Hi everyone I am new to this forum, Hubby and I have a 15 week old rottie boy who we got at 8weeks. He comes from champion show lines on dams side and show and hard working dogs on the sires side (sch.danish and german police dogs). We are considering doing Sch. training with him but I am a total novice to this dog sport. Originally I was only considering show and obedience but as he develops his personality more I've been thinking that sch. would be a could outlet for him. I'll tell you all about him and would love some opinions and feedback on if you think he would be suitable and where to go from here.
He has a strong prey drive, if it moves he will chase and pounce on it, even more so if it makes erratic movements or a noise, as some of his stuffed toys have rattles inside and these are his favorites. Nothing scares him, so far anyway. He will investigate anything new, the BBQ lid fell down with an almighty clatter a few weeks back, he startled initially but went straight up to it to investigate.So Im thinking low fear drive. He has graduated puppy preschool, and we are currently doing a 6 week basic obedience course, and the instructor thinks he is just great. we just have short little training sessions at home obviously due to his age but he loves it and is just so focused for a young pup. He adores playing tug rope, and Ive taught him an "off" command to let go when I give it and unless he it totally engrosed in the game he always releases. Yesterday I taught him to "watch" the toy and then give a command to "take it" and then the "off", he picked it up in a few goes.
I was wondering what age should we look at starting his training for sch. as I would like to do obedience training first, but have been given conflicting advice about doing obedience as this might dampen his drive, but I never give harsh correction at all just lots of praise when he gets it right. Any feedback you could give would be great. Cheers

I couldnt EDIT so I'll add this question here, Would any of you consider having a sch. trained dog around children. I dont know how i forgot to add that to the original post it was one of my main questions. My children have grown up around rotties and are helping with the training of this little boy so far. But If for any reason it would not be advisable to training him in sch. and expect him to still be a great family dog then thats fine but being a novice to this sport as I said I thought it best to ask.

Michelle, that question has been asked about 4000 times in various forms on this forum.
Use your "search" button to review the old threads, please. You'll likely find your answer there.

Topic closed.