Training the Beauceron

Java (World, International, American and Puerto Rican Champion, Javeline du Chateau Rocher, SchHB, CGC) started her training when she was 8 weeks old. Her early training was positive with extensive socialization. I was trying new techniques since I felt that a well trained protection dog could also be a welcome addition to a family and the community at large. At this point, most "experts" I had worked with did not feel that socialization had any part of a protection dog's upbringing and even said it would "ruin" the dog's desire to do bitework. I always thought that a dog that loved and understood people could make a better judgement about which person was a threat and which wasn't so I decided to put my money where my mouth was.

I did very little "formal" obedience training initially, mostly reward based heeling, sits and downs for food and toys. I did take her absolutely everywhere I could possibly take a dog. She went to soccer games, carpool lines at school, the park, parades and fireworks shows, whatever I could find. I really wanted a dog who could walk into anything without qualm.

When she was about 8 months old I joined a local Schutzhund club and dove right in. I had done Schutzhund work with Rottweilers in the past, but felt uncomfortable with the type of training I was seeing and didn't feel that the any dog that type of training would produce would be anything I would want around my children, family and friends. When I joined the new club I was lucky to find a training director who didn't need to prove anything about how tough he was, and what tough dogs he could train, he just wanted me to enjoy the training and for my dog to look forward to training days. For the first month or more, Java did no bitework at all, she did learn to bark at the bad guy (which was the MOST fun ever) and she was also introduced to Schutzhund style obedience work. I was lucky in that she took to it like a duck to water. The Beauceron does require a bit more work in the beginning, IMHO. The breed is naturally suspicious and can be sharp, so building trust before getting into the more serious aspects of bitework is essential. The Beauceron does not take kindly to harsh or what they see as unfair training and will either quit working for you, or retaliate in kind. I have seen others pushed too hard or too fast who would have been great working dogs being washed out of training through no fault of the dogs. In the end, though, the relationship between dog and handler is everything to the success of the team and well worth the time.

The training director, Mike, and I really saw eye to eye on training and would spend hours discussing the methods that we liked and disliked and how we would like to see more people learn to use the dogs' natural instincts to instill the desired behavior. I guess it was meant to be since we ended up getting married and establishing WolfBrook, our own dog training club and park which gave us the means to continue our training together and help many others on to competitive success.
To see more about our training methods and the WolfBrook facility visit our site-
WolfBrook Dog Training Club and Park

Off to get the bad guy-


Found him!