STX Schutzhund Clubs

What's a shuttzhund club?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn_AnOiYi_c

What's a shuttzhund club?

Schutzhund is a working dog sport that has 3 main activities - tracking, obedience, and defense. The video that SkysTheLimit posted is an example of an excerpt of the defense test.

Cheers

Here's a video that shows each of the three activities:

Schutzhund Trial

Awesome is that ur dog Dareo?

Awesome is that ur dog Dareo?

No islandytyme, it's not mine. That's what I do with mine but I don't have videos of him so I linked that video in in case people didn't know what's involved in the sport. One can train tracking and obedience on their own, but as you can see, for the defense work you need a qualified helper (the poor guy that has to take the bites), which is why I was interested in knowing if there are any clubs on STX.

Cheers

I was interested to see if my dogs would do schutzhund, but never got involved in the clubs in Alaska.

I don't particularly like the look of schutzhund bred G. shepherds either, too sloped in the back for my tastes.

I'm guessing you have shepherds?

if you have a bite suit we could start one! haha; if my scheming and plotting work I'll have a 2 acer piece of land to work with soon too!

I was interested to see if my dogs would do schutzhund, but never got involved in the clubs in Alaska.

I don't particularly like the look of schutzhund bred G. shepherds either, too sloped in the back for my tastes.

I'm guessing you have shepherds?

if you have a bite suit we could start one! haha; if my scheming and plotting work I'll have a 2 acer piece of land to work with soon too!

The physical appearance of a GSD from the working line (like the one in the video) isn't what most people picture when they think of a GSD because we're accustomed to seeing GSDs from the show line. You don't see as many of them as well because most people wouldn't have one unless they were serious about protection sports as they tend to be very high-energy dogs and require a lot of training. I don't like to generalize but IMO breeders of working line GSDs value physical performance over physical appearance (when compared to the show line). For me, the working line is absolutely beautiful.

Tell me what size bite suit you need and I'll get you one 😉 I've been in one once just to know what it feels like and don't think I'll ever get in one again. The helpers (like the one in the video) are professionally trained to protect themselves as well as the dogs from injury, and while the suit protects them from getting torn to shreds, the sheer force of the bites still causes bruising.

Yes, I do have a GSD (his name is Bart). He adopted me when he was 2 years old. He used to belong to a neighbor up the road from me who couldn't handle him so he just left him in the yard all day. Result - the dog constantly escaped and frequently showed up on my property - it was love at first site 🙂

Do you have GSDs?

Dareo,

We are not on Island now, living in SW Florida, but we are planning on moving back to STX sometime later this year.

Last time we were living on STX we had two Sable GSDs out of champion Schutzhund bloodlines, both of them have now past away but we have a nice Sable female from good German working bloodlines that we will be bringing with us upon our return. We may buy a good stud dog also to bring down so we have a breeding pair of excellent German Schutzhund dogs on Island.

Several years ago there were a couple of people on STX into protection training, one fellow trained dogs for a living, think his last name was Torres. Another guy was owner of "Ye Olde Feed Store" in Castle Coakley who had a bite suit, but I think
he sold the feed store a few years back.... not sure if either of them are still on Island.

Anyway, we would certainly be interested in doing some training and meeting other GSD owners when we get back to the rock.

Do you have GSDs?

Nope, I have a different guardian breed; South African Boerboels (three of em).

I used to breed them in Alaska before I came here (www.northlandboerboels.com) but probably won't continue to do so down here unless I find a good pool of owners here or in miami / puerto rico etc I don't think I'll be doing that anymore.

I had the male weight pulling in alaska, and the female would lure corse with whippets & greyhounds, the breed is pretty cool and is a working breed, I've wanted to get my female (mom of the two puppies above) into agility training also, she shows a lot of the right drive and ability.

who knows, maybe they would be good at schutzhund too!

Liquid those look a lot like a Great Dane, are they related?

Sweet! I love puppies!
They are adorable looking.

Liquid those look a lot like a Great Dane, are they related?

Nope, the South African Boerboel is a breed from (you guessed it!) south africa, it's speculated that it was some sort of Mastif / Ridge back / Local dog mix.

the outcome is a 110-130lb female, 130-180lb male working dog with a very protective nature for it's "family" also a longer life span than other giant breeds, typically living 12-14 years.

I sleep very soundly at night 😉

Nice looking dogs! I had never heard of that breed before! It's great that they live so long--maybe that's the ridgeback in them since they tend to be long-lived for such big dogs.

Nice looking dogs! I had never heard of that breed before! It's great that they live so long--maybe that's the ridgeback in them since they tend to be long-lived for such big dogs.

I think they were brought to the US in the 80's and have started to really gain popularity, though still are pretty darn rare.

Here's Wiki's take on them:

The Boerboel [burbul] is a large, mastiff dog breed from South Africa, bred for the purpose of guarding the homestead. These dogs were often a first line of defense against predators and were valuable in tracking and holding down wounded game. Old farmers tell many tales of the strength, agility, and courage of their Boerboels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boerboel

I got lucky and have amazing blood lines in my dogs, my Male Bosch was the first Boerboel in the US to title in weight pulling, he earned me some casn & a fun hobby in Alaska, I got invited to the fair for the local weight pulling group every year for an expo due to his rarity & amazing nature (he was very unboerboel like, he would not be protective in public, only at our house; which worked great for the events)

This is him at the state fair:

Here I am being his "handler" (in reality all I had to do was get out of his way and look like I knew what I was doing... haha)

our female is more of an old traditional boerboel, highly athletic and agile, a bit smaller compared to what americans are breeding them fore now, she's only around 105-110lbs, but fast/agile enough to keep up with whippets and (some) greyhounds on a lure course run ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lure_coursing).

Pretty amazing breed, I've had two litters with her and sold every one locally in Alaska before I moved (save the two that I kept). They seem to be very popular up there as "compound guardians" for the bears & wolves & moose that roam around there (as well as the ocational two legged wanabe predator).