Good point, Ann. Recently I contacted a local Schutzhund club, and one of the members came out to evaluate my dog. He tested my dog's obedience, tracking, and then the protection. Of course, during the protection evaluation, my two neighbors happened to come outside and almost had heart attacks when they saw Dako barking, biting the sleeve and the trainer snapping a whip around. After he left, I printed out 4 pages of info about Schutzhund, and attached a letter explaining that Dako wasn't getting hurt, it is fun for him, etc. and put it in their mailboxes. When I told the other members of the club about the incident, a few seemed surprised I'd go so out of my way to help my neighbors understand what was happening.

I think it is very important to explain to people what is going on if they happen to see the protection part -otherwise it just gives the sport an unfair reputation.

In the end, one of my neighbors thanked me for the info and seemed accepting of it. The other neighbor still won't talk to me! Oh well, at least I tried. I hope she at least read the stuff.

Well, that was very thoughtful of you...and as you noted, a step further than most Sch trainers will go.
I have a similar story in that our group used to train in an open field near a park, early on Sundays, when the place was normally empty.

But more than once the police would come around, responding to some compliant that dogs were attacking humans, or once that "big men with barbwire sticks were beating a dog" (that last I assume was a result of some misconception of the "stick hits" in part of the schutzhund routine...)

The first 5-6 times the police simply came out to watch, and as most of them were familiar with bite training, they did nothing. But of course they had to respond to a complaint.

The last time the LEO asked us to find a place more secluded...he was getting real pressure from his superiors to "handle" the complaints and just make them go away. Too bad there wasn't a more concerted effort to educate the public.