Anyone willing to share how long it has taken/time commitment & experiences to train a young dog to their SchHI title? I believe the time commitment may vary depending on the talents of the dog, the handler experience & dedication and the helper/training director....but not sure if I should have this theory since there seems to be so many variables with dog training.

I have a young dog that first met the handler when she was 9 months old, we’ve been training nearly every weekend for almost two years now with the Training Director for all three phases. During the week I do tracking & obedience, all her protection training is only at the club on weekends. She will be three years old in May 2006. She has her BH. We are not quite ready to enter a trial for SchH I mainly due to some concerns in the protection phase. This is my first dog I’ve trained for Schutzhund.

I would really appreciate hearing about your experiences and expectations training/preparing for a Schutzhund trial.

I think it has to do with a lot of factors mainly the dog/handler connection. Its better to take things easy then to rush in make mistakes , then try correcting all the mistakes again. I wouldnt look too much at age etc. As long as ur enjoying what ur doing and the dog is also , thats the best road to sucess.

My dog is 3 yrs old and will do SCH1( IPO1 equivelent)in the spring. Shes great at tracking ( tracked thro 10cm of water last weekend due to rain and had no problem at all), obedience is good and bite work is super. She has high speed coming into the decoy, bites full and has no restless bite whatsoever. The main prob with her is the shooting during OB. That was a fault caused by the farmer here ( unknowingly) when he shot over the road where we were wlaking a flare gun thing to scare the geese off his field. He didnt see us and we didnt see him. It made me and the dog jump so much to see the flare zooming over our heads that it ruined that part of the training for us. Now she associates the shooting during OB with that. I have had to go back and start all over again during training to try and get this back to where it was. This happened a while back, but im still working on it little at a time.

One dog will be good in most parts of SCH but usually a dog will be stronger and better in one area than another.

I really wouldnt bother too much looking at what the norm is for a dog her age. It varies, and once again, as long as u both enjoy it i wouldnt worry too much.

Its also a good learning process having a first time dog in this sport, so whenever u choose to introduce a new dog at whatever point, u have a lot more experience and know how.


gr
Hil

The dog has to be atleast 15 month old to go for its BH and then a min of 22 months for the Sch I ( I belive). I like to train a level above what I am going for that way I keep my dog on track. I train up to Sch III. My trainer in my old Sch club would train them up to a Sch III and then hit trials over a summer getting all the titles.

But to make it easy for you it depends on your dog, your training and how fast or slow you want to take it.

i think it is 17 or 18 months for schH titles.

the only reason i say this is there was a dog in my club that had his 3 at 21 or 22 months.

to answer the poster question it is to broad a scope to really answer.

the above mentioned dog had his 3 at 22 months.
most of the dogs in my club average out to be about 2-3 yrs by the time they get their schH1

i would say that aslong as you and your dog are getting and making progress you have half the battle already won. the titles will come as you progress in the sport

There are lots of variables. My current (and first schutzhund-titled dog) was 4 years and 8 months old when he received his 1 this past October. We missed 1.5 years of training from age 18 months to 3 years, because our first club dissolved and because of a move to FL and then back to MD again. I've heard, and I believe this to be true, that your first dog takes the longest to title. Makes sense.

My dog got protection once or twice a week (usually only once). And tracking and obedience 3-5 times a week.

It depends on the talent of the dog, the handler, the training director, and the club.

The ages are 15 months for a BH, 18 months for SchH1. A year and a half to the SchH1 is a reasonable amount of time based on the age requirements - if you started and trained a puppy from the day you brought him home, there you have it.

Everyone's right about the variables - it depends mostly on how often and the quality of the training. Once we start getting close, our training director usually asks us when we want to trial, and he'll have the protection ready (unless it's an unreasonable amount of time). The rest is up to the handler.

I started training with the club when my dog was 1.5 years old in May of '04. I got my BH in December '04. I didn't really get serious about tracking until last January ('05), and had to hang it up for most of the summer (late May - September) of this year, due to fireants and dry, hot Texas weather.

My dog will turn three on Dec. 4, and will go for his SchH1 two weeks later.
SchH2 will come 3 weeks after that in early January.

