Balance and coordination/K9 Fitness

Balance and coordination training with simple stuff at home, starring 18 week old beauceron Nobi.

[@sunev1993]

how's your hovawart's going?

[@marline4653]

He's doing great :) Loves having a little brother. I do these things with him too, but I didn't upload those.

[@sunev1993]

good to know that! may i ask you some questions about these breeds? are they good to be a service dog? if someone has less experience handle dogs but love to training them, could they be a novice dog? thank you

[@marline4653]

You may always ask questions! Sorry for my late response though. Neither hovawart nor beauceron are generally good as service dogs. They are generally not recommended for novice owners, but if you're dedicated it's definitely not impossible. My hovawart was my first dog on my own (had a family dog growing up) and we're doing fine! Hovawart are estate guarding breeds, meaning they're reserved towards strangers, and independent (they are supposed to guard the estate on their own), so they are not naturally super handler oriented/biddable, and as service dogs they wouldn't be that good because they're not very sensitive and there's the possibility that they would not allow strangers to help you when something is wrong. Beauceron were bred to guard and herd a flock of sheep, with and without presence of the shepherd. So they too are independent self-thinkers, and reserved towards strangers. But they are more biddable than hovawart. They are not suited for service work for the same reasons as hovawart. I personally know no one who has a beauceron or hovawart as actual service dog. I know one person who uses her hovawart as therapy dog, but honestly it's a loaded subject in the community. If you're looking for service dogs, I would definitely go for traditional choices like golden retrievers and labradors; they're the go-to breeds for a reason :).