Schutzhund and Andrew's Job

Everytime you meet someone, the likelihood of them asking, "What you do for a living," is about 100%. I always try and explain Andrew's job and his recreational activities to the best of my abilities but I am going to try and give a better explanation with some pictures.

First of all, Andrew works for a local company here in Southern Pines. They are a multipurpose company that specializes in various solutions to protect America and Americans against threats. Here are just a few of the things the company as a whole does:

Weapons and Tactics
Logistics
IED/Canine Procurment
Explosive Training

Andrew training the Marine handlers and trying on some night vision goggles

Andrew works with the K9 side and trains Labrador Retrievers to detect explosive devices. Once the dogs have completed their training, they are paired up with a Marine handler to go overseas and put their skills to use.

Andrew's recreational dog training is called Schutzhund and is mainly with our German Shepherd, Warden. Warden is our 3 year old GSD. Schutzhund is German for "Protection Dog." It is a sport that develops and evaluates certain traits and characteristics of a dog. There are three concentrations for the sport. These include tracking, obedience, and the most misunderstood phase is the protection portion.

Baby Warden Vs. Big Boy Warden

Warden's Courage Test for his Schutzhund 1 Title

Per United Schutzhund Clubs of America: Schutzhund is intended to demonstrate the dog's intelligence and utility. As a working trial, Schutzhund measures the dog's mental stability, endurance, structural efficiencies, ability to scent, willingness to work, courage, and trainability

During the tracking phase, Andrew has taught Warden to track the scent of crushed vegetation via walking through fields. Over the length of the track, Andrew lays "articles" for Warden to find. When Warden finds/recognizes the item, he signals to Andrew from a distance by laying down on the item.

Through out the obedience element, the dog is taught an active routine including heeling, stopping, standing, down, recalls and serveral other basic commands. Another portion of the obedience is to retreive dumbells over a one meter jump and a 6 foot wall.

Last is the protection portion which some people do not understand. The easiest way to begin to describe this part is think about police dogs or personal protection dogs. When Andrew is working Warden, he is considered the handler. The person that is working the dog is called the helper. The helper performs certain actions to get Warden to bite a sleeve or suite to prove his suitablility to the breed. This is not a real aggression and the bite is realeased on command. This is a relationship between the handler and the dog.

I always try to explain our dog situation to others, however, I think at times, people misunderstand our dogs :) Most dogs for this sport are true to the breed. German Shepherds are very loyal to their owners and at the same time fairly high drive and can be aggressive towards other dogs. Warden is just that. He is very protective over our household but just wants to lick Mason, be rubbed behind his ears and lounge on the living room floor.