By Ed Frawley

This article was written before the wall came down. It reflects the conditions that were present before Germany was reunited.

It was not without a little concern last January (January 1988) that I started the paper work on getting permission to travel to East Germany (DDR) and video their bundessieger prufung. In the end my concerns were unwarranted.

I use the term Bundessieger because we Americans have become familiar with this word from West Germany. The DDR calls their championship the Diensthundesport Meisterschaft. This competition is an all breed event where the West German Bundessieger is a German Shepherd specialty schutzhund championship. The DDR does not have a competition where only one breed competes.

This year saw 48 entries, 24 German Shepherds, 16 Giant Schnauzers, 5 Rottweilers, 3 Airedales, 1 Collie and 1 Great Dane. Don't snicker too much about the Collie. It was his 3rd trip to the Meisterschaft (finishing 8th last year)and you should see him bite. The Great Dane scored 93 in protection and was easily the crowd favorite at the trial.

A lot of people have asked what was involved in getting permission to make this trip - so I will share some of the details with you.

The first step was to contact the DDR Embassy in New York. I spoke with Mr. Fritz who is an official that works in the commerce section. Which means if you want to do business in the DDR you must start here. I informed Mr. Fritz of my video business (by supplying him with a sample tape, catalogues and articles I had written). I explained that I would like to produce a documentary on their bundessieger.

Mr. Fritz arranged for me to get an invitation to come to the DDR from the International Press Center in East Berlin. After receiving this invitation (in the form of a telex) it was necessary for me to send my passport, two extra passport photos and the telex invitation to the DDR Embassy in Washington DC where my visas were issued.

On August 22 I flew to Frankfurt and then drove to East Berlin on August 24th. Under the best conditions this is an 8-hour trip. My trip took a couple extra hours.

At every border crossing (from West Germany to the DDR) there are 2 entry points. One for those that are driving directly to West Berlin on a transit visa which is obtained at the border and another for those that are staying in the DDR.

I did not realize this until I was at the wrong border crossing on the autobahn. The official (who spoke no English) was very friendly and came out of his border crossing house to stop traffic - while I did a "U" turn on the autobahn and was allowed to go back the wrong way (against traffic) one block to the other crossing station.

When you get to the right crossing point - you will need your passport, a form #F73/1, and the registration papers on your car. Your visa is stamped in your passport and the DDR Embassy has sent you a blank F73/1 and you had better make sure that Hertz has the correct papers in your rental package. There is usually a line of people waiting to have their papers inspected. If you make a mistake and forget something, you leave the line, correct your mistake and then get back at the end of the line.

Because I already had my visa, I did not think that I needed to fill out this form F73/1. I was wrong - so - off I go to fill it out and then back to the end of the line. The official did not speak English and his directions were a little too complicated for my poor German vocabulary - when I got to the front again I understood that he also needed the license number of my car (which I did not have) - so off I go to get it and then back to the end of the line.

When I finally got to the front again ( we are now approaching an hours time) - the official is amazed to see I still do not have the correct information. I was not sure where the mistake was. Finally the man behind me explained (in English) that what I really needed was the registration and insurance papers for the car. Off I go again, but by this time the official is laughing and feels sorry for me, when he sees me get in the back of the line (for the 4th time) he calls me to the front to finalize everything.

I had turned a 20-minute process into a 2-hour escapade. So any American that travels to the DDR and uses this information to save himself 1 1/2 hours at the border owes me a beer.

After the first official checks your papers, you are re-checked at three other places (the last of which is a customs officer). Then you are allowed into the country. I must say that every official was friendly and polite. I had no problem with the border crossings going into or out of the DDR. My feeling is that this would be the case with anyone whose papers are in order.

My next stop was the Palace Hotel in the center of East Berlin. There are certain hotels where foreigners must stay - and they are not cheap. They cost 190 DM per night(about $100.00). The service and quality is equivalent to a Hyatt in America. If you ever travel to the DDR, reservations can be made through your travel agent in America - mine had been made for me by the Press Center.

