do well, if thier dogs were in different hands, I doubt that the dogs would be as good. So there are pro's and cons to this. There are not many top trainers in the World that train and raise pups. While there are some, I think you will find alot buy 12 month or older dogs to compete with. If this HOT thing becomes more active, then maybe we will see more dogs on the World Team and in our National's that had alot of thier training done here, and thus bridging the gap for raising a pup to Sch3. This is not easy. I am doing it now with two pups, and it is fun, but hard work, and has taken me years to be happy with my skill level to do this.

It is still not easy to take a dog that is 12 months or older, and train it for top comp. I do not care who trained the dog; unless you can train or have a great coach, you will not get very far with it.
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