Dog Sports - Schutzhund

Protection dog sports are known variously as schutzhund, IPO/IGP, ring sport, mondioring.  Generally, the dog works very closely with the handler on exercises that derive from protection, military, and/or police work.  Schutzhund ("protection dog") was originally designed as a test for evaluating German protection breeds.  Any breed can participate, but German Shepherds and Belgian Malinois dominate the competitive Schutzhund world.  The sport has several elements:  tracking, obedience, and protection (including bitework).  The related protection sports may emphasize different elements, i.e. mondioring and ring sport have agility/jumping elements.  It's an intense sport and training should be under the guidance of an experienced trainer! 

Useful links:

        Working Dog Group of Great Britain - GSD focussed, but good information

        FCI Rules

See it in action below!