K9Jarko

That being said, Schutzhund obedience is a lot more relaxed and a lot less precise in some manners - without being rude about it, you get points just for trying. You can fail a single exercise and still pass the overall entire portion/BH.

This may be true about a BH - which is a Traffic-Steady Companion Dog Test and is not an actual training degree (USA Rulebook BH page 1). Although a dog must obtain at least 70% of the total points in Part A (of a BH) to go onto the Part B...as well as the handler passing a written test.... No scores according to points are given at the end of the examination. The judge merely announces the rating passed or failed. The award title is not a training degree that is recognized for breeding, show, breed survey or exhibition purposes in accordance with the regulations of a VDH membership organization. It is a requirement for those who want to go on to obtain working dog titles (ie., SchH/IPO/VPG titles).

One may be able to "pattern train" for a BH - but once you get to the actual SchH Titles.....it'll start to fall apart because not only must a dog perform correctly in the obedience phase of a SchH 1-2-3 but now they have to perform obediently while "in drive" in the protection phase......if you don't have solid obedience your just not gonna score well in the protection phase where you need at least a score of 80 to advance.

When it comes to the BH, judges are given alot more discretion when it comes to scoring. But then I have seen some judges - that WILL fail you for one missed exercise (long down)...we had a dog at a recent trial who had amazing focus and did every other exercise near perfect...but got up from the long down (returned to his handler) half-way through the other dogs routine. Failed.

Someone needs to tell the judge that I'll be trialing under that we should get points for just trying

On the other hand, in Schutzhund I have always seen the judge comment on how happy the dog is or is not to work, something that is NEVER commented on by the judge in AKC obedience.

Probably because in the Schutzhund/IPO rulebook it actually states that the dog "is to follow the handler happily on lead, an unhappy working attitude of the dog is to be evaluated accordingly". Happy and Sporty are used many times in the Description of Exercise (guidelines as to how a dog/handler team should conduct a specific exercise) and thus it is and should be mentioned in the evaluation.

The reason I mentioned the about turn is because it is a "trend" that I have personally seen from AKC competitors both in the AKC club I belong to as well as others I have met at trials where they are going for the BH. You are definitely correct Doberkim - they do make right about turns in AKC - I was attempting to point out that one cannot take a AKC right about turn and just switch it to a left for SchH - AKC and SchH "movements" of the dog and handler are different when it comes to about turns.