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The Courage Test at the Sieger Show.
by Fred Lanting
Copyright November, 2005 -
The history and the Standard of the German Shepherd Dog are, and should be, intimately related to the “parent club” of the breed. If one does not agree with that underlying principle of almost everything concerning the breed, then unity in the sport and identification as a breed will suffer. An English Springer Spaniel that does not look anything like the historic or the British dog perhaps should have “English” dropped from its name in countries where breed type has strayed significantly. The Australian Cattle Dog, if it starts looking like a Whippet after drifting in Transylvania, should not retain that name. If some of the Yanks or the Brits want a different breed than the internationally traditional GSD, let them call theirs the Alsatian or something else, rather than the German Shepherd.
OK; now that that possibly irritating comment is out in plain view, let’s step back and look at the situation without so much emotion. Most dog people believe that any breed should reflect not only the purposes for which it was developed, but also should be the responsibility of the “home office” — that a breed should be held in trust by the “country of origin”. You cannot have all the passengers drive the bus at once; they must rely on the bus supplier to provide the driver.
This current discussion of the Standard is being written in response to a request from Australia for an article about the use of the courage test at national (Sieger) shows. As a former English teacher I understand the reluctance to capitalize “Standard”, but as a poet and creative writer I’m going to continue exercising this license. (As well as use the American spelling of “license”!) The wording of a breed Standard is not the sum total of the breed, although many seem to operate on the principle that it is divinely inspired Scripture of private interpretation. Words are made by fallible men, and Standards can contain errors. Furthermore, a verbal description of a living creature is not the whole creature. The Standard is someone’s attempt to describe the ideal example of the particular breed. The breed Standard is a skeleton, and the flesh of understanding the breed can only be added by experience, intimate familiarity with the breed’s individuals, and an understanding of the history and function(s) of the breed.
One of the traditional reasons for existence of the GSD breed is the dog’s usefulness as a personal and property protector and as a working dog in such fields as military and police. To relegate the training in these areas of expertise to a handful of dogs owned by police and military forces would lead to the creation of a separate breed, a generic “police dog”, something that is happening already, with the loss of the GSD’s status in such occupations. The GSD is being supplanted by Malinois and Malinois crosses in such forces. No, it is up to the breeders and breed clubs to protect the breed, and this demands that all of us encourage preservation of the protective nature of the animal through such things as schutzhund training.
Schutzhund seems to be a dirty word among many British and Australasian politicians, and it has even corrupted the thinking of iconoclastic breeders in such few areas of the world as those. But it had early become an essential part of the breed, the nature and character of the GSD as first of all a working dog was clearly spelled out by the founders, especially Max von Stephanitz. And his definition of “working” was not limited to sheep herding, or guiding the blind! As a military man, he strongly believed in preserving the traits useful to military and police, but in every GSD, not just those working in those jobs. This is why the SV, the Schäferhund Verein, uses the sport of schutzhund (now for reasons of political pressure called Vielseitigkeitsprüfung, VPG) as a proof (Prüfung) of traditional character. While there is popular competitive activity involving high scores in performance trials, minimum evidence of this protection ability is also required at the Sieger Shows of most nations, in the form of the “courage test”.
This test, a prerequisite for standing for conformation examination and further competition at those shows, is a simple excerpt from the schutzhund routine (oops — excuse me, the VPG “many-faceted test”). The bitework is used (rightly) to weed out the worst-character dogs before they are allowed into the conformation judging at the Sieger Show. In some countries, the courage test in some form is used at every specialty show, or the more important ones. In countries where the test is not used, we find a greater trend toward increasing the gulf between the working-sports portion of the fancy and the show-only community. This splitting of the breed into two breeds, and the fanciers into even more widely divided camps than is already evident, is a natural (though detrimental) effect of suppressing this very important test.
As an aside of sorts, I relate again what to me was a surprising reaction to an address I made to the gathering of the Australian GSD club (GSDCA) at their annual Main Breed Assessment/Show in 1991. I had summed up the philosophy of GSD experts and leaders since von Stephanitz when I said, “The Standard describes what the breed should be, the conformation show indicates what the breed appears to be, and the schutzhund titles show what the dog is.” At the time, I had no idea that the working and the total-dog elements in the club were such pariahs in the eyes of the controlling officers and the ANKC (Australia’s all-breed monopoly). But my eyes were opened that evening, as I thought a riot was imminent. Cheers from the trainers and complaining sounds from the club managers and their adherents.
