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Welcome!!!  Working Dog Sport
by Mary Gattone

As the new year started so did the new AKC Working Dog Sport. The members of The German Shepherd Dog Club of Atlanta expressed a desire to know something about this new performance event. So as part of their continuing education program, I decided to put a seminar together to answer many of their questions. I solicited the help of Dr.David Landau who is a SV Foreign Judge, and Chairman of the Working Dog Sport Committee for the German Shepherd Dog Club of America and Dr. Carmen Battaglia who is a Director on the Board of the American Kennel Club. They helped us all to learn what the rules were and how to train the dogs to perform in this new venue. This is "old hat" to exhibitors that have been exposed to schutzhund events, but to conformation exhibitors it was all new. The Working Dog Sport rules are the same as the rules used for schutzhund competition.

Approximately fifty people came out for the seminar from specialty "sister clubs" and other schutzhund clubs. We even had a couple of local obedience trainers attending. The members of the N.E. Georgia Schutzhund Club obliged us with the use of their field and their dogs for demonstration purposes. The various types of equipment and their usage was demonstated. Even Carmen with his busy schedule has started to train and showed the new comers the beginning of tracking with his Champion male, Dash. David began the demonstation with the technique used to "build up" the youngsters and the progression to the puppy sleeve. The club helper, Tom Boyles, continued with the use of the adult sleeve and dogs that already had been working in Schutzhund training. There was a great variety of dogs that participated, American show dogs, German working lines, and German show lines. Some of the dogs had no training, while others were in the process of training for their schutzhund titles.

Mrs. Lisa Carroll who is Manager of Performance Activities at the American Kennel Club attended the seminar to get a first hand view of this new event in preparation for the many phone calls that she will be getting about it.

The special treat was Charlie Meszaros with his world class competition dog, Nike. Charlie and Nike were members of the team that won the world competition for the United States of America in Denmark this past September. Charlie brought Nike's personal helper, "Sloan," with him to assist with the protection portion. They pulled the obedience and the protection work together in their training demonstration. Charlie showed us many of his training techniques to build "drive" in the dogs. Most of us were amazed to see a dog that never takes his eyes off of his handler and the speed at which he responds to the commands.

Since this seminar, many of the attendees are now starting to work their dogs for the BH. The importance of exposing the newly interested people is vital to our sport. Take them "under your wing." Will they all have world class dogs? No, but they can enjoy this sport as much as we do. Good dogs, good people, and good competition. The next time your at an event, help the new person and include them. Remember, you were once a novice too.