The Commercialization of
Schutzhund in America
Jim Engel
In the beginning, in the later 1970s, the American Schutzhund community was made up of clubs, groups of amateurs, whose affairs were conducted by openly elected officers. United Schutzhund Clubs of America (USCA) governance was in turn by delegates of these clubs. This was the European model, no doubt a bit idealized: the camaraderie of amateurs cooperating for training and sport, an immensely attractive life style and process for the preservation and protection of our working breeds and culture. It was inherently open and transparent: each of us represented by a delegate we had participated in choosing, each with the potential of becoming a delegate. It was an entirely transparent amateur environment.
No more. Over subsequent decades the sport has been incessantly professionalized and commercialized on every level. These professionals, more and more predominant, are those deriving a living from the community, including the home grown variety and German or other Euro carpet baggers come to America to reign as one eyed kings. The evolution of this commercial professional class has gone hand in hand with the emergence of the club owner, with clubs run for profit by a commercial autocrat, with no openly elected officers. Each of these autocratic clubs has a full vote in USCA affairs, gradually tending to diminish the influence of the rank and file USCA membership. Thus USCA is evolving from a community of amateurs into a commercial alliance of for profit business enterprises.
The bedrock of the amateur paradigm was the individual club trainer, working together with puppies and young untrained dogs to prepare for the trial, to see how far a team, a dog and a man or woman, could go. For many it was primarily social and recreational, people with enough pressure, conflict and reward in their daily careers looking for no more than relaxed evening and weekend recreation. Others became more competitive, developed the desire to see how far they could take their dog based on their own effort and dedication and the support of their club.
But suddenly there were new dogs in town; strangers showing up on trial day with Euro trained and titled dogs looking for the shortcut to the podium, driven by the desire to become a player through cash purchase rather than striving for personal excellence. Our all too brief age of innocence was over; professionalism and commercialization were coming to America.
As in all walks of life these professionals are a diverse and complex group ranging from greedy, manipulative charlatans — we all could provide some names — to deeply gifted and knowledgeable individuals serving clients well who otherwise would have no access to participation, would be left entirely out in the cold. Again, many names could be mentioned. Many of these professionals are inherently good people driven by a deep emotional and cultural commitment to the old style dogs and heritage. Others, not so much.
Training in the early years tended to be primitive, and many of the dogs were grossly inadequate, were more or less the pets on hand when the interest awakened. Most of us had some AKC style obedience experience and nothing in the Schutzhund obedience program was especially daunting, but AKC style tracking was very little preparation for the much more formalized and obedience oriented Schutzhund scent work. Widespread motivational training, the use of food and prey objects such as Kongs, was in the future. Protection was with a few exceptions terrible, mostly defense based, and "experience" was too often of the old fashioned junk yard dog sort. (I was into the sport for a year or more before I was amazed to see dog carry a sleeve off the field.) Even worse the general tendency was to develop the bite before introducing the out creating, as one can well imagine, all sorts of problems. We were three generations behind the Europeans and floundering.
It was the blind leading the blind, so when even the most marginally competent trainer, a three of ten, came along he quite often became by default the one eyed man in the kingdom of the blind. There were of course many positive and inspiring examples, in those early years a few pioneers with real knowledge and experience — men such as Phil Hoelcher, Tom Rose and Jean-Claude Balu — put enormous effort into running seminars and classes that were affordable and effective, focused on helping people build skills and work toward independence rather than encouraging dependence as all too often occurs today. Professional was not then and is not now a dirty word, but the temptation to serve the god of money is ever present.
The transformation from nothing to some sort of replication of the amateur infrastructure that existed in Europe was an incredibly difficult proposition; nobody had any real idea of how to get there from where we were. And we still struggle mightily with this today. But Schutzhund or IPO based on clients perpetually dependent on professional training and guidance is the foundation for a very small, exclusive and sterile culture, which is the direction in which we are tending. This is not to say that the problem is the existence of professionals per se, for they are there to fill a need; the existential problem is that we have been unable to grow beyond this, to figure out how to recreate on a large scale the amateur spirit and social structures that are so admirable in Europe.
The strongly competitive European often has several clubs within easy reach, can routinely train multiple times a week with relatively little expense or travel time, largely within the confines of a more or less amateur environment. In America this is generally much more difficult, even for those fortunate enough to be in a strong local club, an advantage beyond the reach of most of us. Competitive level training requires intensive ongoing support, especially capable helpers, outside of a club environment, often involving travel and escalating expense. An unforeseen consequence of this has been gentrification, more and more limiting participation to older, more affluent people. As commercialization commenced distance to affordable clubs, already a serious impediment, increased creating yet higher barriers for the younger trainer or those with family obligations limiting avocational financial expenditures. The exclusion of younger people severely limited the participation of new helpers; with limited supply and expanding demand driving cost sharply up.
