A dog trained the PronouncedK9 way will have:

• Aggressive barking and action (aggression)
• Is fast and full to the bite (prey)
• Will defend his position at all costs (defense)
• And does all of this because he loves to do it! (play)

In this video, Brian works a dog that has been trained the PronouncedK9 way. Watch as this German Shepherd shows all of the above attributes during this training session.

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If you step back and think about it, it’s easy to see why people disagree. Like with everything else in life, people form opinions based on their own personal experiences. To someone just starting out in IPO, there are new and fun things around every corner, so many undiscovered possibilities. With so much to learn and to do, it’s easy for a new competitor to become excited about their personal future within the sport. That excitement drives the newcomers to seek out better coaches, better helpers, better clubs, and more effective training methods. When you’re going through this process, it’s easy to think that things are getting better all the time, that the sport is improving. But the reality is that the only thing improving is you. The knowledge and methods that you are learning, these things that are helping you to improve, have always been there.

I went through this process myself about 35 years ago. If someone would have asked me, say, six years into my Schutzhund experience if I thought the sport was growing, my answer would have been, “Hell, yes. One day, this is going to be the most popular dog sport ever.” But my thinking was wrong – the sport it is at the same level today as it was when I started all those years ago. Personally, I have seen no substantial growth. The first national event I attended in the early 1980’s was as big a deal, if not more so, than this year’s event. In fact, I would say that the sport, or at least the organization, has been regressing in recent years. The new magazines have a quarter of the content that they used to. Many of my fellow trainers that have been involved in Schutzhund for decades are no longer members of USCA, or of a local club.

I may not think that the sport is improving, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been evolving. There have definitely been lots of changes over the years; even the name has changed. Unfortunately, the evolution hasn’t been a positive one. Not only have we failed to promote the test of Schutzhund, but we haven’t even managed to preserve it. The fundamentals of the past, courage and hardness, are rarely considered in IPO today. The focus is all on procedure and points – everyone wants to win a big event, even if that means sacrificing those fundamentals to create a competitive dog. Because of this, to me the average IPO III title doesn’t carry the weight it used to. Twenty years ago, if a dog achieved Schutzhund III, you could trust that it was a quality dog.  At that time, the helpers had a real stick and a real sense of testing the dogs. As competitors, we hoped for judges and helpers that would separate the strong from the weak. The goal was to have a dog that was obviously tough and full of fight. The points were little more than an afterthought.

During a recent discussion with a young handler, I asked her what she thought this sport was about. Why do we train? After a moment, she replied, “Well, for the points.” I started to explain to her why her thinking was wrong, but then I realized that from her perspective, she was probably right, because that’s all she knows of the sport: the competition and the scores. To her, trying to win is all there is to this. And unfortunately, she’s no different than a lot of others out there. Not that I agree with this attitude, but I might at least be able to understand it if there was really something worth winning – prize money or serious notoriety. But let’s face it, IPO isn’t the NFL. Winning a trial is never going to make anyone rich and famous. So what’s so important about winning that is worth sacrificing the fundamentals that made Schutzhund great?

I feel that most of the training methods that have become popular in the last few years have all been geared toward creating competitive sport dogs. I’ve seen very few advancements that could help a beginner train a real protection dog that will also be a trusted family member, which should be our goal. In my experience, this is what most newcomers are looking for. If we don’t start doing a better job of teaching people the fundamentals, I don’t see how Schutzhund can survive without morphing into something that I, and most of my clients, no longer want to be a part of. I think this evolution, and our lack of growth as an organization, is a result of not doing justice to our novice members. We need to be doing more to help these people achieve their personal goals. They don’t want to win the National, they just want a stable, obedient protection dog. If they can make a hobby of being competitive in the sport, that’s just icing on the cake. We need to start growing from the bottom up, not from the top down.

Now, I know that most people doing IPO today would say that the sport has nothing to do with creating real protection dogs, and as things stand now, I would have to agree. It has definitely become more about competition and scores and less about training and promoting real protection dogs. That’s what some people are considering growth. In my opinion, our “growth” is only leading to our downfall.

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For more info on Chapo’s breeding or his sire Yogy, contact Joe Brockington at ISBO K9.

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~John Bochenek and the PronouncedK9 team  

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Brian Harvey:

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Waine Singleton:

You can learn more about Brian, John, and Waine on the PronouncedK9 website.

