Dutch Shepherd Forum

Hello all, I have the opportunity to adopt a dutch shepherd, whom I would train in detection and agility. so I guess my question is he too old to begin in detection? Any information on the breed such as problems I may run in to would be great, as online info is scarce.

Wow, that is great !!!! Detection........I dont know, i wouldnt think so but I am not in that circle. Agility, You bet !!!! You guys would have a blast !! I did agility with Thalie and boy oh boy are they fast ! What kind of info are you looking for? Problems.....................well, that depends on how you look at it LOL. Having a job would be the best thing for them. the agility is very cool and they pick it up super fast.

I adopted my last DS at 18-months. I had other issues to get under control with him at first, but his nosework is unbelievable. FYI, I don't compete, but this dog can track anything, anywhere. He loves it. I can't make it hard enough.

Not saying that the dog of interest is that hard-wired, but they're smart and with good leadership are capable of just about anything.

I don't see why agility or detection should be a problem. My first ever agility dog didn't even start training until she was 6. I think she was almost 8 at our first trial. She got her Agility 1 and 2 title before retiring in addition to an obedience title. She could've gone on longer, but she got attacked by a deer in the woods and moved a little slower after that.

Odin does nosework and hunts for antler sheds. He started nosework around 2 and we added antler sheds just after he turned 3. We also just started learning how to track deer blood for the local hunters, but he's on limited activity right now because of his spine. Age didn't affect any of his training. Our first nosework class had a 7 month old malinois in it and Odin did a lot better than him.

I went to an Andrew Ramsey seminar a few weeks ago. He's trained detection dogs for the military and does a lot of work with Nosework and other scent detection now. There were dogs at the seminar learning that were a lot older than 3 and after 2 days they picked it up well. Andrew talked about at the seminar how dogs are detecting and tracking all day long, they just haven't been trained what to look for yet.