Schutzhund training

[200xth]

First thing's first though, success in the sport will very much depends on the breed and individual dog's temperament and genetics. Do you already have a dog that you'd like to start working with, or is it just a tentative question/thought? How comfortable are you with possessive aggression/resource guarding, defensive aggression, fight drive, suspicion, prey/hunt drive, etc. in a dog (assuming a future dog that you'd LIKE to start in bitework)?

I have a puppy who's almost 8 months old. The breed is descended from German Shepherds, and until 20 years ago, was still part of them. I'm not sure his personality is a good fit for bitework and such. He's a very friendly dog, and he's not very...aggressive/confident sometimes. Sometimes he's okay, sometimes he can be skittish. I'm sure a good part of that is he's still young and developing.

This was more the tentative phase looking toward the future. I was doing an initial look into it, because I love working with my dog, and I think well trained dogs are just fabulously impressive. Having seen a bunch of videos on the Schtutzhund dogs it looked really interesting and I think the fact that it's a variety of skills they have to do well in is fascinating to me.

Unfortunately, I only know one dog that's been schutzhund trained, and he's a robot. I've seen the videos of them and thought it was incredible how well trained they are in a variety of skills, but not sure I want my dog's personality changed all the much, particularly if it turns them into robots. I kinda like mine how he is now.

I think I may be better off looking into something that leaves the bitework out, or just continuing on my own with him.