Competition obedience is judged upon accomplishment of a stylized routine of precise exercises according to organizational rules in predictable situations. Real world obedience is judged according to public safety laws, rules and customs in unpredictable situations at home and in public. Here are some of what I learned about this contrast over the years.
My first exposure to dog obedience was as a novice in large group classes with a long-term focus on AKC competition using traditional methods. These classes were a pretty good start. The classes were upbeat, and the facilities were clean and well organized. I learned how to put on a leash and collar; how to use treats for luring; there was a specific path set out to go from one level to another; and I got to see a lot of different people working a lot of different dogs. However, the training was too mechanical, and all dogs were put through all the same drills in the same way. Not much was taught regarding behavioral problems. I quit the classes when they reached a point where they wanted us to do a certain exercise that involved jabbing my thumb into my dog’s rear thigh to make her turn around. I wasn’t going to do that to my dog.
When I started training dogs for the public, I started with this foundation, plus learning from all the books and videos I could find or purchase. I had good success with most pet dogs, but I ran into problems when I tried to fix behavioral problems. You can’t fix behavioral problems teaching skills, no matter how much you reinforce or punish what the dog is doing.
From there, I obtained a working bred Doberman with the intent of the dog being a companion, a watchdog, and trying my hand at Schutzhund (a competition that simulates police training). I joined a club, went to competition events, purchased more videos and books, and found a mentor. Here is where things started changing for me. I was now torn in two directions. The obedience part was still a lot like my early training. The bite work part was being done by my mentor and was for real world. I was learning to pull these two worlds apart. Now I realized there was learning psychology and behavior training, but in my head, they were two different worlds warring with one another. I learned a lot. One lesson for me was the day my dog almost fell down the stairs while Heeling. In competition, the Heel is taught where the dog is supposed to fixate on looking up at the handler while in motion. Well, a dog can’t do that and go downstairs. It was at that point where I lost interest in competition. I was teaching students about real world training for pet dogs but spending my time on an artificial routine that had no practical use in the real world. There were good exercises and there were bad stylized ways of doing it. I lost interest in competition and never did enter an event as a result. I had to accept it wasn’t my thing.
A further complication was that I do not generally work with dogs that were bred for performance. I don’t get field trial bred hunting dogs; police bred working dogs; competition purebred dogs. I get pet dogs that often don’t have the specific intense drives for those tools we tend to want to use for these fields. For example, my Doberman would do anything to fetch a toy, even if he hurt himself doing it. I typically don’t see that kind of drive in pet dogs. However, I do see pet dogs that will do anything to chase a cat or will light up and want to fight another dog or will not let a stranger into the home. None of that is useful in competition, but it is a reality with many pet dogs.
I now started discarding all stylized versions of obedience work. I also started digging into behavior modification since that was where many of my students had the most need, and because behavior fed into every obedience exercise. I took apart every exercise from almost every sport and decided which ones were relevant, and what form was best, for life in the real world. For example, many of my students have saved their dog’s lives because they were able to stop their dogs out of a full run. Those competition exercises do translate into the real world, but how they are taught can be quite different.
The behavior work is somewhat of a murky world, unfortunately. First, because there is no prescribed path for getting from A to Z like those early group classes I attended. I still have those handouts they used, going from beginning to advanced. Instead, you must puzzle out each situation when you are dealing with behavior. No two responses are ever the same. No two dogs are the same. No two social situations are the same. No two environments are the same. Second, you must study the science of behavior. Most of my large library of books is on animal behavior. Even today, after all these years, I’m still studying behavior and even the scientists give disclaimers in their work that there is a lot they still don’t know. I have a one foot stack of books on my desk, right now, that I’m currently working through. It is never ending. Third, I have had to translate all this theory into practical protocols. There isn’t much role for stylized routines when you are in public with a dog. Yet, to control dogs in public, there needs to be some general ground rules for handling and some specific goals for accomplishment of each command. Precision and control are very important, and I must teach students in such a way that they gain sufficient situational awareness to deal with unpredictable people and places in the real world.
Thus, I started out with training that was competition focused. I tried to apply that to the real world, first with my dog, and then with student’s dogs. But since my commitment to getting ribbons in a competition didn’t match my desire for teaching dogs to be real world companions, my interests moved away from competition into behavior and practical applications of exercises that would work in unpredictable real-world environments.
I think there is nothing wrong with entering dogs into competition. It is fun and you can learn a lot. On the other hand, the competition people will take things too far when they try to explain to you how what they are simulating in a controlled environment is the same as real world applications. Often their dogs were bred for competition but not for real world work. Some German Shepherds can do Schutzhund and police work, but not all Schutzhund competition dogs can do police work (especially the ones that are the champions). The same is true with hunting dogs. Some can do field trials and get ribbons, but not all the champions are going to be good field hunting dogs in the real world. Competition is fun, and it would be great if it was used as a way of assessing dogs that should be bred and used for the real world, but what gets a dog style points doesn’t necessarily translate into a guarantee that a dog is suited for the real-world version of that display. I see a lot of silly advice online from competition focused dog trainers about how to fix this or that behavioral problem. They don’t know what they are talking about and should stick to what they know. I also see way too many pet dog trainers that are still trying to fix behavioral problems without understanding behavior modification, so they resort to unnecessary and ineffective doses of harsh force methods to try and suppress what the owner wants shut down in the dog rather than trying to figure out why the dog is doing whatever and addressing that. For example, I can finesse almost all issues without ever using a positive punishment or some kind of suppression. It is also important to understand that real world dogs face challenges that require handler awareness that can’t be, and isn’t done, in the competition ring. In Schutzhund, the dog gets to bite the man wearing the padded suit. In the real world, the dog doesn’t get to bite anyone unless the bite was illegally provoked.
In the end, I like watching dog competitions, whether it is police dog, hunting, obedience, rally, or agility. But it also know I’m looking at entertainment, and that what I’m seeing isn’t necessarily real once the dogs are out of the ring. Since I have worked with dogs that were competitors, but also at home were having behavioral problems that the competition trainers couldn’t fix, I know the difference.