On Friday morning I had a meeting with an official at the International Press Center in downtown East Berlin. We signed a contract to produce my video. It required me to pay 1,800 DM (about $1,000.00 - which I thought was too much for a dog show). I am to supply the press center with a sample copy of my tape and articles. They in turn supplied 2 men to help with my work. One was a translator (Jurgen Pranzlauer) and the other an expert in the dog sport of the DDR (Uwe Krachudel).

The money paid for Jurgen and Uwe was well spent. They came furnished with "Department of State" cards that got us where we needed to go and eliminated any small problem that came up along the way. Jurgen never declined to translate anything that was said - if you have ever traveled in Europe and not spoken the language - you will realize what a luxury it is to have a translator to help you.

Uwe was a young man who has been involved in the schutzhund sport in the Berlin district for 12 years. He seemed to be known and liked by everyone. He had an excellent knowledge of the Meisterschaft and its rules.

Uwe arranged permission for me to film from the edge of the field (and sometimes on the field). He obtained a SDG Schutzhund rule book, a judges score book, and a great deal of information on the SDG Breed Survey. The SDG is the equivalent of the AKC. The SDG breed survey is much more comprehensive than the West German Korung - it is too extensive to cover in this article. Hopefully I can put this information in a later article.

Uwe also set up interviews with Mr. Hans-Joachim Swarowsky (the Vice President of the SDG) and Mr. Bernd Schermaul (the head schutzhund judge of the SDG). I met Mr. Jurgen Menz (the president of the SDG and was offered a Sunday afternoon interview - which I was not able to keep because the trial ran longer than was expected. Missing that interview was the most disappointing part of the trip - I hope to be able to reschedule our talk next year in Leipzig at the DDR Sieger show.

The competitors at the meisterschaft come from 15 districts. They competed at a local level and a district level to qualify and had to score 90 points in obedience and 90 points in protection to come. Next year the requirement will be raised to 92 points in protection in an effort to reduce the number of competitors. The feeling was that 48 dogs was too many for the three day event (they only use one stadium for their competitions).

The event is organized differently than the West German Bundessieger. There is one tracking judge and 2 obedience and protection judges (their scores are averaged) . The top 20 dogs always track on Saturday and do obedience and protection on Sunday. Six dogs will go through obedience and then the blinds are quickly set up and the same six dogs do protection.

Like dog sports everywhere on a given day any one of 30 dogs could win if luck is on his side. This year a dog from the Saturday group won the Meisterschaft - which kind of blows the "20 best on Sunday" theory.

The winner was Methius Hartrich and his Giant Schnauzer Nick. They are from the district of Schul which produced the top scoring team in the trial. Their score was 98,96,98=292. This was the first time Methius had competed with his 3 year old dog.

Second place went to Peter Wendt (from the district of East Berlin) and his 8 years old Rot Cay with a score of 100,88.5,95=283.5. This was Peters 14th time and Cays 5th time at the Meisterschaft. Peter also finished 2nd in 1984 and 1985.

Third place went to Dieter Zickler (also from the Schul district) and his German Shepherd bitch Otty with 99,96,87=282. Dieter has won this competition 3 times in the past (1972, 1973 and 1974) and Otty had been here twice before finishing 2nd last year. I was lucky because the obedience and protection was all done in the same stadium so I was able to film all of the top dogs doing their work. They ran 6 dogs through obedience and then set up the blinds and ran the same 6 dogs through protection.

A DDR track is more difficult than our schutzhund III track. It is one hour old, 1,300 meters with 5 corners (one being acute). There are 3 articles, and one cross track. The tracking was done in plowed fields similar to what we would see in the Bundessieger. I got up at 4:30 Saturday morning to drive 30 KM to film several dogs track. I was lucky enough to video Peter Wendt (2nd place) do a 100-point track with his Rotweiler Cay.

