# Another Chance for ScH!



## packetsmom (Mar 21, 2013)

I finally heard back from the last ScH club up here and they are still accepting new members and invited me out to a practice next monday! I have my fingers crossed that it will be a good fit, although this would mean driving 1-2 hours to and from tracking practice on Saturdays since they practice a bit further out than the others.

I also narrowed down the training center I'd like to use, which everyone and their dog has been recommending and is all positive reinforcement and geared toward continuing in dog sports and I'm looking at upcoming classes there.

I just thought I'd give an update and thank you to everyone for your support a couple of weeks ago when we got our bad news about the last 2 clubs. Sam, of course, continues to be more interested in play and treats than such foolishness.


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## MrsBoats (May 20, 2010)

Oh, that is great news!! Good luck and I hope this club is a great fit for you and Sam.


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## Emily1188 (Jun 21, 2011)

Oh YAY!!! I'm so glad to hear this!!! Hopefully he'll be all over his eval! Let us know how he does?


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## packetsmom (Mar 21, 2013)

Emily1188 said:


> Oh YAY!!! I'm so glad to hear this!!! Hopefully he'll be all over his eval! Let us know how he does?


If it's like the other club, it will be a little while before he's evaluated. They wanted him to be completely done teething with all his adult teeth in first and I was fine with that. I am still working on building up his confidence and socialization.  But yeah, I will let everyone know how he does if we get to that!


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## Cattledogfanatic (Sep 18, 2011)

Packetsmom; can you please keep this thread updated? Shutzhund is something I'm becoming more interested in for a future dog. I have cocker right now. Not probably the best dog for the sport. LOL! I'm thinking someday I want a working lines German Shepherd and am getting more curious about the sport!


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## packetsmom (Mar 21, 2013)

I will. If I get in and there is anyone else interested in it or doing it, I may start a ScH thread similar to the agility and nosework threads. 

Tonight is the night. I'm bringing a bribe of cookies to hopefully help tip the scales in our favor.


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

Keep us updated! I'm really excited for you guys.


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## packetsmom (Mar 21, 2013)

I think the cookies did the trick!  Sam and I will be headed out of town to the tracking practice on Saturday. I'm betting he will love it.

So...here's the run down, for anyone interested...

*Things I love about this club so far:*
They start training with puppies, but only fun, positive training and they do use clickers and treats!
They were excited to meet Sam and interested in his breed mix and what his potential might be. I liked that they saw this as a positive for him, rather than as a negative for their club.
There were people of all ages in their club, including one handler who was a teenage girl and who handles other people's dogs as well.
They have members who do not trial, but are there just for the training. They also have members who only do some portions of Schutzhund and don't do bitework.
They have members who work their dogs as a job, including a cadaver dog...I thought that was interesting and might bring a different perspective.
They seemed more relaxed.

*Things I didn't love as much...*
Lots of corrections for older dogs. I'm not against corrections, but at times it seemed a bit much even for me. Still, the dogs did seem happy and excited to work.
I'm not an expert by any means, but some of the basics seemed, to my untrained eye, messier with this club...again, that could just be me or that day. Their dogs do still earn titles.
Those working for titles seemed to be pushing for as many titles as possible in a short time. For example, I saw one dog who was being prepped for BH who was also working on a rally title, another dog earning legs on an agility title and working on his ScH2, etc. I'm thinking I might prefer to go slow and steady with Sam and concentrate on one thing at once. Of course, these people may have more time to do this than I do?
The majority of the dogs are from one line, bred by a family who have the majority of the members of the club. (3 generations of people.) I could see how that could be both a positive and a negative.

Overall, though, I think this will be a great place to start and they seemed welcoming of new members. I'm particularly excited about how they work with the puppies. They also revert back to positive only training when teaching behaviors and bring in corrections after the dog knows a behavior, generally when they're not paying attention or are getting too excited about one thing to concentrate on all the steps to get there. I plan on keeping an open mind.


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## packetsmom (Mar 21, 2013)

Oh...and for anyone interested in ScH, I'm reading a book now that talks a lot about positive training for ScH, "Schutzhund Obedience: Training in Drive" by Sheila Booth with Gottfried Dildei. It's a rewrite of a classic Schutzhund book with modern training methods applied. I really like it so far and you can get it on Amazon for the kindle.


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## petpeeve (Jun 10, 2010)

packetsmom said:


> Oh...and for anyone interested in ScH, I'm reading a book now that talks a lot about positive training for ScH, "Schutzhund Obedience: Training in Drive" by Sheila Booth with Gottfried Dildei. It's a rewrite of a classic Schutzhund book with modern training methods applied.


I loved her book _Purely Positive Training - Companion to Competition_. The version I have is older (1998), and in retrospect it may seem a little basic perhaps, but still one of my all-time favourites. It's not really geared specifically towards ScH though. More towards fundamentals and standard OB, if I recall correctly, with a sprinkling of ScH / agility etc here and there.


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