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ForumsGerman Shepherd Dog > do you think working lines mature slower than showlines? (24 replies)
by EuroShepherd on 22 July 2012 - 00:49 |
My showlines are slow to mature too, which is a pet peeve of mine. My first GSD was a czech import workingline who already had an adult mentality by 18 months and she worked hard until 12-13 yrs when she started slowing down. My oldest showline dog is 8.5 yrs old and already slowing down, which saddens me. I've never before considered what Prager said about maturity and working longevity, but it makes perfect sense to me. But, I will say...my czech import working line girl did have mild HD and allergy problems-but they did not affect her working ability. However, my ol' showline male has good hips, no health problems (other than some vision impairment due to past injury and infection.) I personally hate puppyish silly behavior in GSDs beyond 12 months old (unless it's playtime, if it's not playtime then grow up! lol) My dad's american-who-knows-what GSD acts like a friggin silly 6 month old golden retriever puppy 24/7 and he is 4 yrs old!!! Drives me nuts. I appreciate precociousness, I appreciate willingness to learn, strong focus on handler, and dogs who take great joy in working with their people and doing jobs. I don't appreciate stubborness, ADD/ADHD, dogs who get distracted by butterflies when they are only .02 seconds into their long-down-stay. Now my toy breed dogs, they can stay puppylike and immature into their teen years if they want, thats why I have toy breed dogs, it's their job to play, be silly, to cuddle with and just be cute. (at least thats what I want out of my toy size dogs) INC, like beetree says, your dog may just have a very well balanced temperament and can recognize the difference between good people and bad. The best kind of protection dog is the one that is social who you can take everywhere. My best personal protection dog adores attention from people. Yet when necessary, his defense aggression is very strong. |
EuroShepherd by destiny4u on 22 July 2012 - 01:01 |
| how common is it for a 2 year old gsd to not bark at a stranger at the fence or door? these days it seeems all too common? What if that stranger sneaks into the fenced yard into ur window and into your bed is the dog still a "good" dog? |
by swingfield on 22 July 2012 - 02:03 |
| @Euro.. I totally agree with the whole 'foolish' attitudes!! This particular female is driving me crazy and I have a horrible "enabler" in the house that thinks she can do no wrong..grrrrrrr... I appreciate aloofness, protectiveness, loyalty, and like you a strong focus! I dont like the 'working' attitude of my male 24/7 though.. I wish in a way he was little more engaging and playful.. I was just a hypocrite there !! haha.. sigh.. oh well.. they all cant be like the "one" we all base them after! we can only hope for the best companion with a minimum of frustration...!! @ destiny.. I had a police prospect(18 mos old) in the kennel for training and had no suspicious tendencies.. well.. came the day for the trainer to teach him how to be a 'big boy" and did some serious flanking and defense training to instill some ability to watch strangers with body language .. it was tough to watch at first.. but he did become an awesome dual purpose K-9.. just needed some guidance in the direction of suspicion and protectiveness.. not all dogs can be that way.. but its nice that your neighbor kids dont tease him and be mean to him.. maybe he just doesnt know it naturally? just my own opinion !!  |
swingfield by windwalker18 on 22 July 2012 - 05:17 |
| If I was to make a general statement I'd say yes... One reason is that Show line dogs (especially American) want to hit the specials shows at a year old and be stunning. While working line Import lines are developed slower not getting to their SchH titles til they're close to 2 years old at least... which is when the Import show lines hit the conformation rings. But I'm speaking specifically about physical development. |
windwalker18 by Prager on 22 July 2012 - 15:24 |
| Again slow maturing and long trainability should not be related. As far as Physical maturity goes. There is a speed of growth and body maturity. Speed of growth. I recommend that the dogs grow as slow as possible, especially in the early stages of pups life. Which is in exact contradiction to what general public wants. "Everybody" wants the biggest, the most active, the most driven pup in the litter. Thus the breeders breed pups which are big at early age. I believe that that is a mistake since fast growth in early age is one of the most important environmental causes of bad hips. Physical Maturing. I think that dog should be physically mature in 2 years to perform any task. However I also think that dogs achieve the prime of their physical maturity at about 3 years. The the dog is in that prime for about 2-4 more years. After that they are aging. We want to defer the aging for as long as possible. It is like a fruit you can eat an apple at certain point but it tastes best little later. After that the taste of the apple stay the same for a while and then it diminishes. After a certain point that apple is not to be good to be eaten and dog is no good to be a police dog an needs to retire. Hans |
Prager
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