How to Start a Puppy in Schutzhund

How To Start Your Puppy In Schuzthund

• Step 1:
  Basic obedience and manners are skills that every puppy needs to be taught, and your Schutzhund puppy is no exception. All puppies need to learn how to behave on lead, in his crate, housebreaking, and basic manners in the house and around people. These skills are simple to teach and can be started as soon as you bring your new companion home. Place a flat buckle collar on your pup immediately and allow the pup to get used to it, eventually working up to teaching the pup manners on a lead. When working on housebreaking your puppy, be sure to take her out as soon as she wakes up, when she finishes a meal and several times throughout the day, giving the command “Potty” so that she associates going to the bathroom with the correct location. Always reward and praise your puppy when she performs well.
• Step 2:
  Assessing prey drive is the most important step in the initial evaluation and training of your Schutzhund puppy. Dogs trained in Schutzhund must have a very strong prey drive and desire to bite and grip, and you can begin this training as early as 6 or 7 weeks. Start off with an old piece of burlap sack, as most full sized bite sleeves are covered in burlap-like material. Get your pup's attention, and drag the sack on the ground. A pup with good prey drive should quickly follow the sack and bite on it as you move it. Reward the puppy by allowing it to have the bite toy and praise it generously. As the pup gets older and more interested in following and biting the prey, you can offer a little resistance on the sack, making the puppy work a little harder for the reward. Continue this early bite training as the pup ages, moving onto a more solid puppy sleeve, and eventually onto a full hard adult bite sleeve. The pup should still continue to bite with a full mouth grip, and once the pup performs properly, release the sleeve and let the pup have it as reward.
• Step 3:
  Tracking is another vital part of Schutzhund training that your puppy must master in order to succeed in the sport, and it can also be taught early on. When you pup is about 8 weeks old, you can begin in the initial tracking lessons. Take your pup to a large, clear area free of your scents. Put the pup on lead and let them stand with you as you mark a scent pad. A scent pad is a small area that you walk all over in order to mark it with your scent. Place a few of your puppy’s favorite food treats in the scent pad, and give the “Track” command, making sure your pup sniffs the area well and picks up all of the treats. Take 4 or 5 steps in a straight line away from the scent pad and repeat the process. The puppy will eventually learn to keep her nose down and follow your scents to get the treats. You can mark your scent path with small flags or markers so that you do not lose sight of where you placed the track. As time goes on, increase the track distance and reduce the treats until your puppy is tracking only on your scent.
• Step 4:
  Teaching Schutzhund obedience skills is more complex than normal obedience training, but not so much so that the average person cannot teach a puppy how to properly perform them. Schuzthund obedience includes the basic commands of sit, down, long downs, heeling, distractions, retrieving, and hurdles, performed in a variety of situations. The obedience phase of Schutzhund is very rigorous and demanding; therefore only the basic skills should be taught until you puppy reaches approximately 12 months of age. Obedience should be taught to your puppy when he is well used to a collar and lead, and should be done slowly and carefully. Teaching proper position and completion of commands should be the main focus, with speed added after the puppy is solidly performing them. With your puppy beside you quietly on lead, give the pup a command, such as “sit.” Encourage the puppy to sit, and once she properly performs the command, praise and offer the pup’s favorite treat or toy as reward. Continue this basic command and reward system until your puppy is properly performing every command every time, treating less and praising more until there is excellent performance every time. You can eventually move onto more difficult and complex commands as your puppy ages, but a solid foundation of proper commands will make your puppy’s future in Schutzhund much brighter.