[Skip]

Originally Posted by jazzking1971

Until the other day his OB was stellar. His long downs are better than any other dog in our club. I disagree that just because he refused in the house he isn't ready. It tells me something is going on with him, he's either testing rank, he's sick, stressed out or hurt. The weather has suddenly changed from being nice to hot. Daytime temps are mid 80s already so that's possibly a factor too. My wife mentioned the other dog has stopped carrying objects on walks since friday.

As far as the traffic portion of the BH, we often go to malls and stores etc. A week ago I had extremely good attention heeling in the middle of a busy outdoor mall where there were hundreds of people moving about. He's fine with bicycle, rollerbladers and skateboarders. He might have a problem with being staked out, having a dominant dog walk past and give him a look. He's proven to be fine in crowds and amoung other dogs out in a very busy and public environment. I'm not working on my own, I train with two groups and there are national level people in both. We're training for schH3 but with an eye for what is coming up and that's the BH. I'm new to schH and follow the advice of those who have been there before with multiple dogs, they are respected members of the local schH community, they know me and know my dog.

I only believe my dog is special because other respectable and knowledgeable people tell me so. To me he's just my dog to others they say they've only seen a few rotties with the level of drive he shows.

We all hit snags in training at times. Make SURE it is not health related. Anything other than that is a training issue, and it just seems (from what you have described here) that you have been working the dog too much. I like my club a lot, and they have members that have trained at national levels also in the past...BUT they are GSD (and a few malinois) people, and those damn dogs mature MUCH faster than rotts. One of the WORSE thing you can do with a young rott is train too hard too fast (especially in protection). Slow training obviously takes longer, but fast training (if you are not careful, knowledgable, and especially if you are new to the sport) ) can create issues with a rott that can take a loooooong time to fix...and I've heard about more than one good prospect actually ruined and unable to recover. My best advice is to make sure it's not health related, then slow down and keep it short.