Thus those Americans aspiring to a Euro team, of standing on an international podium and waving a cup, are generally professionals with daily access to quality helpers or deep pocketed clients of such professionals, who in many instances can provide a titled Euro dog for competition and then the training guidance, in many ways paralleling the practice of the golf professional. The holy grail for the pro is of course the silent, deep pocketed patron willing to keep the cash spigot wide open while remaining discreetly in the background.
This commercial domination too easily becomes a world about money and vanity, about disposable dogs, which become a commodity, sports equipment. And those who will dispose of a dog will tend to lack real gut level commitment to the values and heritage, find themselves willing to compromise, willing for instance to participate in a phony trial sans stick, feigning reluctance but hooked on a shot at a podium, one more opportunity to wave a cup.
By his nature the amateur always has a choice, when a particular avocation drifts into repugnant moral, esthetic or ethical places he can and often will walk away; life goes on. The professional — athlete, police officer, prostitute, politician, priest, criminal — is subject to much more problematic moral dilemmas, walking away means abandoning ongoing income, the secure and comfortable place in the world, the popularity and respect of being someone of importance. In real life there are no do overs, opportunities to go back years or decades later, seeing a life squandered start over on a higher plane. When professional life drifts into repugnant aesthetic, moral or legal territory the choice can devolve to ongoing participation, damaging to the soul, or accepting a much more constrained and financially restricted life style, especially difficult for those with family responsibilities.
Schutzhund serves as a sport, but much more than that; it was intended to be the foundation on which we preserve and protect the dogs, the breeding lines and heritage passed down over the generations by the founders and guardians of the breeds. This heritage is today under escalating existential threat from the European canine establishment, especially the SV and the FCI. The litany of pussification is ongoing, the demise of the scaling wall, the padding of the stick, the removal of the attack on the handler. The complete elimination of the stick is imminent, and there can be little doubt that the agenda is the elimination of biting dogs in the name of political correctness. The ultimate existential danger is that when push comes to shove the priority of the professionals will be money, that they might chant the slogans of resistance but in the end will strap on the knee pads and grovel, accept the emasculation of the sport and the breeds for the higher gods of money and what passes for fame in this shrinking venue.
It America today the word amateur has generally negative connotations of inept individuals blundering through life aimlessly, devoid of knowledge, skill, talent or the instinct for excellence, not good enough to be a professional. But when getting involved in the late 1970s, even then the student of history, I was fortunate enough to come to know some of the older Belgians, in two instances people who began breeding in Belgium about 1932, only ten years after the emergence of the Bouvier des Flandres, people born before the emergence of the breed. In talking and corresponding with these people, both in Belgium and here in America, the word amateur had an entirely different connotation; many if not most kennel ads in the French and Belgian magazines of the era proudly proclaimed their amateur status, meaning that their purpose was for the breed rather than money or personal aggrandizement; the amateur status was a matter of enormous personal pride.
Ultimately survival of the heritage depends on the empowered amateur — in this earlier European sense — willing to put the working heritage, the preservation of the real world working dog, above money and personal aggrandizement. Perhaps our struggles of today are rooted in the loss of this original amateur spirit, as exemplified by men such as von Stephanitz, Felix Verbanck, Justin Chastel and women such as Edmee Bowles and all the others; perhaps the pursuit of money is the root of all of our evils.
As amateur participation and engagement diminishes in terms of control and influence the vitality and integrity of our working breeds diminishes, is incessantly compromised by lesser standards in terms of physique and working character. In America particularly this in combination with the ever deepening estrangement from police and military service renders IPO titles increasingly irrelevant. This deleterious trend is far advanced.
The existential threat of professionalization is that the pros as a whole, financially fragile, will by their nature tend to react to stress according to their short term self-interest rather than fundamental working dog values. The removal of the stick from the IPO program is emerging as the fundamental, irrevocable turning point, rendering IPO forever a lowest common denominator play sport continually compromising and adapting to the downward spiral of diminishing show line dogs and play hobbyist trainers rather than a foundation of a long term program for serious breeding lines capable of police and military service.
The FCI is running their 2017 IPO championship in Switzerland without the stick in order to set a precedent and test our resolve, gauge our character, see how weak and susceptible we really are. When the AWDF, and any of the Euro organizations, choose to send a team to this atrocity they endorse it, for actions speak louder than words, demonstrate weakness, encourage abuse just as in submitting to a bully. In doing so they are to a certain extent acting under the influence of and for the benefit of the professionals rather than according to the long term viability and credibility of the American Schutzhund movement. If professionals, especially the most gifted, successful and respected such as Ivan Balabanov, choose to participate they put short term self-interest above the integrity of the American movement and, indeed, their own long term viability and prosperity.
The time to stand up and be counted is upon us.
Orginizations and Conflicts
Legacy Lost, the Other Breeds
The Americans
Style and Opinion Sports
Has Sport Subverted the Trial?
How We Play the Game
Commercialization of Schutzhund
The Mother State