Dog World Article
Schutzhund –the long road to full acceptance.
Early in the 1990’s, a small group of dog-sport enthusiasts from the North-East of England decided to introduce the Schutzhund sport to Britain.
Schutzhund, which originated in Germany at the beginning of the twentieth century, was already well established as the premier dog sport in many countries throughout the World and its introduction to these shores was long overdue. The sport comprises three disciplines – Tracking, Obedience and Protection – and had an immediate appeal to many of the dog handlers already participating in Working Trials in this country.
The initiative shown by the early members resulted in an inaugural meeting being held in May 1991. The meeting was attended by seven groups of like - minded people from around the UK and following normal meeting procedure, the British Schutzhund Association (BSA) was established as a National Organisation.
Given that Working Trials in Britain operate under the auspices of the Kennel Club and Schutzhund has similar aims – to develop all round working dogs capable of performing difficult tasks under the control of their handlers – it would have been easy to assume that the Kennel Club would have welcomed the introduction of another dog activity into the UK but regrettably this was not to be the case and, in fact, they were vigorously opposed to the idea for reasons which have never been completely clear.
Despite this, the BSA continued its activities by establishing its own Rules and Constitution creating an extensive infra-structure of clubs, judges , Protection helpers and with the help of schutzhund friends from Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, began holding training seminars and trials around the Country.
Whilst the BSA was primarily a German Shepherd Dog Organisation, owners of other breeds capable of participating in the sport were allowed to join which effectively kept control of Schutzhund in the UK in the hands of one Organisation.
With regard to German Shepherd Dogs and the schutzhund sport, the controlling body is the World Union of German Shepherd Dogs (WUSV) operating out of Augsburg in Germany and every year a World Schutzhund Championship for German Shepherd Dogs is held at a different venue with teams from in excess of thirty countries competing.
To send a team to these Championships is the ambition of every country that participates in the schutzhund sport but entry is restricted to one team per country and that team can only be entered by the WUSV appointed club(s) for each country. In the UK there are two official WUSV clubs – the British Association for German Shepherd Dogs (BAGSD) and the German Shepherd Dog League of Great Britain ( GSDL)
Quarantine restrictions in the UK seriously curtailed any ambitions that the BSA, in conjunction with one or both of these WUSV member clubs, may have had to compete at the World Championships but the turn of events that occurred in 2000 with the introduction of the Pet Passport Scheme meant that for the first time, a British team could enter and compete without their dogs having to go into quarantine upon their return.
Although not a member club, the BSA had established an excellent relationship with the WUSV and always received their full support and urgent contact was made between the BSA and the two British WUSV member clubs to try to send a team. Whilst there was no time to hold trials to select the best team – team selection being based on those people who already had their Pet Passports in place -- the German Shepherd Dog League came up trumps and agreed to send a team on behalf of the BSA.
The WUSV World Championships were that year (2000) held in Wavre, Belgium and it was gratifying to at last see a British team competing on the world schutzhund stage.
