Schutzhund is one of those long German words that means "protection dog."

Schutzhund was developed in Germany to test the German Shepherd dog (GSD) and other working breeds including the Doberman for workability. Workability is the working traits that make a dog good for high stress work at the side of police, soldiers, or for acting as a personal protector.

In three stages the Schutzhund dog is required show his tested metal starting with obedience, then sent work, and ending with active protection work which includes bite work.

contrary to the uneducated person's view who may see Schutzhund training as a method of teaching a dog to be aggressive, it does not. This training harnesses the working dog's natural abilities and drives, gives him confidence to perform these tasks in a real situation, and test to see if the ability to hold up under extreme pressure is in the character of the particular dog.

Still in Germany, a dog is required to achieve a Schutzhund title before offspring may be registered.

Schutzhund is not nearly as popular in the US. Much of this comes from the social attitude toward dogs and the litigious nature of many US people. The consensus seems to be that only mean dogs bite.

AKC banned its members for holding any event involving bite work. This causes the Doberman community to have a split creating the United Doberman Club of America who now holds Schutzhund trials including bite work.

This type of training, despite its intense nature, does not result in vicious dogs. It teaches a dog to stay under command in high pressure situations, when and when not to bite, and to have the confidence to go all out when the time comes that his owner needs protection.

A well trained protection dog will sit calmly among a crowd of loud strangers day after day, and in a instant – when commanded to or in reaction to blatant aggression – become a flying wall of muscle and teeth who will protect his handler despite injury to himself. This protection can include holding his ground with loud barks or leaping on a moving car to pull a 200 pound armed driver out the window.

I’m unaware of Schutzhund clubs in Michigan. Perhaps when our system for listing Doberman Clubs is finished some will come out or the woodwork.

It was very interesting information. My husband is going to put Bruno on this program. He decided to do that after he went to see his friend, whose a trainer. The friend showed my husband one of his students in action. My husband sad that it blew him away.  He got very very excited.