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LovesGSD007

by LovesGSD007 on 04 October 2015 - 15:10

Hi Smiley,
Did .your bitch have her litter yet?

by gsdkiera on 06 October 2015 - 21:10

Thanks, LovesGSD007, for being brave enough to put into words what I have been lurking and thinking. I've owned or been around GSDs in some capacity for the majority of my life, admittedly mainly pet dogs, but, back in 2013, I acquired a then 4.5 month old female through rescue and, via taking her to her puppy obedience class, was bitten by the competition obedience bug. She is a combination of SL and WL of German and Czech lines, and so is an interesting combination of all 3. Fairly soft, but independent and bull headed at times, so I walk a fine line between getting my point across and shutting her down. In an attempt to get some tips and pointers on how to work with an motivate her (she is absolutely NOT food motivated), I started joining groups from pet to working and everything in between. Most of the time, I would just lurk and read because, the few times I did ask questions, I was either ignored because I was not training for ipo/schutzhund, only lowly obedience, or I was told that the GSD was not meant to be a "pet dog" and my dog was unworthy, or, in the pet groups, I was lambasted for daring to use a choke chain, prong collar, and yes, even a few times, an e-collar on my dog. I further offended the pet people by daring to crate train my dog. So, where do we fit? Obviously not pet, but not good enough to belong to the "working dog" circles. Fortunately, I read and followed long enough to see a few people consistently being nice to people who dared to ask questions or express opinions different than the general run of the other posters, and sent those nice people private messages and found many of them very willing to help or to point me in the direction of someone who could, and more importantly, would. Thanks to these nice people, lots of hours of training on the part of me and my girl, and to a determination to proceed no matter what others said, we have earned our CGC, CD, with scores of 183, 192.5 and 189.5, (I won’t talk about the 2 legs where we nqed because she decided to leave in the off leash portion), and our RN with scores of 94, 98 and 99. I will be going on to open and try to earn the CDX and to advanced in rally, and, who knows, maybe we’ll even make it to utility and excellent. In the AKC shows we’ve attended, we’ve been the only GSD (other than 1 at one of the shows), and people comment on how they gave up on the GSD as a competition obedience dog because of various reasons, but that they’d have one if they could find one like my girl. I had to chuckle because, here my girl is being called a mutt by GSD standards because she wasn’t pure any one line or another, and yet, the people we are showing against (and beating; we won 6 of the 8 classes we’ve entered) are saying that they’d have a GSD again if they could have one like her. Would she pass a conformation class? Absolutely not, could she do ipo? Not likely, but is she my best friend, and am I thoroughly enjoying training and working with her? Absolutely! I am wanting to do some tracking with her as she loves to follow her nose (that was why she left in the offleash portions the 2 times), and am starting to actively look for a 2nd female who I can also title in competition obedience, possibly tracking, and, eventually, if health, hips and titles warrant it, to breed in hopes of producing the type of GSD that the competition obedience people would want to own. I can here the working GSD traditionalists gasping now, and I guess I won’t be surprised all that much if I am criticized for breeding a GSD that isn’t doing what the GSD is meant to do, but, let’s face it, not everyone has the knowledge or desire to train for ipo, sometimes circumstances don’t make ipo training possible, and, as long as the dog is well cared for, being trained and competed in a way that reflects well on the breed in the eyes of the others participating in the sport chosen, and is serving the dual purpose of being a well loved companion, I am all for it!

mrdarcy (admin)

by mrdarcy on 08 October 2015 - 07:10

gsdkiera, what an excellent post, and what a team you and your dog are. You keep up the hard work and I wish you all the best with your present dog and any future dogs. I also hope you continue to post updates of your successes and achievementsThumbs Up


Hundmutter

by Hundmutter on 08 October 2015 - 08:10

I'll second that ! Many of us - who CAN appreciate mixed bloodlines and all-round,
"golden middle" GSDs - would love to hear what you and your girl have been doing,
Keira. Don't let the grumpy posters put you off !

by Blitzen on 08 October 2015 - 12:10

What Hundmutter said ^^^






 


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