Be honest : Is this your dog? - Page 1

As we move around the web there seem to be a distinct dichotomy about the wider community's perception of the working dog ( GSD ). On the one hand there is the prey driven equipment oriented  dog; his drive allow him to bring power to the work, but  he  is very much fixated on the training equipment. On the other hand is the more balanced dog , with strong suspicion and civil orientation. The former has been called a sport dog, and the latter a real dog.

Is your dog like the one in the picture below?  He is waiting for the prey item in the snowman's hand to move.

The internet is not the wider community so i didnt read any further.

 

How's your training going?
 

Health wise shes doing fine, and we are making some progress on obedience exercises; other than that she's a rough character to those she don't know ( been like that since  6 months old ). She maxes out from the first instant, once you're not one of her homies. In the house shes a darling, settles nicely , and every night she and my wife races up the steps ( bed time race ) to see who can dive onto the bed first.

Here she is ( tonight after the park ) kind of  getting too big for the back seat of the car ( and of course we no longer have a clean car window).

Fantastic, sounds like yr training is going great. She sure sounds like a rough character for sure.

Vk 

I did recently visit a friend with a titled dog , and all the while I moved about the property and house the dog had zero interest in me or where I went ; the dog just say quietly all the while. I asked my friend about and his only reply was that he likes a " mellow" dog.

 

How do you know the dog is waiting for the object to move? It could be that the dog is waiting for a cue from the handler to get the object. The handler may be controlling the whole scenario including the dog. I think you are coming to a conclusion that is not apparent in this image. Are you saying a balanced dog should have zero interest in a ball or objects? A balanced dog does not fire off to the max on strangers without a reason.

I don't want my dogs to behave with non-homies the same way as the dogs behave with 'homies'.

As long as you have her under control..... she is what she is, and very fortunate to have you, mithuna, as her owner.

REALLY, Markobytes? Come on, what's the #1 thing people test a dog for these days when selecting for schutzhund/sport, or even, God help us, law enforcement?? Come on, you all know this: BALL DRIVE!!  And we wonder WHY we get dogs that are fixated on the equipment, not the decoy? 

If we really wanted civil dogs, we need to go back to the days of William Kohler, and test the dog's reaction to what he calls a 'sneak': someone dressed in strange, baggy clothing, and acting in a suspicious manner.

You get what you select for...no one should be suprised at that!

A few years ago, our club had 5 dogs at a trial. Out of the 5, there was ONE dog who reacted to our regular decoy when he wasn't wearing a sleeve. It was a Carmspack dog, and they breed dog for law enforcement, amongst other things. 

http://www.carmspack.com/our-record/

Re: selecting for ball drive:

I watched the TV show about von Liche kennels, and yup, that's what they did.

I also remember reading a story about a police officer selecting a new dog - again, he chose the one that had the strongest drive to find the ball he hid in a large field. Hey, that's great if you're training a drug or bomb dog, but this dog was going to work on the street.

I have a friend who used to be the manager of an animal shelter. She had a young adult GSD come in that no one seemed to want. She asked a LEO to evaluate her as a possible police dog. He tested her ball drive, and when she didn't show enough drive to suit him, he said he didn't want her.

Now, here's the sad part. My friend took the dog home, so she could do a more serious evaluation of her temperment under different situations. Remember, this is a young dog that no one had bothered to train, and God only knows how she was treated by her former owners. My friend was standing at the fence, talking to her neighbour, and the dog saw him as a threat and went for him.

She was euthanized the same day.

With selection criteria other than ball drive, and the proper training from a young age, this dog might have been just what a law enforcement officer needed.

Should the dog in this scenario be in a protection drive? Is it doing nothing more than obedience? I can understand a dog guarding a neutral decoy, but the dog should be smart enough to know that a snowman is an inanimate object. Again, this image does not prove that this dog is unbalanced prey dog. You can not draw a conclusion how this dog would react during bite work or in real life from this image. This image does not give the dog the option between an object or the decoy.

Okay, I see your point. But I'm sure you see mine, too.