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PREY
PLAY
DEFENSIVE
AGGRESSIVE

The easiest way for each type to develop to their full potential is by using their strengths to overcome their weaknesses.

Traditional training methods have taught most bitework trainers that training in prey is easy but training in defense is scary for all young dogs. Making prey the preferred way to start young or inexperienced dogs. This thinking is based on the belief that prey work involves less stress. Less stress in the beginning is better for the dog and increases its chances for success.

This method also teaches that less stress in the beginning is better but splits from the traditional thinking about what creates stress. The trainers teaching this method understand that the least stressful way to train a dog is in line with his natural way of reacting.

Each type has its own way of reacting to a stimulus that comes natural to them. Understanding this natural reaction and using it to cause them to make the choices we want them to make in future training is the key to this program.

Think about a defensive type dog being approached by the typical prey trainer. He sees a stranger in front of him making fast, odd moves from side-to-side. These moves have no value to him. They seem to make him uneasy and unsure about what to do. The prey trainer sees this unsureness and does everything in his power to convince the dog that he is not a threat and just wants to play a little tug-of-war.

This is the most stressful thing most commonly done to defensive type dogs. Trying to convince a naturally defensive type dog with instincts that tell him you are a threat—that you are not—will usually result in him becoming unsure. His instincts are telling him that you are bad and he shouldn’t trust you. Your actions are telling him that you are good and that he should trust you. This conflict of information makes the dog unsure about what to do, causing him stress. This stress makes him react in a less that confident way. It is much less stressful for the dog in this situation if you act in a manner that validates his natural thinking. If he thinks you are bad, be bad. If he thinks you are a threat, be a threat. By acting in the way that the dog’s instincts are telling him you should be acting, you create sureness that allows the dog to react in his most confident way. Defensive dogs love to chase bad guys away.

The PronouncedK9 training program shows you how to use this information to make defensive dogs do all the same things that good prey dogs do:

Be active in drive without stimulation; Bite full and calm and pursue with speed.

Each type can be taught all of these things. Defensive dogs can do the sport, and play dogs can do civil street work.

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Below, Brian references Jim Engel’s article “Schutzhund is Over in Europe” regarding the  removal of stick hits from the FCI IPO Championships. Brian has a few things to say on the future of schutzhund:

Although I think this article is a little on the dramatic side, I totally agree with Jim that its time for Americans to take charge of our own working dog affairs. I also believe its time to get back to the fundamentals that made Schutzhund great in the first place; testing dogs for courage and hardness, and promoting the ones that have it. As far as the stick hits go, I’ve already heard fellow Schutzhund competitors say, “Who cares? What difference does it really make, someone is still going to win.” At this rate, I too believe that the stick hits will be gone from competition in two years time.  Like the old saying goes, when you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything, which is really the larger issue at hand here.

In all fairness, I don’t believe that this can be blamed on the show dog community.  It probably has more to do with the outside pressures to be politically correct and our leadership’s growing concern with the public perception of what Schutzhund is. But if show and pet people are indeed determining the path of our sport, it is only because we — the working dog people — are allowing them to.  If the consensus is that show people care more about a dog’s conformation and movement than its skill and performance, then of course they’re going to welcome any rule change that makes getting a title easier.  Since the working aspect of the dog isn’t their main focus, who can blame them for that? In the three decades I’ve been involved in the sport, this hasn’t changed. Conformation people want now what they wanted back then. If anything, I think I’ve seen an increase in the working ability of show dogs over the years, which is what I would like to see working dog people continue to support.

On the other hand, however, the mentality of most Schutzhund people has changed drastically in the last thirty years.  What they want today is totally different than it used to be. Today, the number one concern of most of my working dog friends is points. That’s the main focus; how can I get another point? They are willing to abandon all the fundamentals of Schutzhund just to get a higher score. Thirty years ago, no one would have traded their real protection dog for a dog that could simply win a trial. If a dog wasn’t serious, nobody cared about the score it got anyways. But these days the score is all anyone cares about.

The point is that if we are to be the champions of the working dog, we have to take responsibility for the evolution our sport is undergoing.  Its people like us, the people who are reading these articles, that are most concerned about the direction the sport is headed in. We have the most to lose here. So why not stand up and take charge while we still have the chance?
~Brian Harvey

What do you think?

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