Toronto Schutzhund Club

Last week, I had mentioned to my breeder that I was interested in the Schutzhund sport. Sheilah advised me to start contacting clubs now in case they had a waiting list for new members, which was awesome advice. Last night, I went to spectate the Toronto Schutzhund Club’s practice and check out their field. They are located on the north side of Major Mackenzie Drive just east of McCowan. This means the commute to practice will be under 15 minutes for me. I met a couple in the club that drove in from Kitchener twice a week! Lucky me...

The president of TSC is Vince Stragapete. He is a certified national trial helper and has achieved a Sch3 title with his dog Max. He is currently training his new partner, Echo. Vince is very knowledgeable in Schutzhund training techniques, and that’s great, but the best thing about this club I think is that Vince is always willing to help each dog/handler team improve. Vince works with each team one on one, making sure everyone has learned something new today that they can practice at home. And it doesn’t matter whether the team is training for their BH, Sch3 or just there for fun, Vince is dedicated to helping that team accomplish their goals. This is very obvious to me after watching them practice.

Everyone on the club is very friendly and they LOVE talking about their dogs. When they heard that my puppy was 2 weeks old, the ‘AWWWW’s could be heard from the other end of the field. Even though I didn’t have my dog yet, Vince was already giving me tips and asking if I had any questions.

Today’s lesson: Keep all training fun for the puppy. Make everything a game. The goal is to build drive, not to inhibit the puppy’s natural play/prey/bite drive. Dobermans and German Sheppards were bred for Schutzhund work. Whether a dog succeeds or not depends on whether the handler breaks the dog. Train yourself not to mess up your dog.

For more information, check out TSC’s website:
http://www.torontoschutzhundclub.com/