training kamp

[josebrwn]

Dear Butch,

Ok, I will bite. I recently purchased "Preparing Your Dog for the Helper", a 4 hour DVD from Leerburg. In the video, Ed Frawley said the following:



I never recommend people send a dog away for Schutzhund training. Unethical trainers know they can move a dog through training with serious hard compulsion in one third the time that it takes to train the same dog with motivation. And to these people, time is money. So if you have ever thought about sending your dog away for training, I recommend that you rethink doing this.



What are your thoughts on this passage, and on sending dogs away to a professional trainer?

Joe

[ButchCappel]

Jose,
Thanks for the first question. Having read a few of your past posts I will be on my toes, I know how accurate your past posts have been!

It is always better to work with your dog in any training process.
Compulsion can speed up bite work by using defensive work to get the dog "attacking" quickly. But that may still leave the dog unable to do an effective courage test.

Dogs trained with "a lot" of compulsion are pretty easy to spot, and not usually in the winners circle in ScH. (note I said "a lot") A good trainer will balance "enough" compulsion with all the other things that need to be done to bring up an effective dog.

A ScH competitor should be well rounded enough, that if trained in heavy compulsion, they wouldn't complete the program anyway. I think there are trainers you can send a dog to and feel very comfortable, and trainers that you can wonder if your dog will have all it's hair when it comes back.

It comes back to the ancient "buyer beware" Any dog sent away from home should have had the trainer seriously inspected. But that being done you should go with it. That is why there are "pro Dog trainers" and if you don't have the time are the expertise these are the people that you must trust, if you choose wisely.