Schutzhund.

What the frig is "Schutzhund," you may wonder? 
It is German for "Protection Dog," or something like that. Those of us who participate in Schutzhund (or used to as in my case) refer to it as "Working Dog Sport."There are 3 aspects of Shutzhund, Tracking, Obedience and Bite-work. The dog must excel at all 3 parts of the sport to earn titles. A trial begins with tracking in the early morning, than back to the trail field for the obedience exercises, followed finally by showing how good the dog is at Bite work. The dog and handler are scored for each aspect and at the end of the trial passes or not.

It obviously takes a very rounded dog to accomplish all these diverse challenges. The dog must be  calm, focused and think for themselves to successfully follow a track. The dog must show complete attention to the handler and follow exactly the commands the handler gives in the obedience part of the trial. Finally in the bite-work, the dog must show no fear, have a lot of "drive," yet be controllable and again follow the instructions of the handler. This is where the dog seeks out the "bad-guy," known as the "Helper," and attacks the "sleeve" the Helper wears on his arm. He must attack with no fear, with lots of force, bite full and hard on the sleeve and release his hold on the sleeve when asked. I could go on and on about this aspect of the sport, it's very thrilling to watch.

Next blog I will explain why I quit the sport.