Bingo's Photo Album

There's my little boy the day I picked him up at his breeder's house! He was exactly 8 weeks old and immediately became very special to me!

Bingo has been a calm and confident little boy, right away claiming the house and yard he was brought to, as though he had always been there.

Bingo's training began right away, with easy and fun operant conditioning for the basic positions such as sit, down and come-front. He also learned to pay close eye-contact attention that way, using no force at all, just positive reinforcement.

Bingo also learned the very basics of tracking at this tender age, using the techniques suggested by trainer Armin Winkler, for imprinting scent work.

Below is a shot of Bingo admiring the rose bushes when he was about 11½ weeks old. Soon after, his big floppy ears were cropped by well-known veterinarian Dr. La Bounty of Studio City, California.

We start them small, and teach them much, before they are even 16 weeks old! Here you see a picture of Bingo Germania at 11 weeks of age, at his first exposure to protection training! The helper was Armin Winkler of Canada, the field was a place he had never been before. When a puppy shows this much natural instinct, the chances of him achieving a Schutzhund title are much greater. I believe that a puppy at this age really shows its genetic potential; in other words, you have to have good breeding stock to produce this type of temperament.

Bingo's breeder is Lisa Schuller of Germania Kennels. Bingo's sire is Arrex Germania, his dam is Snoopy v.d. Weyermühle SchH III, IPO III. Go here to see Bingo's pedigree.

This picture was taken off a video by Bingo's friend Ann Boyce. Now age 5 months, Bingo is shown at his first exposure to the stick. Decoy Armin Winkler uses a reed stick here, to expose the dog to the sound of it swinging and hitting the leash. He even patted him lightly with the stick, to show him there was nothing to worry about. Notice the unflappable deep bite Bingo maintained throughout the exercise, which was - in effect - a mini version of the drive with stick hit he will see when competing in Schutzhund.

Fast forward to age 8 months. Take a look at my boy on the shoulder sleeve! This is when he earned himself the nickname "Viper" as it sure looks like he's trying to unhinge his jaw to swallow the sleeve! The decoy here is using this particular exercise, to begin teaching more of a man-focus to the dog. By occasionally teaching a bite target near the center of the decoy's body, we try to ensure that our dogs don't become too sleeve focused. The decoy provokes the bite here, by showing the dog a quick twitch of the isolated area of his shoulder, in a forward motion. The trigger therefore remains the movement, but now the dog is watching for the shoulder to twitch and not staring at the sleeve. A good decoy then carries this over to the sleeve work, always trying to make sure to initiate the movement of the regular sleeve with the shoulder first, so as to maintain the focused on the man's center.

After the above exercise, we switched back to a regular sleeve, in fact on this picture you see Bingo biting on a hard trial arm. Notice how deep the dog is taking the bite and how frontally he is taking the helper's pressure!

I do want to stress though, that for the most part we continue to work Bingo in prey, only occasionally adding a bit of pressure, so as to acclimatize him to the many things he may later encounter by other helpers on the trial field!

This is a picture from our club seminar in November '98 in Bakersfield. I just love the way the action of the moment shows in this shot! Thanks a million Kim Barger for taking this and so many other awesome photos for us! We sure appreciate it!