The love affair between von Stephanitz, the architect of the breed, and the German Shepherd, resulted in breeding regulations being put in place to ensure that his breed was not turned into a decorative, brainless pet. Breed standards are subject to fashionable interpretations that subtly alter the dog, but schutzhund qualification assists in maintaining the dog’s ability to perform useful work. A dog that holds Schutzhund qualifications demonstrates his usefulness to humans in one or more of the disciplines. Breeding to a line of Schutzhund qualified dogs, helps the breeder ensure that his stock will be capable of similar performance. German Shepherd owners will regularly tell you that the intelligence of these animals is their ultimate charm. The continuation of this intelligence, and the fostering of this intelligence is ensured by participating in Schutzhund trials, tracking trials and so forth.
It is extremely difficult for a dog with a weak temperament to qualify in Schutzhund. Not only does the dog have to master a variety of disciplines to qualify, but he also has to be able to deal with considerable stress. It is stressful for a dog to go through the training process, where he must inevitably incur the displeasure of his handler. A dog with a long recovery time will find this even more difficult. The recovery time for a dog is the time between correction and continuation of work with correct focus. If my dog is instructed to sit while he is doing heelwork, and he goes down instead, I say, “No, I said sit!” I bring him to the sit position. The dog is flustered because the “No” is a correction. He must go into the sit, and focus on the lesson. He must not lie down and roll on his back and creep around on the field. He must be able to deal with the stress quickly and regain his focus and continue working. He must be able to get more pleasure than pain out of learning, and this is largely a matter of temperament. A dog that has a very negative view of life would rather be left to sleep in his kennel than to come onto the field and puzzle out what his master wants. A dog with a great love of people and a need to be with a person will be prepared to put up with the stress of learning in order to spend that time with you. Stress tolerance is very important in the Schutzhund dog.
The first of the disciplines tested in the trial is tracking. The length of the track varies in length, complexity and age from Schutzhund one to Schutzhund three.
SchH 1 has a track with two ninety degree corners, two articles and it is only twenty minutes or so old, whereas a SchH 3 track is nearly a kilometer long and has five corners of various degrees. The track must be at least 1.5 hours old. The competing dog is first brought to the trial judge by the handler, who introduces himself and his dog, by greeting the judge and stating that he is reporting for the tracking trial with “Rex”. The dog must comport himself in a proper manner, walking quietly next to his handler, and sitting down in the basic heel position when his handler is speaking. The dog may not show any aggression to the judge. The report on and the report out are repeated at the beginning and end of each section of the trial. The handler then starts the dog onto the track by indicating the spot where the track commences to the dog. The handler must remain on that spot while the dog proceeds onto the track, working attentively with a deep nose. The handler follows the dog at a ten meter distance. The dog may track free or on a line to a harness or a dead link chain collar. The judge expects to see the dog working the track and exhibiting good tracking instinct. The handler may encourage the dog to a certain extent – especially in SchH 1 – but he may not guide the dog by using the lead, and he may not instruct the dog to take a left or right turn when it is needed. The dog also has to clearly indicate the articles as he reaches them.
After all the tracks are completed, the participants travel to where the obedience work will take place. Each dog has a turn to complete a heelwork course, mostly off lead, do a couple of retrieves of dumbbells on the flat and over a one meter hurdle and a six foot a-frame, and the dog does a down stay for about ten or fifteen minutes. During this work gunshots are fired at the heelwork and the down stay. The dog must not show anxiety at the gunshots. The dog must complete the work happily and willingly, paying close attention to the handler. It must also ignore other dogs on the field, specifically the one doing the down stay while it is doing the heelwork course. Whereas the tracking is largely instinctive, the obedience work with all the sits, downs, stands, send away, recall, retrieves and agility is largely learned behaviour. It makes little sense to either the human or dog participant, because on the day the dog is not retrieving something of value or jumping for any purpose, but it indicates the animal’s ability to perform learned behaviours and comply with instructions, and this might be custom built into a scenario of real work for the dog.
The last of the disciplines is the protection work. This is a very delicate balance between aggression and obedience. A dog needs exceptionally good stress tolerance and also plenty of self assurance to do well in this section. To start with the dog must work about thirty meters away from its handler searching hides for the assailant. When he finds the assailant he must hold him in the hide with strong barking. There follows several attacks by the helper and an attempted escape, all of which must be dealt with strongly by the dog. It is quite difficult for a dog to face an attack from someone with a stick, who also shouts and threatens the dog with aggressive body language. It is not unusual to see a dog back away from this sort of attack. A dog that can assert control over such an assailant, away from his own home, and yet do so within the rules of Schutzhund, which stipulate that the dog is not permitted to grab the assailant by the leg, or show disobedience when he is called off, is quite admirable. Dogs displaying excellence in this discipline are always in great demand in security and police work of course. A difficult part of this work is to train the dog to let go of the assailant and sit in front of him and just keep him in one place. This means that the dog must not be in a fighting frenzy as a result of the protection work, but must be working under control. At the same time he shows determination and aggression to the assailant.
When you consider the elements of the Schutzhund, it seems clear that the plan behind it is to identify dogs with definite abilities and make it possible to strengthen these abilities by careful breeding.