The German Shepherd and Schutzhund
Much like the Rottweiler breed, the German Shepherd excells at Schutzhund as well. What is Schutzhund? Well, Schutzhund, is a German word meaning: “protection dog” and it tests a dog?s desire to work, his courage, his intelligence, his trainability, his bond to the handler, his perseverance and his protective instincts. Dogs that pass Schutzhund tests should be suitable for police work, specific odor detection, search and rescue, and many other tasks.
The purpose of Schutzhund is also used with German Shepherds to identify those representatives of the breed that have the perfect character traits required for these demanding jobs. Becasue of their inherent intelligence, they are easily trainable. There are many dedicated people out there, who make it their vocation to train their dogs. Some even specialize in Schutzhund training for the German Shepherd breed. I take my hat of to them. It is one thing to love a breed. It is a whole different ball-game to make it one’s life work to study training techniques to better a breed as well.
