If you had a Magic Wand.... - Page 10

Vk4, I wasn't "taking everything as a personal attack." I just don't like to talk about other people, and would rather make points using myself and my dogs. Rather than point fingers, I'd prefer just to say what I do. I have too many breeder acquaintances that I correspond with regularly to believe I'm the only one who cares or tries to do things right. Unfortunately, doing things right is a lot harder and more expensive than letting the 2 pets out in the yard together and selling Christmas puppies. This issue of the Jones' allowing their two pets to breed is not going to end; this has been going on for eons and surely will continue, and no, papers don't make any difference. Just look at any FB classified group and you'll see a large majority of (especially below middle class demographics) people think the way we (breeders with some type goal) breed is "snobbish." I thought we were talking about breeding among the group I'll call "enthusiasts," not total GSD puppies born because we'll not influence that subset. That's the same group we've tried to educate and legislate out of other problems and it's still the same story. :/

 

BW, I still don't see my statement regarding testing not changing the way people bent on believing theirs are the best will always see their dogs (c'mon...tell me you haven't heard people making excuse after excuse for poor temperament?) as an argument against titling. Sorry. And, thanks, but not *all* my dogs are titled. The vast majority (all but one) I've used for breeding absolutely are, however, because I feel it's a very slippery slope when you stop titling in terms of what kind of homes the dogs get. One female generation untitled still stands above the majority of breeding where multiple dogs on both sides are untitled, and they do ok in terms of getting good, knowledgeable homes, often even working homes. But you go much beyond that and you get into breeding for pets (even if the dogs are high drive and make lousy pets!) and then the pet buyers are breeding the dogs they bought and so on. Bleccchhh.

 

So, I think it's essential to have their "creds" in place prior to breeding in most cases. I lose sleep over the "wasted" youth at my place, lol. Veronika, for example...just turned 2, not sure how I'm going to get that done. Actually considered trying to get a group going at my own house to facilitate it. It's not a super-easy thing in this country, depending on where you live. And there is no way in hell my Veronika is going to be the next "trainer killed my dog" story...so.... if you know anyone who would be interested in some training at my place- even if it's only a few times per month, have them contact me. We have 8 acres, flat. And the neighbors get bored if I'm not making noise. Had a small seminar here in Oct. and the neighbors must've checked their mail 8 times and taken the trash out 4 just to see what was going on over here.

 

The argument you say you have a problem with "my dog is better than the _______ champion" is the same thing addressed in vk4's post and the same thing I said before with regard to those who are lacking the critical thinking gene and can't see faults are not going to see them no matter what you do. I get emails wanting to use Madox for stud from people with females from "good German lines" and I see the ped and there are no German lines for 5 generations. If that's what they think "good German lines" are, how are you going to raise their standards? And these are people who think they're going to be a "good" breeder if they go to a fully-credentialed male. I guess I could take the money and do the breeding, but instead I try to educate them on starting out correctly. Maybe it would be better to do the breeding . Maybe they don't listen anyway and will just breed to the neighbor's dog instead of Madox. I really don't know what the answer is.

Mods, I had paragraphs...not sure what's going on. Everyone, sorry!!!

If I had a magic wand, I would make everyone use paragraphs, so I apologize mine didn't post right.

Jenni, your paragraphs will disappear if you switch from regular posting mode to the full editor. Just a little glitch in the board that Oli can't seem to fix...

And the neighbors get bored if I'm not making noise. Had a small seminar here in Oct. and the neighbors must've checked their mail 8 times and taken the trash out 4 just to see what was going on over here....

LOL! Jenni, wish I lived within driving distance of you. I'd be there in a heartbeat!

Why do we post pictures of our dogs? Well, they wouldn't BE our dogs if they didn't represent what we look for in a dog, and posting photos of other people's dogs without their permission can cause problems. It's not necessarily because I (or we) think our dogs are perfect and better than anyone else's.

Another thing I'd like to see restored to this breed: longevity. When I got my first GSD in the '80's, 12 to 13 years was considered the average lifespan. Now we have big-name studs with hundreds of progeny dropping dead before 10. This just ain't right! The GSDCA has a special page where they list the names of dogs that have made it to 13 years. I'd like to see the SV do something similar.