Obedience work in the DDR is more difficult than our FCI schutzhund rules. Heeling patterns are done at a walk and then again at a run. The dogs do sit stays, down stays and stand stays out of motion just as we are used to seeing but they are exposed to gun fire on the recall, the long down, and just as they pick up the dumb bell on the flat.

There is an exercise where the dog is placed in a down stay and the handler moves 10 meters away. On command the dog must crawl (on his belly) to the handler. The 6-foot straight scaling wall is still used. It will be eliminated in 1990 for the same reasons we stopped using it here is America.

The send away was interesting. The dog does a normal send away and the handler goes out of sight for one minute. When he returns the dog is given a hand signal recall and is exposed to gun fire as he comes.

The protection phase of the competition is certainly different than what I was used to seeing in Schutzhund. The dog searches 11 blinds. He travels down the field, then turns and searches the blinds a second time back up the field. He does the regular find and bark after which the helper does an escort to the judge. There is no escape or bite work here.

The dog then does a full field attack on a fleeing helper. The bite is done with the helper running away and the dogs were trained to take the man high near the shoulder. The sleeves had a small pocket that the shoulder fit into. The helpers wore not scratch pants or bite suits. There were no accidents but the potential is sure there for one.

An interesting thing is that the handler can tell the helper which arm to wear the sleeve on. With no other protective equipment the helper made darn sure he heard the handler correctly when he was told. On more than one occasion he called back to verify the right arm.

During all bite work the handler is off the field. So he sends the dog and then leaves the field. The dog is required to release on his own (without a command) within one minute. He then must stay with the helper for a second minute before the handler comes to retrieve his dog.

Next the helper goes to mid field and stands facing the dog which is put in a down stay 10 yards away. The handler leaves the field. After one minute the helper does an attack in which the dog gets 2 stick hits. One before it bites and then another after it bites. The dog has one minute to release (without a command) and then must stay with the helper.

The helper work was the one weak point in the trial. I was not impressed with the speed or intensity of the helper that did the bite work. It was my opinion that the dogs were better than this helper. On a number of occasions the dogs were so quick they did not get hit before they bite (and on several occasions they were not hit after the bite).

I was impressed with the sportsmanship exhibited by everyone at the trial. I did not witness one time when the crowd booed or screamed at a poor performance. Rather if a handler or dog had a problem they applauded his effort when he was finished. You certainly can't say that about the West German Bundessieger.

Purchasing a dog from the DDR is not impossible - but close to it. I wanted to bring back a competition dog for myself but could not because of the bureaucracy involved in exporting dogs.

The exportation of all animals (dogs included) from the DDR is handled by a government agency called Zoologiga. If you want a dog it must first be sold to Zoologiga who in turn sells it to you. The paperwork to get the dog exported requires 5 or 6 signatures from different officials. Getting this paperwork complete will discourage all but the most determined - and even then it may not always happen because there are some dogs that are not allowed to be sold because the officials want them to remain in the country for breeding purposes.

Dogs from the DDR have a lot to offer breeders in America. They have pigment and bone that we don't see anymore. I saw some of the best German Shepherd heads I have ever seen. I was told (by an official of Zoologiga - Dr. Yonder) that the bureaucracy involved in exporting dogs will be reduced this year. I hope this happens.

In 1990 the DDR is going to change to IPO rules so they can compete on an international level in the world Meisterschaft. If they are going to compete at the level their dogs are capable of they will need to improve helper technique. This may take a couple of years but I am sure they will become top contenders when it happens.

I hope some consideration is given to try and work something out with the DVG in West Germany so that handlers like Methius Hartrich and Peter Wendt can have a place to compete with their super Giant Schnauzers and Rottweilers.

If you would like to see the video of DDR Meisterschaft give me a call. I came back with excellent footage.

This article was written before the wall came down. It reflects the conditions that were present before Germany was reunited.