We had a once in a life time opportunity to attend a Bernhard Flinks Seminar this summer. It was hosted by the Edmonton Schutzhund Club of Alberta. Bernhard said "I do Schutzhund Sport so I have fun. We attended a three day seminar in which a huge amount of information was shared by Bernhard. The first day half of it was a lecture then, we went on the field and Bernhard instructed us on the finer points of obedience. Day two was also a morning lecture then, we started on the fun stuff protection. There were about twenty handlers & working dogs of all different types.

Axle courage test on Bernhard Flinks

Our high-light of the seminar was when I could introduce Bernhard to my 13 month old German Shepherd male - Axle vom Yukonhausbrg. The reason why it was a big deal for me was because Axle is the grandson of Bernhard's own dog, Itor op de Hyde. So it was a bit of a family reunion. When it was time for Bernhard to meet Axle for the first time we came on to the field and mentioned that this 13 month old dog could activate on command, and do a bark & hold and without help.  

Bernhard was very skeptical to say the least. He wanted to try the bite wedge for young dogs but I said; "We could do the bite arm because Axle was accustom to both, it was his choice". He decided to take a chance and try the bark & hold with the bite arm. Bernhard said "let me be surprised". He picked up the bite arm and told me to activate him, and then I said, "Revier" and Axle started to bark. He went right into a bark & hold from lying on the ground next to me. Then Bernhard gave him a bite, Axle sunk the sleeve deep into his mouth to Bernhard’s amazement, "Wow! Wow!” For the next exercise we then moved into the blind, away we went and again Axle performed bark & hold. After 10 minutes of Axle working with Bernhard he said repeatedly, "that’s an awesome dog; I would like to have a dog like this". That was definitely a surprise for us to hear that kind of recognition from a world class trainer like Bernhard Flinks. Thank you to both the people who have trained me & the people that have helped me train Axle. I am looking forward to the next seminar with Bernhard!