Author: DPCNMaster

Pictures from our WAE that we hosted with the Doberman Pinscher Club of Memphis on 5/5/18. Five dogs tested, three passed. The dogs had to also search out a noisy object out of sight, react to an umbrella opening, walk on 16 feet of plastic and walk on 16 feet of X-pen material. Congratulations to the following teams who earned their WAC: CH Aquarius Red Hot Iron Alcher, handled by David Ross, owned by Kelle Ross and Cheryl Green; CH HQ Just in Time owned by Jessica Garbe and Shelby Comin Round the Mountin owned by Margaret and Paul Sanguinetti.

The WAE, or Working Aptitude Evaluation, is an interesting event. Its purpose is to test whether a Doberman Pinscher demonstrates the characteristics required of a dog to be a stable companion and resolute protector. There are a number of components to the test.

One of the first components is to see how the dog reacts to meeting a friendly stranger.

When the handler indicates it OK for the person to approach, the dog is expected to not act aggressively.  A similar test, reaction to a neutral stranger, expects the dog to be aware of the person and be alert.

Other tests include reacting to a startle, such as someone opening an umbrella, or a strange noise from an unseen source, and even a gun shot.

The tests also expect a dog to be able to walk on unusual surfaces, such as an X-panel or plastic sheet.

Probably the hardest part of the exam is testing how the dog reacts to an aggressive stranger, somebody who obviously means harm to the dog or handler.

A Doberman Pinscher is expected to be protective of its handler and stand up to the hazard. Once the hazard is removed, it is expected that the dog can be brought back under control and calmed.

What isn’t preferred is for the dog to  cowar and place the handler in harms way.

Successful participants receive a Working Aptitude Certificate, which is a recognized achievement by the Doberman Pinscher Club of America and a requirement to obtaining other higher levels of achievement.

Our course volunteers being briefed by Eve Auch. Thanks to everyone for making the event a huge success!

A special thanks to Ali of Nashville K9, who let us use his training site for our event. Ali also volunteered on course as our decoy, the agressive stranger who’s goal is to incite the dogs to protect their handlers.

Our evaluator was Eve Auch, who scheduled her trip from Truckee CA to Florida to pass through Nashville in time for our event. We had great comments on Eve’s process from all participants. Here, Eve is working with Trish and Dante prior to starting his evaluation.

We had a brief hold-up while waiting for a thunderstorm to pass. Everything else went very smoothly. We also owe a special thanks to the Belleview Fire Department for filling up our wading pools to keep the dogs cool. For more pictures, see our Yahoo Groups picture album at: