Schutzhund training seminar weekend

I do not have awesome, amazing, adorable pictures of puppies tonight. :(

Won't you play with me?

I prevailed upon a friend to take over things for me for a couple of days and I took off for parts north to attend a training seminar with Bernhard Flinks. I attended one of his seminars back in 1999 or thereabouts, so some of what I learned was re-learning, some was re-awakening old knowledge, some was just plain good learning.

Flinks takes a very methodical and endgoal-focused approach to schutzhund training--but, as he says, he wishes to train "with kindness"--while still focusing on getting international levels of performance from his own dogs. (That's not to say he's not also excellent with beginning dogs and handlers--indeed, he was very good with some of the brand-new people who were at the seminar, and I very much hope they were able to absorb most of what he was saying.)

One of the conversations that was very interesting to listen into is how much schutzhund training has changed in the past 15 years--the general level of knowledge of training and behavioral theory has greatly advanced and some of the harshest training methods that used to be semi-openly used are broadly disapproved of, discouraged, and for the newer members of the sport, unthinkable. This, I think, is very good.

One of the great joys of the weekend for me, in addition to getting to talk dogs and pedigrees and training and learning theory and drives with like-minded friends, was getting to watch Bandit, the sire of Xita's puppies, go through his paces.

V Bandit v Wolfsheim, KK1a, SchH3, FH

In Bernhard's words, "He is a great dog." He had all his titles (SchH3, FH) by the time he was 2.5 years old so he could be sold, and his fast (and harsh) training left him with some training problems that his handler here in the U.S. has been picking apart and mending a little bit at a time.

Bandit brings the anger to the blind...

She has been greatly successful and I think the training with Bernhard helped to put a bit of polish on these areas of retraining. They worked on speed on the escape bite and running to meet the helper where he was going to be rather than where he had been

I had seen Bandit work in tracking and obedience and had seen videos of him in the bitework. But it was significantly better to watch him in person. He is there on the field with all his heart and is thrilled by the fight with the helper. His courage tests were impressive as he sped up and launched himself in the last feet of the run down the field.

Finally, I got to watch a 7-month-old Bandit daughter get her start in protection...

Sooner than later, Ppuppies!

Xita, wider than normal!

Xita has started labor. She's very early in the process--nesting, wanting to go out every 30 minutes, trying to dig a hole in the bottom of the 400 crate. She likes to come over and stare at me intensely, trying very, very, very hard to get me to just UNDERSTAND. Also, I'm not allowed to go too far away.

She popped out her milk yesterday--woke up in the morning and suddenly she had boobs! Full bags.

Sorry for the sunspot! It's bright out there and Xita's not being helpful!

Dad, for the curious, is an awesome dog named Bandit v Wolfsheim. He's Sch3, FH, KK1a, V rated in conformation, and son of one of the top-producing working dogs in Europe. He has his own FB page!

In addition to his good looks and great working ability and strong working-line pedigree, he's got impeccable temperament--neutral and accepting of strangers, no dog aggression, and sound, sound, sound nerves. He's producing puppies with very good drives and great nerves, too. (More Bandit pictures.)

Bandit

I'm expecting these two to produce puppies of exceptional temperament with plenty of drive to work but the ability to turn off and make great house dogs. Should have beautiful conformation, strong pigmentation (lots of red!) and lovely heads, big bone, medium to large size--sables, blacks, and dark black and red (like Xita's color).

I'm guessing 9 pups. I'll soon know!