The Best Schutzhund Seminar I have Ever Attended

O.G. IM WALD Schutzhund Verein - Peoria, IL

Bernhard and his dog Itor

This past weekend (June 23rd, 2001) the OG Imwald Schutzhund Club in Peoria, Ill. sponsored another Bernhard Flinks Schutzhund Seminar. This was the 4th Flinks seminar that I have filmed. His seminars get better and better every time he gives them.

Bernhard is a police K9 handler (with 25 years experience) and a top Schutzhund competitor who lives in Northern Germany. In my opinion he gives one of the best schutzhund seminars that you could attend. There are a lot of gifted trainers in this country and in Germany. Many give seminars and offer valuable information, but I don’t think that any can compare to Bernhard Flinks.

Bernhard brings a well-organized seminar to this country. I don’t know how many times he has given the seminar but as his English improves (and it’s very good already) it only gets better and better. He has the patience of a saint and treats everyone with a smile. This cannot always be said of people who teach seminars.

Many instructors are too quick to become critical of a new handlers inexperience or lack of handling skills. Bernhard has not forgotten that people attend seminars because they admit that they have something to learn. No one likes to be embarrassed or worse, sworn at in training just because they are having a hard time executing a skill that the instructor has done a thousand times and finds easy. The fact is that there are a number of people out there who run Schutzhund clubs or give seminars who think this is an acceptable way to teach students, it is no! Maybe I should name names to let people know who these people are.

What sets Bernhard seminars apart is not just the fact that he is a nice guy but that the information that he brings to his seminars is truly great information. The first day is a lecture with an occasional demonstration with one of the dogs.

The basis of Bernhard’s training is to build drive and focus in dogs. He explains that every dog has a genetic drive potential. The foundation of his training is to bring a dog up to its genetic level of drive.

He does this through exceptional work with prey items (a rubber ball on a string and bite tubes). His goal is to teach a dog that going into drive will result in the ability to either bite the prey item, fight with the prey item, or carry the prey item. The dog learns that it will occasionally have to OUT the item but not often enough to be concerned about losing the toys.

Bernhard is quick to point out dogs that have a calm grip on a ball or a tug will have a calm grip on a sleeve and dogs that are chewy on their prey items will have a mouthy grip on a sleeve. He explains that most dogs who are mouthy on a sleeve are that way because they are concerned about losing their prey item to the handler. In other words they anticipate the OUT, which leads to chewing on the toy or sleeve.

Bernhard is quick to point out that he trains the dog that toys are not dog-toys but handler-toys. The dog learns that the handler allows him to play with his (the handlers) toys. This philosophy is key to training the OUT.

Training the OUT starts at a very young age (12 to 14 weeks). Once a puppy has learned to focus on the toys (to the point that he cannot be tricked into dropping one toy for another) he is taught the OUT. The key to this training is that the OUT is only used once a day. Working on the OUT too much results in dogs getting mouthy because they begin to anticipate the toy being taken away from them.

When many dogs bite a toy, play tug or carry the tug they are reluctant to come back to the handler with their toy because they think the handler is going to take the toy away. Bernhard teaches the dog, through intermittent training, that this is not going to happen.

Dogs learn a command called “INTO THE ARM.” This means the dog is to run to the handler who puts one arm under the neck with the hand on the shoulder (not on the neck in the collar). The dog is calmly stroked and praised with the other arm as he rests against the handlers knee, all the while he is still holding the prey item calmly in his mouth. The goal is to calm the dog to make it feel comfortable holding the prey item.

From this position the handler has the option of grabbing the string (1/8 inch nylon cord) and play fighting with the dog (playing tug of war), running with the dog as the dog carries the prey item or OUTing the toy and immediately kicking the toy away so the dog can attack and carry it again. None of these actions cause the dog concern because he enjoys all of the options.

The goal of drive building is to end up with a dog that will remain focused. We want a dog that is sitting, focusing on the ball on a string, until the handler drops the ball to be caught by the dog and played with. The dog must learn self-control. He must learn that through self- control he will get his prey item. When this happens, anticipation and drive increase. This is how a dog gets closer to his genetic potential.

When a dog is capable of remaining in a sit with the ball resting on the top of his nose he has the concentration and focus to learn the obedience exercises for a 12 minute Schutzhund obedience routine.

The beauty of Bernhard's seminars is that he shows how to use these drive building concepts in bite training and obedience training. He demonstrates how to use this work with a toy to prepare a dog for competition heeling, dumb bell work, escape work and driving the dog in bite work.

Bernhard’s grip training on prey items is the foundation of his work. His dogs are trained to retain their grip on the sleeve until the handler gives the OUT command. He is adamant that dogs should not OUT as a result of something the helper does (i.e. locking up), rather he wants the dog to retain a full mouth grip on the sleeve until the handler tells him to release. Bernhard has this saying when he explains these simple concepts, he says, “All the points to me.” Which basically means that if the dogs do what he asks, they will perform in a manner that the judge will give him full points for the exercise.

This short article does not come close to doing justice to the information gained in one of Bernhard’s seminars. I will be listing all of his future seminar on my web site (in the future seminar section) Bernhard phone number in Germany is 04835-950345 or 0171-7028186. E-mail address is B.Flinks@t-online.de. His address is:

Bernhard Flinks
Albersdorferfeld 4
25767 Albersdorf Germany

If you or your club would like a seminar I would encourage you to contact him.

If you would like a great vacation with your dog, or if you want to get the best coach you could possible find for your sport dog, Bernhard offers private training at his kennel in Germany. He charges $100.00 per day for this training. There is a guest house very near his kennel (a 10 minute walk) that only charges $11.00 per day. This includes breakfast. Bernhard will also board your dog at his kennel for $10.00 per day.

In the near future I will also be editing several tapes from the video footage that I got from the four seminars that I have filmed. Keep an eye on the table of contents of my web site for their release. The first one will deal with drive building and focus training.

At the bottom of this page I have links to other pages on my web site about Bernhard:

Bernhard explaining how the handler should cradle the head of the dog to help promote good grips while holding the sleeve.

Bernhard and Carla Smith with Uli v. Leerburg. Carla is saying” This dog bites the helper in the legs VERY HARD?” Notice the look on Bernhard's face :-)

Bernhard and Itor (his police dog and sport dog)

Bernhard helping with grip work

Links to other information from Bernard:

1- Bernhard Flinks Puppy Test (Evaluation for Police or Sports Dogs)
2- Bernhard Flinks - Selection testing score sheet
3- Bernhard Flinks“OG-Pahlen - Club Training Guidelines
4- Bernhard Flinks Resume
5- Another article I wrote in 1999 after my first Flinks Seminar
6- Bernhard Flinks Seminar & Private Training