Then we train until next fall for the SchH3. My TD's philosophy is get the 1 & 2 out of the way, then train for a year for the 3 - because that's when you start focusing on being competitive.

The bottom line is just get out and train, have fun, and do the best you can. It's not a race, and unless your livelyhood depends you getting dogs titled as fast you can, the only expectations are your own.

Your first dog is the dog you "use" to learn the job. Don't worry about points etc train him to your satisfaction and start trailing in order to see where you stand. You're bound to make mistakes, that isn't the problem unless you don't learn from them. And to quote a publicity: "take it easyyyyyy"

Greetings


Johan

It seems to me that you are asking how to assess your progress with your dog. A bunch of questions occur to me:

1) How experienced a handler/trainer were you when you met her? Had you trained a dog in any other dog sport, like AKC obedience or Agility? As you've doubtless figured out by now, training a SchH dog is a very tricky balancing act. Speaking only for myself, it took me a lot of years and several dogs to feel as if I knew what I was doing. Are YOU learning and making progress? Do you see things now that you couldn't see when you started out? Can you begin to see things from your dog's POV? Do you have a better theoretical understanding of how your dog learns her exercises? If you can give even a qualified "yes" to any of these questions, then IMO you're on your way to being a trainer.

2) How drivey, stable, and talented is your dog? Unless all the dogs in your group have common genetics, you've doubtless seen a range of temperaments and talents among the dogs your friends train (and even among litter mates there is considerable variation). Where does your dog fit into this range? If your dog has drive to burn, is completely social, stable and confident, and has a natural full, hard grip, then she probably should be near the "top of her class." If, on the other hand (paw?), there are some holes, well, those sometimes take a while to work through.

3) What was your dog doing those 7 1/2 months between weaning and coming to live with you? Did she arrive confident, with good social skills and her drives developed? If she didn't, how long did it take you to get her to the ground floor? If you're comparing the time to train a puppy to SchH 1, I'm not sure that you should count the time spent fixing a deprived childhood.

Let me add that, for me, the 1st few months are critical. Doing what should have been done in the 1st few months as the pup is entering adolesence is way harder! Kudos for being patient enough to do it.

4) If your female has not been spayed, then in the 24 months you've been training, she's probably been in season at least 3 times. In my experience (2 females titled) they are loopy for at least a month each time. Yes, they can work, and I've seen some well trained ones do well in high level competition (Lori Cruiser's female at last year's AWDF, for example), but as a rule, they don't learn much while all that is going on.

So subtract the time for remedial work, and for heat cycles, and I'll bet you're closer to 16 months than 24.

5) A politically touchy subject, but I'll bring it up anyway. What standard are you looking for in protection? I hate to say it, but there are clubs where a dog who can be persuaded to hang onto a puppy sleeve with his canines, who doesn't run off the obedience field, and who can find his way to the end of a track will earn his titles. I hope that your club isn't like that, and you're training for correct work on correct, strong helpers. Remember, the title means nothing to the dog. Knowing that you did the work so that your dog really earned her title will make you very proud of both of you.

And, on the subject of your club, are the other dogs in club making progress? Have some of your friends earned new titles on HOT dogs? Particularly in protection is there one recipe for every dog, or does the TD tailor his work for each individual dog?

This has gotten awful long, so I'll close by observing that you've already gone from nothing to a BH as (I assume) a novice handler. And it sounds as if you and your dog are well on your way to SchH 1.

And remember, it's not the destination, it's the journey.

Some very good replies...really got me thinking more about this sport and my expectations.

When I began this sport only a short time ago, I felt very confident we could do it, but knew very little about it...now I know a bit more, but not quite as confident at times.

It certainly looks easier when you are on the sidelines, but when I try to put it all together seems like I overlooked some detail, or my girl completely surprises me & does something else....so back to more training for the unexpected & unlearned tasks.

I do enjoy the training, my girl seems to really enjoy it and we have lots of fun. But there are some days, when nothing goes as planned & I worry we'll always be training, but never trialing.

Anyone else ever have days like that?