I noticed that his competion dog and service dog are one in the same; does he approach his bite training in sport work gearded toward fighting insinct? I was wondering what his approach was as many do not think this is possible?

From what I remember of seeing Bernhard Flinks in Michigan a couple of years ago, he just tries to bring out the best behaviors the dog is capable of (in obedience as well as protection). Obviously a lot of that will depend upon the dog, AND the handler. And of course, there are many dogs that could not work in fight drive if their life depended upon it. Bernhard knows this as well as anyone.

One thing I can tell you for sure is that Bernhard strongly stresses the necessity of a good working relationship between dog and handler, built on trust and mutual respect. That's one thing that makes him very, very different from many of the Schutzhund gurus giving seminars these days. I think a lot of the "crank-meisters" wish he would go away--because his results speak for themselves.

Pete Felknor

Just today I finished editing my first in a series of training tapes with Bernard it's titled Training Drive, Focus and Grip with Bernard Flinks ($65.00 2 hours - video 101E). I have over 60 hours of raw footage that I have been working intensily on for the past 2 1/2 months, so I know a little aboout this question

Bernard trains the early stages of his police dog exactly like he trains a sport dog. When his dog (Itor) was Sch 3 he did the conversion work to teach the dog to work the street. His dog had already bit 3 or 4 people before he got him at 4 years of age (including the previous handlers). The last person this dog bit was the driver of a car that stopped and asked directions to the old owner. The guy pulled the the side of the road in his Mercedes, rolled the window down to ask direction and Itor jumped through the window and bit the snot out of the guy. That is why Bernard got him. This dog does not have to be trained in fight drive - he has it comeing out his ears.

Bernard brought Itor with him to the seminar in Peoria in June. I got excellent video of the dog working and have used that video to produce my tape. We used Itor as a demo dog for a number of the exercises for drive building, focus and OUT,

The fact is that Bernard approached the training of Itor almost exactly like the training in my new tape. He built trust with the dog through the drive building exercises that I demonstrate in the tape, he worked the grip and carry exactly like we show - the only difference is that he did the OUT with an e-collar after he settled the issues of rank with the dog.

Bernard has qualified for this years Bundessiegerprüfung in Göttinge on Sept 21, 22, 23 with Itor. This will be his 5th trip to the Bundessiegerprufung. On three of his four trips he had the highest scoreing protection dog in the event and on the fouth competiton he was second highest in protection.

I can tell you that Bernard Flinks is the best sport dog trainer I have seen since I started hanging around schutzhund seminars in 1974. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Ok Ed then would it be safe to say that he trains all of his dogs sport or police the same way, until after the foundation has been set then does the conversion over to Police if this is the case. I would imgaine then he looks for a special dog that suits his needs in order to do this as you do not see many top schutzhund dogs that are active police dogs.
I am intrested in his work and will purchase the video.
The dog that you speak of, how old was he when Benhard got him?
My next question on him is his tracking. I have not heard anything on this about him. A few of my friends have gone to his seminars
and thought that he presented his info well to this students, but have not gotten any feedback from them on tracking.
Another question that I have is this dog that he has Itor, also a Narcotics dog?
Also, you probaly think I am a pain in the ass, but what future video's do you have planned with him?

I would imgaine then he looks for a special dog that suits his needs in order to do this as you do not see many top schutzhund dogs that are active police dogs.

The reasons he is able to do this is multi faceted. First, a real fine dog, second, a real fine trainer, third, he doesn't do street tracking, fourth, certification and deployment standards for his working situation coincides with much of his ability to do both.

I have spent considerable time with Bernhard and I must reiterate what Ed has said. Bernhard is a fantastic trainer. One thing he did say in one of our discussions was that if he had to do all the things that we do here in the US with his patrol dog that he would have two. One for sport and one for work. that is why it is rare to find competition dogs on the schutzhund field.

I would assume then that he only does area and building searches opposed to street tracking? Is his dog Nacotics trained? I am just curious to know. I find it intresting to see how diffrent people around the world function.