Ask people for their opinions, knowledge, and expertise – but think for yourself whether it makes sense to you.
In the Schutzhund sport, I learned very quickly but many people are just followers. They do what their trainer tells them to do. They never question the standpoint of the trainer, they never question themselves whether it is in line with their own morales and integrity, they rarely read a book about dog psychology or dog behavior. They just hand their dog over to a trainer and watch how some of them (not all) abuse and hurt their dogs. These dog trainers don’t necessarily train bad on purpose but their knowledge is limited and many of them think that they have to overpower a dog. We started out like that too but learned quickly that this didn’t work for us and our dogs. As a result, we looked for better ways to train dogs. Initially, we were introduced to clicker training. Kate Lawrence gave a workshop in Atlanta in January of 2004 and we were amazed how easy and fun it can be to train a dog. 8 months later we signed up for a clicker-obedience training program with Debbie Zappia, who came in 2. place at the 2004 WUSV World Championships in Eindhoven, Holland with her German shepherd dog Escobar v. Adelrik. In March of 8 months later we signed up for a clicker-obedience training program with Debbie Zappia, who came in 2. place at the 2004 WUSV World Championships in Eindhoven, Holland with her German shepherd dog Escobar v. Adelrik. In March of In March of 2005, we attended one of Gene England’s tracking seminars in Scottsville, KY. Gene taught us so much about observing dogs behavior, motivating our dog to work and the importance of mutual trust. Learning all these valuable lessons gave me the confidence to compete with Cito at the WDA-Universal Sieger Show in Wesley Chapel in Florida in December of 2005 where we competed in the Schutzhund 3 trial and in a conformation show. Even though this was my first trial ever, Cito and I finished in 2. place. We were excited!Learning all these valuable lessons gave me the confidence to compete with Cito at the WDA-Universal Sieger Show in Wesley Chapel in Florida in December of 2005 where we competed in the Schutzhund 3 trial and in a conformation show. Even though this was my first trial ever, Cito and I finished in 2. place. We were excited! Afterall, nobody expected us to do anything which is such a nice place to be. We just did what we came to do, we had fun, we competed with ourselves and we didn’t care what other people thought of us. Without any outside pressure, we performed and outperformed the rest. I was so proud of my Cito. Learning all these valuable lessons gave me the confidence to compete with Cito at the WDA-Universal Sieger Show in Wesley Chapel in Florida in December of 2005 where we competed in the Schutzhund 3 trial and in a conformation show. Even though this was my first trial ever, Cito and I finished in 2. place. We were excited! Afterall, nobody expected us to do anything which is such a nice place to be. We just did what we came to do, we had fun, we competed with ourselves and we didn’t care what other people thought of us. Without any outside pressure, we performed and outperformed the rest. I was so proud of my Cito.
