Back Transport (five points)

The handler and dog transport the helper approximately fifty paces through a series of turns specified by the judge. During the transport, the dog should remain responsive to its handler and also alert to the helper.

Attack (ten points), Pursuit (ten points) and Courage Test (twenty‑five points)

While the helper is being transported, he turns on the judge’s command and simulates an attack on the handler. The dog should attack him immediately and bite hard and full. The dog may cease its attack either when the helper stops fighting and freezes or when it is commanded to “Out!” The handler picks his dog up, searches the helper and disarms him and then side‑transports him to the judge. The judge sends the first helper off the field and out of sight. The dog‑handler team heels to the opposite end of the field and steps behind a blind momentarily. Meanwhile a second helper hides in a blind at the far end of the field. At the judge’s signal the handler and dog move out of the blind to a point midway between the last two blinds, and the handler takes hold of his dog’s collar. On the judge’s signal the helper emerges from his blind at the opposite end of the field and challenges the handler and dog, yelling and brandishing the stick. The handler yells at him to stop. The helper ignores the handler’s command to stop and instead flees. At the judge’s signal the handler releases his dog to pursue the fleeing helper. When the dog is within approximately forty paces of him, the helper turns and runs straight toward the dog, yelling and threatening with the stick. The dog should not hesitate. It should charge straight into the helper and bite hard and full on the sleeve. The helper fights it for five or six seconds, and then freezes. The dog should again out from the sleeve, remain near the helper and guard him vigilantly. After just a moment, the helper again attacks the dog. He drives the animal before him and strikes it sharply twice on the back or withers with the stick and then freezes. The dog yet again outs from the sleeve and guards the helper. Upon a signal from the judge the handler walks all the way down the field to his dog. He tells the helper to “Step back!” and then “Hands up!” He downs his dog and searches the helper, takes the stick from him and then side‑transports him back to the judge, who waits approximately fifty paces away. He presents the stick to the judge, announces his name and the dog’s and informs the judge that he has just completed the Schutzhund III protection routine.

^{When a dog’s heart is brave, the courage test can produce some spectacular moments. (Susan Barwig’s “Derry.”)}

SCORING

To pass the protection phase of a trial, the dog must earn a minimum of eighty points out of 100. The dog’s numerical score is based on its total performance throughout the protection phase and assigned a rating on the following scale:

96 to 100 points Excellent (Vorzüglich)

90 to 95 points Very Good (Sehr Gut)

80 to 89 points Good (Gut)

0 to 79 points Insufficient (Ungenügend )

The judge also evaluates the dog’s courage and fighting instincts and marks them down in the animal’s scorebook as one of the following:

Pronounced (P), or in German Ausgeprägt (A)

Sufficient (S), or in German Vorhanden (VH)

Insufficient (I), or in German Nicht Genügend (NG)

Only a dog that displays pronounced courage and fighting instincts, a hard and full‑mouthed bite on the sleeve and “clean” outs can receive full points in the protection phase. Dogs that are not under their handler’s control, that do not out or that refuse to bite at any point during the protection exercises cannot pass the trial.

After the judge has critiqued the dog’s performance in protection and announced its score, he will also add the dog’s tracking and obedience scores to the protection score in order to obtain the animal’s point total for the day. This point total is assigned a rating on the following scale:

286 to 300 points Excellent (Vorzüglich)

270 to 285 points Very Good (Sehr Gut)

240 to 269 points Good (Gut)

220 to 239 points Satisfactory (Befriedigend)

110 to 219 points Faulty (Mangelhaft)

0 to 109 points Insufficient (Ungenügend)