my name is Liam O'Brien and I am from Ireland.? I take part in agility trials and showing with my terv's and am quite successfull. There is a few of us here in ireland who would like to try and work our belgians, mal's and terv's at shutzhund but as it is frowned upon by both our kennel club and the majority of the breed club here, we find it very hard to get started. We have attended some German Shepherd clubs but find their training methods a bit harsh for belgians at least the dogs we have. If anybody has any thoughts or advice it would be much appreciated.
well, I am not old hat to this but, you could just start a club, and get as many sources of inofrmation as you can about schutzhund training. IF something does not agree with your ethics, do not do it. go to seminars, helper and training. you are going to need someone to show you inperson a lot of things. I do not know if thier any schutzhund sanctioning bodies in ireland, but that is something you could start. correct me someone if i am wrong. but you want that sanction body to represent the FCI. this is a good place to get many different opinions and theories on training protection sport dogs. also start researching people that have been successful at training dogs in a manner you like. try to emulate them, then you can take that and evolve it. I was told to always question some ones skill level and success before excepting advice. Get some books on animal learning theory or research the web. here is a good site.http://www.wagntrain.com/OC/ this is not schutzhund specific, but it is a basic knowledge on how animals learn, it helps me all the time. when i hear a new thoery, I try to see how it fits in with learning theory. I to do not like harsh training, for any dog. I have been hard on dogs in the past, and the results were not very impressive. I know you are basically starting at ground zero, and that can be discouraging. But i think after you get going and have had to learn everything for yourself, you will be much further a long than many people. trial and error has always been my best teacher, and using non-violent methods. you will have much more room for error and not ruin the dog. the one thing i think is a must, for the saftey of the dogs, is making sure you get a properly trained and qualified decoy. this is something I would not have wanted to learn through trial and error. Because the dogs pay in the end.
Thank you Gunny for your reply. The sanction body in Ireland for the FCI is the Irish Kennel club but they are totaly opposed to any form of protection training even though we are full members of the FCI. There are no seimars openly available that we are aware of. We are constantly searching for and reading any information we can get. My friends and I are in the process of starting a club to work our Belgians, we are having difficulty optaining correct information on how we should go about training our Beligans for protecton work. We can manage the tracking and obedience part of it, however we need advise and help on the protection. I have previously had many German Shepherds (had them since I was very young) and know that they sometimes need harsh correction, but the our Belgians do not respond to any form of harsh commands as they seem to be more sensitive, we have a saying here in Ireland "Well begun is half done" therefore if the correct training is not started with it can lead to difficulties later on if the dogs need to be retrained. I will have a look at the website you suggested. Liamo
i assume they are against schutzhund, because they are afraid the dogs are blood thirsty killers. you are in a pickle. maybe contacting the FCI about your problem, and maybe starting something like the Irish working malinois federation. as for protection training, that's a tough one, there are so many details to protection work that it is impossible to convey the info over the web. Now, IMO belgians, rott, germans, they all can be trained w/o force. but yes you are right, belgians are commonly more senitive to the correction. If any one saw animals planets canine bootcamp, it was about the u.s. army's canine program. every handler with a malinois got bit, lol. lots of correction there. anyway, liamo, i encourage you to keep trying and learning. Also, i have seen very few handlers train a dog and not have to back up and retrain. so that is almost a given. but if you are kind and non-violent. if you make a mistaske there still will be a confident dog to work with. now I do not know if you any experinced decoys, that would be my next step, getting a decoy that can catch a dog without hurting it. the problem with this is. someone id going to have to teach that person, in person. if you do not have a decoy yet. have you tried looking at any ring sports, it is not schutzhund, but maybe there are some ring sports in your area. worth a look.
I found this http://www.gsaireland.com/newsextra.htm for give me if you have researched them already. we have something similar in the us. schuthund usa, it is for germans, but there are trials for other breeds. this is probably the most active schutzhund sanctioning body in the us. so maybe call them, maybe they can point you in the right direction.
Gunny we were in contact with the G.S.A they were very helpfull but they have no experience with Belgains. I have posted on the site recommended by Christopher (thanks for the link), but as yet have had no response. We are in the process of forming a working club and have rented out a couple of fields in order to train. I will keep you informed as to how we get on. Liamo
Author
Logged