I am happy to report my GSL/ASL female (an Ursus grand-daughter) will be turning 10 soon, and shows no signs of slowing down. She spends the first part of our walks in the woods giving happy barks, and tormenting...er, playing with her new boyfriend, a 5 year old Airedale terrier. At the end of the walks, which average about an hour, she is still dashing on ahead, while my younger dog has fallen back to walk by my side!

Truthfully…the biggest problem I see right now is among enthusiasts. Enthusiasts are who has kept some sort of working ability in the breed, felt the need to title their dogs, wanted to produce something “better.” But now its…make a bit of a name for yourself, breed a few litters of dogs out of titled parents, maybe title one dog, or don’t even need to title just buy them titled and people will think you did the work yourself, and then you can play the almighty “I know what I’m looking at” card once you start breeding untilted dogs and getting the same money for the puppies as you did when you were titling your dogs. The general public doesn’t see the difference between a national level 270 point performance, and a 240 club level performance. Enthusiasts that can’t get to nationals don’t help that either by crying how points dogs are shit and their dogs are the greatest and are so amazing and BA that they can’t possibly train them to get those types of scores. A ton of the industry is built on keeping consumers in the dark and not truly being objective and educating people.

There are clubs in the area, also people that offer board and trains, if the dog has the drive and even a bit of foundation 5-6 months tops for a BH and IPO1…but there again we run into the whole “breeder doesn’t title their own dog” thing that we like to throw around in America as if it’s a bad thing.

I commend you on the fact that you realize the difference in the type of home you get for your dogs, tells me you want to place your dogs in homes that aren’t just “regular pet.” But there again…one of the biggest issues I see is how many “enthusiasts” argue that a pet home is great and “they’d rather place one in a pet home than a working/sport home where the dog might get past around.” Want to know who says that? Breeders who a high level sport home won’t even look at due to the lack of quality of their breeding dogs. But it sounds great to a pet home and they eat it up.

BW
So much talk and not even a single picture of a dog you have. As of now ..we don't even know if you actually have a dog .

 

I have a dog and love how she looks ( have posted many pics ). Muscular, thick boned, very active, and always wanting to do something ( or other ). Always ready to interact and stays close to me whether inside or outside.  She has  a good natural hunt drive and will will search for something upon command ( until called  ). If I could change something about her for my own use, Id make her a bit friendlier with people ( but would not want to loose the high level of  natural aggression ). She was socialized up to age 6 months , but then  went from being exuberantly meeting people to " ambivalent  between meeting  and "don't come close"...to full blown  " don't come close ".  Not difficult to live with but is too exuberant for wife and daughter to handle; will play with them, but does not obey  instructions/command ( will bite if forced ). Dog never had a bad experience encounter.

You just want me to post a random picture of a dog to make you feel better? I've never seen someone so caught up on something that matters so little. I can literally post a picture of any GSD on the internet and you'd think it's mine...so what's the point? Get past the picture buddy, I'm still waiting on that video you promised months ago of your dog doing protection.

why are you so afraid? Is this the same type of fear expressed by the ASL folks.

Joan, Jenni, Yogi, Sun, and others who talk here easily post their dogs and are proud of them ( whether objectively so or not ..is not the issue ).  Do you like the dog you have?

I love my dog...but his conformation has no bearing on this conversation. A picture won't show you what he's capable of either. I've also stated many times that I prefer to stay anonymous in order to allow for a free flow of opinion without any kind of personal attacks or issues that may result from the ideas and opinions that I'm sharing. I'm sure that if I posted a picture of my dog that plenty of people on this forum would recognize him and then put the pieces together of who I am...therefore I choose not to post a useless picture because it has nothing to do with the conversation. A picture doesn't show anyone the temperament he has or working ability and as I've stated earlier, I really don't care what a GSD looks like as long as it's to standard and has a good working temperament.

I am very objective when critiquing my dogs. There is not a perfect dog in the world, only acceptable.

Pride is subjective, but can be based on objective observation...like the sister to the female i posted on page one, and sister to the eight week old pups...she saved her owner from a would-be assailant, she got a blood bath during the encounter with the creep's blood, before he ran away screeming like little girl.

Immediately after the encounter

The privacy fence where the creep tried in vein to mash the female to get her to release the grip on his stomach.

So BW I thought that an email address and IP address is required to start a user account. How anonymous is that?