by Chris Fraize » March 28th, 2006, 12:03 am
Hello all,
We compete in many different dog sports, to include obedience, agility and weight pull. Our favorite however is the non-pattern personal protection venue.
We find them the most realistic and challenging way to bring all the elements of training and teamwork together. We like to train and trial “outside the box”. The pattern is what we try to avoid. Realism in training is what we aspire to. Our goal is to have “go anywhere” dogs that are safe, under control, and happy in the work. In short we prefer functional working dogs that will work in any situation.
We are not “points people”. Our training is practical not technical. We believe that the functionality has disappeared (in most cases) from dog sports.
We avoid pattern style obedience and bite work (for the most part). Traditional obedience and bite work is too much like figure skating for our taste. We enjoy the “seat of your pants” or “real life” obedience and bite work.
For instance, a courage test isn’t really a courage test if the dog knows it is coming. Yes, the traditional courage test puts pressure on the dog but it can be trained for. Dogs can and are “trained” to pass. A real life courage test would have environmental pressure as well as pressure from the decoy and should be a surprise to both dog and handler.
Our club the Maine Association of Dogsports hosts four events per year, the FROSTBITE winter personal protection tournament, The Swamp Stomp, the M.A.D. Summer challenge and The Nite Bite, as well as open to the public bite prevention seminars every year.
Safe training,
Chris Fraize