Gottah love it when training and breeding come together - Page 1

Today I had the unique opportunity to enjoy the fruits of labor both from good breeding and long hours of training.

My male and I went down to a street fair today, joining up with my husband and son to walk around, enjoy the vendors and some local nummies as well as music and other street fair type fun and games.   Not only did my male barely turn an ear at the crowd, the noise, balloons popping around him, live music (very loud pipes on motorcycles) but we had a couple incidents where both proofing on the training field and breeding expressed themselves beautifully.

For training, he walked politely at my side in perfect fuss position without so much as glancing at any other the other dogs we had to navigate around or showing any hesitation when we moved through tight crowds.  He sat politely when asked and was completely neutral to anyone who came by, unless I released him to go and enjoy some pets and scritches (and he got a lot of those!)   At one point, we were at a table having some samples and I had him in a platz at my side.  The crowd was moving around us and at one point a young child getting walked by her small Scottie got yanked over when the Scottie saw my male and decided to come bark right in his face.  The child couldn't do anything about the situation and it was a hot minute before her parents grabbed the leash but in that minute my male ignored both child and small yappy dog in his face and held his platz.

I have to say that of all the dogs I saw today, the large breeds were all well behaved or carefully handled.  The problems were the small dogs who yanked their owners everywhere and barked at everybody and everything. 

On the breeding side of things.   At one point a gentleman had gotten down on his heels to canoodle on my male while we talked and when he went to get up, he lost his balance and almost feel over.  He pitched into my male, who automatically froze in position right in front of him, providing the man with 78lbs of solid muscle and fur to catch himself against until he could get his balance.   My male has done this for me before, one time when I twisted my ankle and almost fell over and he automatically stepped in front of him to 'catch' me so it was fascinating seeing him do it for this complete stranger who he'd only just met.   He's never been trained in the therapy dog arts, this is just instinct and a read of the situation that comes naturally to him.

And finally for genetics, as we were getting ready to head out I was waiting to get a handcrafted lemonade and had him sitting beside me.  As I was paying, I was aware that a mother with her young daughter in a stroller had come up behind/beside us but I didn't think anything of it, since my guy loves children and had been in a sea of strollers are day.   I finished paying and was sorting out my purse when I heard a tiny voice "here, here" and I glanced back and the child was very politely attempting to share her hot dog with my male.   It had been broken down into little, child bite sized pieces and she had one of the pieces in tiny fingers and was trying to push it into his muzzle; she couldn't reach his muzzle as he'd lifted his head away but she was trying!  He has never accepted food from strangers, even when he was a puppy he's never done it.  The most he'll do is he'll take it and set it down on the ground and ignore it but he often doesn't even take it and again, this isn't something he was trained for, it's just a natural personality trait of his.

However I was getting a look of "You owe me a hot dog when we get home, Mom" from him as he ignored the offering.

As much fun as he and I have on the Schutzhund field, he is such a good dog in public.  Between his natural temperment and his training I feel confident in being able to take him anywhere.  If anything I sometimes feel I've done him a disservice not allowing him to pursue a service dog career because he would have been a good ambassador for the GSD as a verstile working breed. 

Terrific post, terrific dog !  Congrats, RLHAR.

RLHAR, that was a great post!! I truely enjoyed reading it. That is what a German Shepherd SHOULD be like... Fearless and full of drive on the training field and calm and confident when not... CONGRATS on a great boy you have there.

Sahweeeeet!   :).  I like this dog!

What they said! Congratulations! jackie harris

Thank you, everybody, he definitely made me a very proud 'Mom' today.

Jyl he is definitely confident, full of drive and solid out on the training field and the trial field.  It took a little while to develop but once he picked it all up, it's been a joy to train and work with him.  I only wish I had time to be more than a 'hobby' Schutzhund handler.  This is part of why getting to see both sides of him makes me smile!  If I had an extra 3 hours in the day I would try and see if he had an aptitude for herding just because he's shown so much versitility that I think he would be as solid there as he is in IPO and day to day life.

But alas, only 24 hours in a day. 

WOW:  what an incredible boy;  would love to hear more about his background and maybe later you can pursue your herding with him just as a new venue for him to enjoy.  He is the type dog I would be looking for;  what was your criteria when you chose him as a puppy?  Just curious as you probably know you do not always get what you thought they might be from puppyhood to adulthood.  Praise from me boy;  he sounds perfect for any person that would want a "working dog"...  good days  Nan

Excellent post.  I too would love to see a pedigree.   I know it will be years off before I get my next GSD, but I am starting to watch the lines that show what I like.

Fawn here is his pedigree http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/dog.html?id=640962-erik-vicona  I have always like Eick and have only ever heard good things about Facka and what she's produced.

Nans GSD I'll be honest, I got very lucky!  I had been researching Eick and I knew I wanted an Eick puppy from the standpoint of doing IPO with the puppy.  I worked with a broker who had breed my Czech female, who I loved and after some looking around and talking with her (the broker not my female!) we decided on Erik.  He was 5 months old when he arrived here and there were some bumps in the road.  It's a long-ish story but in a nutshell I had gotten him for IPO sport and when he was young, he had 0 prey drive and almost no interest in the ball or any of the 'normal' training tools for Schutzhund.  I got a lot of sympathetic looks and 'maybe you could re-home him' comments but in the months where I was beating my head into trees trying to get this puppy interested in playing, I saw two things from him that made me stick it out.

He had strong, hard, calm grips that came naturally and he loved, loved, LOVED children.  Children just make him light up, he loves them like no other.  I have a young family member who has developmental challenges and sometimes he has trouble relating to animals.  Seeing this puppy be calm, patient and tolerant of this child until the child learned to be calm around him was a gift to be honest.  A true case of getting to see the unconditional love and understanding we get from our furry companions.  

So despite the naysayers, I hung in there and again I lucked out to have the support of some wonderful individuals both here and from overseas who were supportive of my stubborn efforts.   I learned after some research and digging around that sometimes these lines he's from can be slow to develop and sure enough at about 21 months it all came together on the trial field and he's excelled at everything we've asked of him.  But in all that time, though it took him time to develop into a love of IPO and the sport, his core temperment (the most important part!) and his genetics shined through.  I can be patient and learn to work it out on the training field, I can't train or wait out temperment and Erik always had that good temperment.

One of my points of pride with him is that though we're now on to training for our IPO 3 title, he has never required a pinch collar for training, even during Phase C.  Even when his blood is up in engaging the helper (and he expresses aggression on the field, not playing around) he has always responded to my voice or at most a pop on his flat collar.  His head is always working with the clarity I see in how he handles himself day to day, that good temperment shines through.  Sometimes he over thinks things and if I f**k things up I can cause him conflict but we can work through that and I'd rather have that in my companion/trial partner than a OTT drives.

Very interesting that you had to wait until almost 2 before his true personality shined thru.  I agree with you about the temperament;  if you don't have temperament what do you have.  I was curious about his pedigree and do feel a bit intimiated about the background and would not have chose that background for temperament possibly due to OTT drives but you did not get that with your boy.  Very encouraging and I am enlightened a bit with this information.  Will keep a closer eye on similar backgrounds if anyone offers info on these dogs.  Have you met any of the littermates?  Curious as to whether they are similar or is it just your hard work and time and training you have put into your boy that makes him so special.  Best of luck with him  and thanks for sharing your journey.  Nan