American Schutzhund: A Comprehensive Guide to Training and Titles

American Schutzhund is a high-energy dog sport that requires dedication, patience, and understanding of canine behavior. It's not just about obedience, but also about building a strong bond between dog and handler.

The American Schutzhund Association (ASA) is the governing body for the sport in the United States, and their rules and regulations are essential to follow. The ASA was founded in 1955, and since then, the sport has grown in popularity.

In American Schutzhund, dogs are trained to perform three main tasks: protection, tracking, and obedience. Protection involves teaching the dog to defend its handler and territory, while tracking requires the dog to follow a scent trail.

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Training in American Schutzhund is a hands-on sport that requires a club environment to practice techniques with experienced handlers and dogs.

Schutzhund clubs are small, with 20 or fewer members, and provide limited formal assistance with tracking and obedience, focusing mainly on the protection phase.

A good decoy is essential for training your dog, and they have their own training and certification processes.

In the US, most Schutzhund clubs are affiliated with organizations such as the American Working Dog Federation, United States Boxer Association, or German Shepherd Dog Club of America-Working Dog Association.

To succeed in Schutzhund training, it's unlikely to succeed solely from books and videos, as training the protection phase requires a helper.

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Schutzhund clubs regularly hold public trials, providing the opportunity for dogs to earn titles and for handlers to assess their training progress.

These trials are a crucial part of the training process, as they allow handlers to put their skills to the test and receive feedback from experienced judges and trainers.

In the protection phase, the judge's assistant, called the "helper", helps the judge test the dog's courage to protect himself and his handler and its ability to be controlled while doing so.

The helper wears a heavily padded sleeve on one arm and hides in various blinds, where the dog must search and find them.

The dog must guard the helper to prevent them from moving until recalled by the handler, and then participate in a series of exercises where the handler disarms the helper and transports them to the judge.

A dog that shows fear, lack of control, or inappropriate aggression is dismissed from the trial.

The trials are scored based on the dog's performance in various aspects, including courage, hardness, and fighting instinct, with a score of 10 being rare and highly coveted.

In addition to the protection phase, trials also include tracking and obedience exercises, which are used to evaluate the dog's overall performance and suitability for Schutzhund work.

In the AS1 phase, the dog must search 2 blinds, guard and bark, pick up or be called out of the blind, and then heel across the field to an attack with two stick hits and concurrent drive.

The attack is direct, not oblique, and is used to test the dog's character for work.

The trials are an essential part of the Schutzhund training process, and provide a valuable opportunity for handlers and dogs to learn and improve their skills.

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Phase B is a significant milestone in your dog's training journey, where they'll start to build on the foundation laid in Phase A.

In Phase B, your dog will participate in a traditional obedience exercise, which is similar to what's done in SchH/VPG/IPO/IGP. This exercise is unique in that it involves a long down with the handler in a blind.

The advancing titles in Phase B add more complexity to the exercises, including obstacle retrieves that challenge your dog's skills and physical abilities. The hurdle in the AS2 and the scaling wall in the AS3 are just two examples of the obstacles your dog will encounter.

Heeling and out of motion exercises will also become more prominent in Phase B, mimicking the patterns of SchH of old. These exercises will test your dog's ability to work in sync with you and respond to commands.

Judging in Phase B places a strong emphasis on the dog/handler relationship and drive, which means that your dog's connection with you and their motivation to work will be closely evaluated.

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Dogs trained in Schutzhund have a strong desire to work.

Schutzhund tests for the traits necessary for police-type work, including a strong desire to work, courage, intelligence, and trainability.

A good Schutzhund dog has a strong bond to its handler.

Physical traits like strength, endurance, agility, and scenting ability are also tested in Schutzhund.

The goal of Schutzhund is to illuminate the character and ability of a dog through training.

German Shepherds were developed from working herding dogs and were bred to have strong working characteristics.

Only German Shepherds that passed a Schutzhund test or a herding test were allowed to breed and have their progeny registered as German Shepherd Dogs.

Today, any breed can participate in the sport, but German Shepherds and Belgian Malinois dominate the intermediate and advanced levels.

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IGP/IPO obedience is all about paying attention to details.

We weave many obedience pieces into our training without even mentioning protection, making it a seamless part of the learning process.

Top-level helpers are used in the protection phase, which is a crucial aspect of IGP/IPO training.

Our club helper/trainer is an American Schutzhund certified helper, bringing a wealth of expertise to our training sessions.

Protection training is conducted twice a month with our certified helper, providing regular practice and reinforcement.