I live in a country, where the kynology, including the working, has very long and rich tradition (Czech republic - former Czechoslovakia). In the times of comunism the working kynology was named service kynology and it was very close to practical use of the dogs in the army (dogs in the property of private people, which had the service training, were serving as deputies for the occasional military). The sport kynology (for example IPO) was arriving here already at time, but it kept staying apart of the main interests. The real boom of sport kynology started after year 1989, when in the idea of new age all the old things (communistical) were replaced by new one´s - "from the west". This way, from the Western Europe came to us, the former East block the new trends in training, and of course also in defence. It is interesting, if you realize, that in Western Europe now the commong owner of the dog has absolutely no knowledges about defence (or very strange one´s). As an example of the new things i can name using the whip at the training (according to my informations this came to us from Germany, and many experienced trainers here were shaking their heads about it), the new kinds of sleeves helping the dog to bite more effectivelly and more fully, training by using artificial screens at the stadium instead of natural terrain (this fully follows the sport trends, because the sport doesn´t have only the participants, but also visitors), but mainly there came the new conception of the training. Even the most of the trainiers and masters in Czech republic is now training the sport kynology, there is still some percentage of masters (mostly from the rows of police, army, prison guards and security agences), which continue to train the way, which allows to use the dogs in practise at these forces. This is also the reason, why we still see the difference here between the working and sport kynology, even the Féderation Cynologique International uses only the name of working kynology (which means of course only the sport kynology).

FCI has its own commitet for the working kynology, which printed out (and checks and changes) the test rules for the international tests of working dogs - IPO. The content of these test rules are the versatille tests of degree 1-3 and newly since year 2003 also the test of the dog - tracer. Now, from this is clear, that working dogs, minimaly in the countries who are members of FCI, means normally dogs, which absolve among other exactly the defence, and not only rescue dogs. I guess that nobody doubts about the fact, if FCI is legal organisation and if it doesn´t do something illegal. And exactly this organisation shields organising the championship in training of working dog breeds according to rules of IPO-3 (40 years were held as championship of Europe, since 1990 the competition leveled to the championship of the world). The participants have to qualify themselves according to very hard criteries and also the choose of the breeds is defined on the list of breeds classified as working ones. Within the last five years, the competition was arranged by Germany (Meppen), Austria (Stockerau), Switzerland (Baar), Slovenia (Nova Gorica) and again Germany (Baunatal). The judges for the defence part were misters from Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Finnladia and Switzerland. Here i have to remind, that the judge must be person with long-termed training and competing practise (which means that he had to train his dogs defence somewhere). If it comes to the results of the teams in these five years, i can give following informations: 1998 - 1. Germany, 2. Switzerland, 3. Netherlands 1999 - 1. Belgium, 2. Switzerland, 3. Czech Republic 2000 - 1. Germany, 2. Switzerland, 3. Slovenia 2001 - 1. Germany, 2. Switzerland, 3. Austria 2002 - 1. Germany, 2. Dennmark, 3. USA. Except the countries just named, regular participants of the competitions are from France, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Finnland, Luxemburg, Slovenia and Japan. The largest number of countries participating was in year 2002, and it was 28 (there came even participants from Tchai-wan, Thailand and Indonesia).

And why i made the effort to create this list ? A smart reader must have noticed in the list of the countries exactly the countries, where are now most quarrels about so called "aggressive breeds" and orders against such dogs (incl. those absurd character tests). The countries, where according to the public meaning the defence is not trained or even it is not allowed to be trained (at least those are rumours which come to Czech Republic, maybe it is not true at all). Now i am asking of course, who is forbidding the training of defence and why ? Or, who is allowed to train defence (the sport defence, of course) and why ? It´s quite clear, that even in these countries the defence must be trainied somewhere, and if not, then please somebody explain me, how these countries train it´s teams for the difficult and prestige competition. How they can arrange such competition on their ground (the competition is of course publicly accessible and it is not illegal at all). Let me to mention one more world known event, and that is the annual Show of winners of german shepherds. In the year 2001 was arranged in German Düsseldorf and there were shown 1.336 dogs (announced to come were 2.031 dogs). I won´t try out to guess the number of visitors, but it must have been insane (in the year 1991 it was 50.000 people who came from countries all over the world to see 2.228 german shepherds from 34 countries). At the special shows of german shepherds there exist only classes of puppies (can be missing), youngs, growing and working class. That means, that adult german shepherd, which doesn´t pass the versatille working test has no chance to join such show. Besides that, the part of club shows of GSD, and of course also of this one, the most important, so the part of these shows are also the tests of characters of the adult dogs. These tests consists from the dog being attacked from the shelter and stopping the "bad guy" while being attacked by him. The dog, which doesn´t pass this character test, won´t be judged at the show. It seems, that in Germany (or maybe it seems only to me) the aversions against dogs (including aversion against training defence) are the strongest. It is very strange for me, since Germany is the country of origin of several working breeds - rotweiler, dobberman, boxer, schnautzer but mainly exactly german shepherd, the most popular breed in the world, but also the most used working dog in the world. The standard speaks about the character of german shepherd this way : "German shepherd must have good tempered character, strong nerves, self-confident, natural (except when being provoked), good-hearted, but attentive and controled. He has to have courage, warlikeness and hardness, because he has to be acceptable as a concomitant, guardian, služební, shepard dog and a defender." . To provide and keep all this traits helps during bonitation of german shepards the same test of character as on the mentioned club´s exhibition. Besides this test every german shepard has to do the all-round exam of the achievement. The club of breeders of the german shepards gave over his own regulations of examination (SchH), which emphasize the dog´s behavior during defence (but also his well-balance and control). I find really unbelievable that if this country forbid the practises of defence, so many people (that means the owners of the german shepards, who mostly live in Germany) commit an illegal activity. The truth has to be somewhere else.

The only thing I can lean on my conjectures is the inetrnational kynology magasine "Dog´s world.". In the Franz Schön´s serial "From puppy to defender" in the volumes of 1997 and 1998 is mentioned that "The Law forbids to train dogs of any race in higher aggressivity to man with exception of working dogs", so it means that defences are not forbidden at all (however, it was before the "Hamburg´s case"). In any case, after this serial the mention of defences appeared in the taking articles in "Dog´s world" only twice (as a matter of fact three times)-in the issues 11/2000 ("Sports dogs are well-balanced") and 12/2000 ("Everything is going around the prey-the sleeve")- it was the article which had the similar aim as mine - and then a brief mention in portrait of german sheperd in the issue 1/2002. It seems that this magasine has chosen the strategy not to provoke

Helena