Thank you Gustav - Page 1

I have been thinking of you, I had made an archive on my computer named Gustav, I want you to know I learned a lot from you more than you can imagine, I will not lie and say I am using properly what I did learn 100% . But I can say that I now to a certain extent differentiate between personal "preference" and "correct".

Sincerely

Ibrahim

Hi Ibrahim , 

Its really nice that you admirig a person who teach you - Can you please give brief intro of "Gustav" as well - So might we able to learn some thing from it.

 Thanks - 

flattering and well deserved.....but a little creepy as well.

Thank You Ibrahim for the kind words. My time as many others that feel my way has passed on PDB. I can remember when some felt that only working dog people posted and show people were maligned. Well now very few working people post and the board is dominated by folks with interest in show/conformation. Is the board better?, I dunno, is the board moe informative, I dunno, does the board educate about the items and directions needed to bring a balance to breed, I dunno. In the past I have been critical of the conformation direction, in more recent years I have been critical of the sport direction, both sides have reacted with righteous indignation, the show people hurt and bitter, the sport people defiant and indifferent, I guess owners follow dogs....lol. 

The reality is I don't believe in lines, and promote sound noble dogs of any color, any country, with or without titles, as long as they are true to the creed of the standard. I refuse to put on rose colored glasses and make excuses for why the breed has slipped so much in the working world for which it was created. I have fought to see the breed not become a cosmetic ornament much like the Collie and the Doberman. But my good book says, " there will come a time when folks cannot stand strong doctrine", I have seen this come to pass in many aspects of life including this breed. 

I have no personal axe against anyone in the breed, and have no criticism against personal dog owners of this great breed....they acquire what is available and come to love them. But Breeders and Judges, well let's just say they have a responsibility to discard " personal likes for correct" as you put it. Most can't and won't do it anymore, the prestige, the money, the adornration, the personal likes, and the cosmetic beauty is just too strong anymore. I accept this, but refuse to capitulate to this to the detriment of the breed. 

Again, Thanks for the kind words, and you actually made my day a couple of weeks ago when you were critical of some of the extreme aspects of the VA candidates, I actually smiled to myself and said Hey, you sound like me in the past....lol, hope springs eternal for me.......Take care my friend!

Those are beautiful words Gustav but I can sense the sadness of someone who is tired of fighting for something that has come to pass. As a GSD person since the early 70's I find myself looking elsewhere ( another breed) in vain to find dogs that remind me of the dogs I once had. I know the breed is not yet completely over the hill but finding the ones bred to standard now takes a lot of research, time, contacts and money. It's not a question of the good old days being better but a result of a breed self destructing because being so good at that time made it too popular. Take care and thanks for being a mentor.

gustav chill man, there is still life left in the breed, you just have to get away from the noise places like this generate.

i propose a ratio be set of posts to clips of your dog actually doing something resembling work - people that don't meet the ratio to be banned. 

how many members here have thousands of posts (and still pics) and not a single clip of their dog/s doing anything pertaining to the better aspects of the breed?

vk4

By all means, lead the way.......

I was very pleasantly surprised the thread crtiticising the VA dogs' structure and gait went as well as it did. I mentioned the problems with Vegas's gait a couple of years ago, and a couple of people just about ripped my head off!  I was told I didn't have a clue what I was talking about!

This time round, people still disagreed with me, but did so in a way that allowed the discussion to continue in a civil manner. What a difference! 

VK4, you aren't going to see many videos of me working my dog on this board, because I don't have anyone to flim them for me. Sorry to disappoint you!

Personally, I believe the board needs to be open to all. People new to the breed have to learn about it somewhere, and though they will likely need a thicker than normal skin to hang out here, they WILL learn, if they persist!

vk says "flattering and well deserved.....but a little creepy as well."

Care to define "creepy" in the context you have used the word?

vk, I have never taken any "clips" of any dogs I've owned since I got my first purebred in 1970. Why would I post them to the net if I had?  I've posted some dogs here in the pedigree section, that's as much as I feel I want to do. I have no need to prove anything to anyone. I title and train my own dogs and feel those titles and those of their progeny are all the proof I care about.  I'm not training and titling GSD's to prove to the database world that I am worthy of posting here, I'm doing it to prove my dogs are worthy of reproducing and have absolutely no need to seek approval from people I have never met.