How did you first start off - Page 2

Oh lord, well I was raised with hunting dogs as my father was a weekend hunter. My mother got our first Rottweiller "Sally" when I was nine. I helped bury "Sally" Had a few rottweillers of mine own in Germany. Moved to SC with my second husband and three kids.

Coming home from the store I saw a pack of dogs three shepherds and a chow. They were beauitful. I stopped and called them to me and one came up and jumped in. I had gotten all the shepherds in the car and drove three blocks to my house. My husband had a fit. So I went looking for the owner with the two males. About a block away from my house was the owner (Bobby). They had gotten out.

Well, there was a litter of puppies and I just had to have one. So, I said I get a break on my pup right? So I picked out my "Gezemo". My first long hair! I knew nothing of Shepherds only Rotties, So I went to book store and started buying books and learning.

Well, the rest is history . I have never gone back to the Rotties. I miss the breed but my Shepherds are my babies

gsdfanatic1964  I guess I should of opened it up to everyone  (sorry)

sueincc  everyone's story is interesting -think of how many newbies come here and see all of us guys/gals on this board. The first thing they see is name calling, bashing and ect. There is no stories on how you or we started, no stories of HOW hard it has been, or mistakes we had made, or regets. Newbies need to know that we have not always known the right paths and we had to learn but we are will to share our inforamtion not to make thier paths easier BUT TO BETTER OUR BREED and save them from making the mistakes we made. JAT

OK, here goes, but I warned you, it's a yawner!

When I was a kid, I always wanted GSD's, but my parents were into small fancy schmancy lap dog types.  I  was lucky to have friends with GSD's who were very generous in letting me play with their dogs & they would occasionally let me go to dog shows with them.  I read everything I could get my hands on from the time I could read.

After college, when I was out on my own the first thing I did was look into GSDs, but I couldn't afford one at the time.  I knew I still HAD to have a dog so I figured I would go to the animal shelter and get a mutt puppy.  The first thing I noticed at the shelter was how many adult dogs needed homes.  They were barking and jumping on the gates to their runs, it was overwhelming.  Then I saw John.  He was a very skinny (skin & bones) GSD, sitting towards the back of his run, with his head hanging down.  He looked so defeated and sad.  The workers said he had been turned in by his owners (this time) because he was too much trouble. He was approx. 4 years old, had a gay tail, & one of his ears was crumpled up.   So I took him.  As I was filling out the papers I told the worker the first thing I was going to do was find him a new name.  She looked at me & said very quietly "Poor John has had everything taken from him so often the only thing he really has now is his name".  It goes without saying I decided NOT to change Johns'!  He lived up to every romanticized dream of what a GSD of my own would be like.  We went everywhere together.  SOOOO many adventures, such a boon companion!

When he passed (1980) I was in a better financial situation, so I did a little bit of research (though really, not enough), and ended up buying from a kennel that imported bitches in whelp from Germany.  I chose a puppy that the breeders had been unable to sell.  I took him home and in less than 48 hours he was dead from Parvo.  The breeders replaced him with my pick of the next litter when it was born.  These people told me about schutzhund & put me in touch with a schutzhund club. 

That was where it started for me.

Has a child I was all animal oriented, think I still am in alot of ways today! My older sister was the same as me but our oldest sister came from another planet.... One day J brought home a Collie mix! We kept him hidden from my parents in a shed and snuck him food. Soon the cat was out of the bag. My dad , a Beagle person, found Mitzie's (its what we called him) owner and sent him back home. He returned and returned so the owners told us we could keep him. It was a day an age of Lassie and Rin Tin Tin , so naturally I wanted a GSD when Mitzie passed. I found a stray. I remember playing and rough housing with him, one day my mom yelled from the proch for me to get in the house. The GSD went for her..... sad but I guess my dad brought him to the pound, I really don't know he just got rid of him. I wanted another for years. But never did get one until my oldest son was 11 years old. He was an American bred long coat. Not the best health or temperment. I decided I wanted to breed and got a Covy Tucker Hill line female. She was a soft dog but I crossed her with a harder stable SchH3 male and the offspring were wonderful! I soon began learning more and more about lines. Back then it was not so complicated as now as the working vs show lines were not divided. Well maybe they were beginning to.... I got into SchH training not really knowing squat and ruined my first dog. I put a few titles on her then bred her to another Am. show x German male. This dog could work but was dog aggressive (I got him as a 5 year old) . The offspring again were wonderful. I titled a male from this breeding to a SchH 1 and was going to go further but hubby went and broke his leg bad so my life got put on hold for a long time. The few breedings I have done since then I always went to German lines, usually working/show crossed into my original line. I guess I will be getting a bashing now! Ducking for cover....

Here I am with my first dog Mitzie! One day he did an amazing thing, to me as a child. While we were  looking for my sister at the summer play ground another dog that I remember looking like a white GSD began attacking another child. Mitzie ran from me and dove on this dog and sent him packing. I remember being so proud and it almost brings tears to my eyes now remembering.

