Some of my thoughts are what do we strive for? Do different sports require different temperament needs?That said what do we want in our dogs?
There are two things I would like to address and they lead to the same end point. One is the question of "is a good dog a good dog" and the second is "why shouldn't we look to the gsd model/breeding/sch for direction on where to go with the dobermann breed".
The GSD excells in schutzhund, of that there is no doubt. I would say the GSD also excells and would be at least 50% of the time the dog of choice for police K9's.
However when you take the GSD out of its own environment (sch) and put it into another sport venue (french ring, mondio ring, belgian ring, PSA, KNVP) they do not fare nearly so well. In fact only slightly better than the dobermann. So if I, as a breeder, am looking at what direction to follow, I personally, would follow the path of the malinois, that can do all of it, and a vast majority of the time, they can do it all well. On top of that, the majority of the time they are a very healthy robust breed.
In regards to why it it would be hard to pick a dog from a strong sch background and put it into a ring environment with equal success comes down to a few factors. Is a good dog a good dog? The answer is both yes and no.
1) A ring dog needs to have inate endurance both physical and mental. It needs to be able to be on the trial field at the ring 3 level for 45mins to an hour and be able to maintain focus, engery and control for that entire time.
2) It needs to be able to make a 2.3m scaling wall, a 4.5m long jump and a 1.2m hurdle.
3) It also can not be pattern trained as the excercises come in all patterns (so you can not link one to another to build the strenth of the behaviour).
So.. you can easily have a "good" dog that does well in sch, has good drive and excellent nerve, but can not handle long durations of control needed for ring, or be able to handle the physical endurance or jumping capabilites.
In schutzhund the need for precision is great. Therfore the dogs will spend ample time perfecting minute aspects of the excercise. Many have seen that we do not require this in ring. I think this is a big aspect of the breeding of the dogs that diverges. A ring dog needs to be able to think for himself, independantly and problem solve, and ring breeders value that above being able to be precise.
A good example is the ring escort. The dog has to know when it can and can not move around the decoy, the traps a decoy will set, how to respond to the traps, how to cut the decoy off before he can spring the trap, etc. If a dog can not think and be able to problem solve on the fly, he can easily loose his entire escort points, even though he catches the decoy everytime he escapes (points lost are for meters the decoy can get between the dog and him)... as well after he does escape, points are lost for any second the dog is slow to out - so even if the dog is aroused by the chase, he still has to out clean and fast.
Now this does not mean that I do not see merit in the schutzhund system. This is how I see it...
you have two kids in university, a very promising law student and a very promising engineer. In their own rights they are very bright, maybe even brilliant. But does that mean the law student would also be brilliant in engineering? Or that the engineering student would be brilliant in law school? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. Sometimes a bright kid is a bright kid and would excell no matter what the venue. Sometimes people have inate capabilities that make them more apt to succeed in certain venues, but not in others.
So should I wade into the waters of the law students to find the next up and coming engineer?? In esscense this is what a ring sport person does to find a prospect in a sea of sch breedings.
There is nothing wrong with having diverging lines of dobermann's to do different sports with different training needs. That is the direction I would like to see the dobermann go, rather than believing in a one-dog-fits-all mentality.
As well, we need to stop making excuses for dogs with ill health and cut them out of the breeding programs. The breed will never get healthier if we keep finding ways to keep using unhealthy dogs.
On top of that I think breeders need to be making efforts to get good working dobes into the hands of good handlers whom have follow thru to get dobes out in all venues.
Following that, I also think that prices need to come down as well. A person can get a solid working malinois, out of parents titled in the venue of choice for around $800-$1000. In dobes a person could be looking at upwards of $1800-2500 a puppy out of parents that may be titled or in the case of ring usually not titled at all in the venue of choice. It takes a leap of faith along with a great love of the breed for a person to make that choice. The situation will not change until the dobermann breed knows a high level of success in multiple venues which will open doors for new puppy homes, which will allow for breeding more high quality working dobes, etc.
Tamara McIntosh
