A couple of years ago, while I was working as IT-manager for a security company, I encountered one of the working dogs of the K9-team of the company. Surprising the handler, this dog which was notorious for being dangerous and aggressive seemed to like me, gently grabbing my hand, asking for attention and cosing. After this, this dog handler who was the head of the K9-team was suggesting me to become a dog handler as second function. So - they found a Malinois puppy for me and I started training. I have had dogs before but I never did any type of serious training with them so this was all new and I did all mistakes one can do.

Despite this, Shadow was not only doing fine in training but also developed into a very calm nice family- and publicproof dog with very good nerves. After I left this company, Shadow who was used to train almost every day suddenly had nothing to do any more so he started destroying the appartment's interior. At some point, during a walk in a dog park, I was meeting a woman who was telling me about dog sport.

I went to a couple of clubs, learning about dog sport basics and again, we had lots of things to learn. About one and a half years after I started dog sports, I did "BH Prüfung" with Shadow and he got his first title. We continued training and I thought about doing VPG1 or IPO1 with him but it turned out that the working dog training left some patterns which appeared very hard to break. When being sent around the blind, Shadow had a tendency to bite rather than bark and when being sent openly across the field he for sure was immediately going to full bite. With help of some people I was trying to break this pattern but it didn't work. When one helper was totally losing his temper, hitting and beating the dog down to the ground when Shadow once again was not barking but biting, I decided to stop VPG/IPO sports with him.
Now Shadow mainly is a company dog. He still shows a very nice obedience and I irregularly do some tracking with him but that is all - at least for the moment unless I find a really good helper who has some empathy, inspiration and - most important - patience.