From what I have seen on video's and in conversation with older schutzhund people both in the US and guys from Germany, is that the dogs now days (for the most part) do not need any real aggression to be in the BSP. A dog with high prey drive will V rate in the BSP as the same type of dog a few decades ago would never have made it into the BSP.

Alot of the dogs from 15 or 20 years ago would bite a human without any real hesitation. Today most dogs from the BSP would never bite in a real life situation as they are just out there sucking a sleeve.

The full-mouth bite requirment, while some dogs that have high fight drive may bite full and score high, the vast majority of dogs that have high fight will bite less then full, (thus loosing points) and never make it into the BSP as they would have years ago, and are never really (the majority) ever selected for breeding. There is also a lot more of control exersises that we did not see a years back. a dog that outed slow back in the BSP decades ago was not a point loser like he would be today. But in fairness in recent years there has been, in my view attending club trials a little less emphasis on grip quality if the dog is a real fighter. This seems to becoming a popular trait again, but I think we are still a long way off.

In the older days there was alot more stress and defense put into a dogs protection training, today most dogs are taught to work in prey and with-stand anything to get the sleeve. Today we use a padded stick, that while makes a noise when hit onto a dog, it is not the same as the old reed sticks that would sting and thus make the dog bite through real stress. One of two things will happen when a dog is hit hard with a old reed stick in most cases - the dog would come off the sleeve, or it would get pushed into fight. Today alot of the dogs would jump off the sleeve. In some cases the dog would get really unnerved and placed into a fight or flight type of a deal. ALot of dogs competing today have trouble with the padded stick?

Also in Ob the judges want a different picture then years ago. The best type of dog to use to get that picture is not a dog with a tremendous amount of hardness that would be needed for the old style of protection. In most cases a highly motivated prey dog will suit anyone just fine in ob. and protection.

Maybe Ed could comment he has some dust on him now <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> and seen many of these older performances in person back in the 80's on what he views as a big difference? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />