| • Did you take formal obedience classes or train yourself. How many classes did you take? Do you still continue to train when not in class?
I took obedience classes back in the early-mid 80's from Sandy Pepper (now Sandy Overgaard) of Pepperhaus Rottweilers. She's the one who got me into showing in the first place in obedience. More recently this past summer I started working with the Willamette Valley Schutzhund club and have attended two schutzhund seminars there, with Les Flores and Dean Calderon.
• How important/beneficial is obedience training to you for this breed?
Honestly out of all of dobermans over the past 34 years I've seriously trained one for obedience, and an now in the process of starting Cher. Others I have done the breed ring with, but no obedience.
• Where do you train outside of classes? (backyard, walks, public places)
When not working with the schutzhund club....in the summer I train in my backyard, in Petsmart (on my own, not in a class), or at the park. In the winter I train with the sch. club or inside Petsmart.
• How much time do you spend in a training session? Do you find it easy to train a male or a female? Do you think a doberman is easy to train compared to other breeds?
If it's the schutzhund clubs Saturday practices, I'm there half a day, but it's all the dogs and working on all different stuff. If I'm on my own I normally spend about an hour to an hour and a half if I'm not at home, but it's not solid obedience, a lot of it is just walking and playing in between training. If it's at home generally just 10-15 minutes at a time.
• What type of rewards do you use, if any? (food, toy, praise) Do you use any special training aids? (leashes, clickers, etc) What methods of training do you use?
Food, toys, praise. I don't train any particular "method", I just do whatever works the best for me and my dog to keep them happy, motivated and enjoying themselves during work.
• What have the rewards/accomplishments been since you started training your doberman?
The first doberman I showed in obedience was a child prodigy. He earned his CD in one weekend at a 3 day show at 6 months old and his first two legs towards his CDX by 9 months old before he was stolen from me.
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