This idea, so patently taken for granted in Europe, turned out to be something that Australasia (the continent being the dog and New Zealand being the tail, some say) has been resisting. The Australian National Kennel Council has far too much power over breed clubs, a situation we see in the USA as well with our monopolistic behemoth the AKC. In Germany, the SV has unfortunately felt the pressures from anti-dog groups such as the Greenies, and has helped the FCI to grow at the expense of SV’s historic independence and position as supreme guardian of the breed. But at least the breed is still mostly under the control of the breeders and trainers who are members of the SV. In the UK, the USA, and Downunder, it’s a different picture. It’s a bit like a governmental body telling private individuals how they are allowed to educate and bring up their own children, what church they are allowed to function in, and whether people can exercise their consciences as parents in public.
On a practical basis, as I am reminded by an Australian publisher, “[our] people cannot tell the ANKC to go away, or else they could not show any of these dogs in the regular conformation ring (as opposed to the Main Breeds ring); but it is a hot potato indeed right now.” Agreed, it is a daunting challenge, and probably with the history of government control over a greater portion of individual’s lives in the British/Australasian more-socialist culture than found in the cowboy-culture USA, it is more nearly impossible. But what really should be done, if and when the few clubs that make up the backbone of the national kennel organizations decide to flex their muscles, is a demand for a longer leash, for more self-government. OK, so it is unlikely to happen in our lifetimes, but that does not detract from the righteousness of the concept.
Meanwhile, those who want to know more about the courage test used in the rest of the world may be interested in how it is performed. As I said, in most countries, the German model is followed, this being the two protection exercises from the Schutzhund (VPG)-1 routine commonly known as “the attack out of the blind”, and “the long attack”. It is a highly stylized simulation of “street” situations, the first exercise being when a person and dog walking along minding their own business are suddenly attacked by someone jumping out at them from a hidden place. The dog is supposed to protect his handler by interposing himself between owner and attacker, and stopping “the bad guy” by biting him (on the arm) until the attacker stops fighting. In the second exercise, the “bad guy” trespasses, refuses to leave, and makes a threat by charging at the team from the far end of the “property”; the dog is released and rushes downfield to apprehend the intruder. At all times, the dog is expected to be unde r the voice control of his handler, and must stop and release his bite when the fighting stops and (if necessary) he is commanded to “out”. He must also keep heeling in Part-1 until the threat is obvious (the perpetrator appears and charges).
This is an exercise that tests both character/courage and obedience. What more can you want from a dog whose breed was built on these foundation pillars? How can anyone with good sense and a respect for the historical function of the breed expect to “breed true” without such limitations and requirements?
A fall-out from the intentional splitting of the fancy, sport, and breed that some national kennel clubs and their subservient national breed clubs are promoting by their opposition to the courage test and the schutzhund sport, is the alienation of those who breed for the sportsdog. The “working-lines GSD” is what I mean. This arms-length attitude results in dogs that are bred solely for trial scores, and breed type suffers. Some look like Malinois, some like Dutch Shepherds, poor toplines, and most have poor angulation (though they make up for that in endurance herding/trotting with high “drive”). Both wings of the breed fancy need to make peace and concessions, and strive for a reunited breed. We had that, even through the 1960s, and it is not impossible to get back to a single breed, though variable within reasonable limits. The publisher mentioned above also said, “We believe it is very important that top quality [working-line] GSDs also appear in the regular conformation classes whenev er we can tempt them to do so. Otherwise the divide becomes even wider. Not many of them bother of course, but those that do are much valued to give us an idea of where the breed stands.” And, I add, valuable for the sake of genetic diversity, a subject in itself.
But it is equally important that the show-only folks keep an open mind and try to understand the history and purposes of the breed, and work toward the day when they can join the world community of GSDs, including the performance of VPG trials and required titles for breeding rights, at least for the more respectable and breed-worthy reproducers. I hope I live long enough to see GSD clubs in Australia and the UK join the WUSV and conform to the international standards of the breed.
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Fred Lanting is an internationally respected show judge, approved by many registries as an all-breed judge, has judged numerous countries’ Sieger Shows and Landesgruppen events, and has many years experience with SV. He presents seminars and consults worldwide on such topics as Gait-&-Structure, HD and Other Orthopedic Disorders, Anatomy, Training Techniques, and The GSD. He conducts annual non-profit sightseeing tours of Europe, centered on the Sieger Show (biggest breed show in the world) and BSP.
All Things Canine -- consulting division, Willow Wood Services Phone: 256-498-3319 Fax: 256-498-3311 E-mail mr.gsd@netscape.com
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