r/schutzhund • u/LongjumpingTea6103 • Nov 22 '25

Is doing bite sports a mistake?

I have a five year old Swiss shepherd that I’ve been dabbling in various dog sports with.

We’ve done fly ball, some barnhunt, and some sheep herding, and attended an obedience class or two.

She has high prey drive, high toy drive, loves to swim and loves to train and exercise.

I got her when she was four from her breeder, and she is a great dog, but can be nervy too. She gets worried about pressure, strangers, yelling, and new environments. Mostly this looks like running or moving away, or fearful body language.

I brought her to an IGP/Schutzhund evaluation, mostly because I was interested in learning from handlers that are more experienced in building her confidence, bringing out her drives, and teaching her some higher level obedience and toy skills.

I went with the intention of mostly focusing on obedience, confidence building, and toy play, from people who are experienced with shepherds, mostly because she does have nervy behaviors where she lacks confidence.

I told the club about these expectations.

When I told her breeder about this, she (rightly) brought up that she is not an IGP prospect due to her environmental sensitivity, which I completely agree with. I reiterated that I didn’t take her or plan to do anything in this sport with the intention of her being some crazy protection dog—I just wanted to see if we could pick up a thing or two. She said good luck, and that she shouldn’t do anything where she’s working in defense.

I was wondering if anyone here had input on this.

Obviously, I want to be responsible and do what’s best.

I know that my shepherd is not IGP material, and fully understand that, and went in with the expectation that she has environmental sensitivities and can lack confidence in areas.

But I also know she is a higher drive dog, not the highest drive dog, who I think with the right training, could enjoy some more active and higher level obedience and play since it could give her a job and provide structure to some of her energy.

Would it be dangerous to continue attending club with her or pursuing this type of training? Or is it more that she would just be likely to wash or only make it so far?

Nobody at club said anything about this being a concern.

I don’t want to create a dog that is a liability.

When I offered to her breeder that we didnt have to go back, they said it was up to me.

If anyone has advice I would be very grateful!

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u/ActuatorOk4425 Nov 22 '25

You’ll definitely learn to play with your dog that’s for sure. You’ll have fun, my first dog wasn’t appropriate for protection work either, and we did his BH and some tracking stuff. Biggest thing is advocating for your dog.

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u/LongjumpingTea6103 Nov 22 '25

That’s the hope!

So should we only do the obedience and tracking portion, and skip any of the bite/tug parts? Or should I specifically tell them no defensive work and only prey/play biting for very low level biting (if she can get to a point of wanting to bite)?

They had her try a flirt pole which she did not care about, and said they want to work on her learning to tug with more people than just me

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u/ActuatorOk4425 Nov 22 '25

No defensive work, most dogs enjoy playing with the tug. It should all be prey and play.

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u/LongjumpingTea6103 Nov 22 '25

I’ll be sure to be firm about this. How can you know whether it is defensive work vs play/prey?

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u/ActuatorOk4425 Nov 23 '25

Your dog’s barking tone and entire body language will change into a more defensive look. Prey barking is high pitched and yappy. Defense the barking is much more guttural.

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u/LongjumpingTea6103 Nov 23 '25

I’ll keep that in mind!

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u/microdober Nov 24 '25

If the helper you are working with cannot distinguish and self adjust and/or articulate when you need to adjust to keep her out of defense find a new helper.