When I was about 12 or 13 (Early 1970's) , my dad decided he wanted to train guard dogs in his own amatuer business.  He worked with a guy in Oklahoma City who taught him the basics, and then Dad brought home a sharp, but not shy dog.  He told me I was going to be the handler while he was the "aggitator"--this was not an option, I was the private and Dad was the General of this operation, LOL.  It was my job to befriend, care for, and train all of his potential guard dogs in obedience, which he acquired through newspaper ads, and some of those later dogs were really rank.  Dad showed me a few basics with the new prospective guard dog and handed me the Koehler Method of Guard Dog Training.  He told me to read the part on obedience training and to have the dog heeling by the time he returned from a business trip in two weeks or I'd suffer the consequences.  For those from the South--- they know how that is usually phased.  Fortunately, I was both a good reader and I loved animals.  I had the dog heeling by the time he got back from his trip.  My dad later gave me a puppy of my own, who was my best friend.  She was protective, brave, smart, quick to learn, and atheletic.  She was the example for all other dogs to be measured by that came after her.  She was bred by a "backyard breeder", but had all German dogs from the third generation back according to the handwritten pedigree that came along with her. She did have a very curly tail, was short legged and dumpy, but it was the brain and heart that put her head and shoulders above most other dogs for me.  Veronica

Boy, I love reading the stories.  I actually  had lunch reading and made a cup of coffee so I could sit and finish reading. 

 Thank you all for posting

Trail rider thanks for the picture

"How many of you had someone to "mentor" you thru?"

I had noone but my dog Major and books, grandma gave me all his belongings from the house. With all his belongings there was a book called The German Shepherd Dog written by Artur Meyer very hard to read because it was so old. But I learned alot about the beginning of the GSD.

Major pretty much tought me all I knew being that young. He would amaze me most of the time to be honest, I never knew dogs listened that good. Grandpa would always teach me how to talk to the dog and what to do and not to do, but I never had to control him myself till after grandpa died. The dog was trained in German and Grandpa tought me the basics nothing work related. I just figured he was a pet that went with grandpa to work.

I later learned the hard way, what kinda dog Major really was. My dad gave me a book called First Annual Western Regional Police K-9 and told me to read it and learn something. So, I went to my room and read half the book and all of a sudden I was scared of the book. My dad came to me and said go get Major and take him to the field he needs to know the dog has an "off switch" incase of an emergency. I was thinking too should I be afraid. So my dad stuffed himself like a scarecrow and told me to tell the dog something while I walk him around. I was thinking too, what should I tell him. LOL I asked Major Was ist los and he just looked at me like what did you say. LOL I said it over and over and the more I said it he acted up looking all around and then focusing on my dad. Then my dad yelled for me to tell him something again, so I told him to Geh varous packen. He darted so fast at my dad and grabbed his stuffed arm knocking him to the ground and just tugged away. I was screaming and yelling and crying my mother came out screaming, my dad yelling call the dog off, I was so confused I couldn't think, my mother smacked me upside the head and said I thought that book was to teach you something. I thought for a sec and yelled aus aus aus and I swear Major listen to the first aus I yelled, he just sat at my dad and barked and my dad yelled to me what else did I learn so I called Major back to me and that was that. Later my dad would pay his friends to be the scarecrow. I finished the book by bedtime. Needless to say I didn't have many friends growing up, and people I did meet out and about my dog did nothing but scare people. I will own a GSD till the day I die.

Some people's kids.

Growing up on a small ranch, there were many dogs and cats. I felt they were all mine. Dogs and cats would be dumped and always show up and my parents took them in. Nothing has changed.

 I would see movies with GSD's and Television programs with GSD's, and I of course wanted one. At the age of 7yrs, my dad went into the city and purchased a GSD puppy. He was my everything. He wasnt papered, but to me he was the best GSD in the world. My Shepherd's name was Max.

I had moved away from home and was on my own. Max was a very old dog and stayed with my parents.  One day in 1973, a girl I was dating wanted to see some new movie called "Walking Tall". I had never heard of it, or the lead actor  whose name was Joe Don Baker. To make a long story short, after the movie I decided it was time to make another purchase.

 I started off looking for a puppy, but ended up spending what I felt was a huge amount of money for a grown male out of Gauss Vom Stauderpark.

Through the years my troop of GSD's have grown. I had sons and grandkids from one of my favorites, Cello Von Der Roemerau. I have some of the best of both working and High lines, as well as non papered GSD's.

I have also seen how 35years ago, one had a much better chance of getting a solid GSD from quite a few sources, as opposed to now where its a rarity.

she was a 29 year old horse trainer at the stable i worked at as a groom when i was in high school and the night before the first full day of my senior year we................... Am i off subject here?

Yes     Bob you went in a totally different direction :)

When I was about 7, we got my Uncle's retired police dog, Shane, he was blk/tan and had one lazy ear that would stand when he wanted it to.  That dog sold me on shepherds.  He was so loyal to us, he loved to play with a ball, balloon, bubbles, frisbee, etc...  Typical GSD!  I remember that no one could touch us or come near any of us kids, he just would not have it, he would sit at the end of our driveway waiting for us to come home from school, he would not step one foot out of that driveway unless we called him.  He pulled us around on the sled and would jump on the tube when we were snow tubing down the hills.  And most of all I would remember him carrying a wet, slobbery balloon around the house and in the middle of the night he would creep in my room with that balloon and put it right in my face and want me to play with him!!  I loved that dog.  And when I bought my own first shepherd, he was 1/2 Amer &1/2 German, my parents had a fit that I paid so much money for him ($250), I was about 17, he went everywhere with me, we graduated obedience class together, I got best handler, and he got 2nd place in the class!  ;)  He was a great dog.  And that is where I really started with my shpeherds.  I just love the breed, they are by far the best breed I have ever owned!  Always loyal, loving, well mannered,  great protectors, and great with kids.  Any child can walk in my yard and my dogs won't flinch, but an adult stranger better high tail it!!  LOL