steve lino - Page 3

DDR SDG,

You checked with a FRIEND?? Steve Lino IS my friend. I have known him personally for many years. He and his wife Dee live an hour away and I have spent many hours with them at their home in Fellsmere. They are both very knowledegeable and experienced in the breed and the sport. Steve first switched to WGR working lines many years before he went to the DDR dogs. He only got a website up just a few years ago. Just go to his site and read his credentials and the years associated with them. That should be sufficient to show his years of involvement. He just recently (within the last couple of years) went with all DDR lines and he still has a WGR dog on his site.

Dawgma,

It doesn't neccesarily have to take a minimum of 4 years to finish a dog. Depending on the dog, that can be accomplished in 2 years. Also consider that he trains groups of dogs at a time and that he was TD for one of his clubs years ago. Add to that the many police K-9 units he trained at his Police K-9 Training Facility and thousands of dogs is very likely accurate.

My friend asked why did he buy all his dogs titled. He could have traintd them himself right? He sure has the time and knowledge right?

Steve Lino.

Wow. that's a blast from the past. Steve used to be very active in USA. Haven't really worked with him but he has some damned nice wins to his credit. I don't know Steve or his wife personally, just been fortunate enough to have witnessed some of his and his dogs' excellent performances in national competitions, but as far as I know, they have always had a sterling reputation.

I suspect they, like so many people who used to be very active in the organization, probably got sick of the politics and intentionally disappeared back into the General Membership landscape, having served and served well, but weary of the battles that came with the tremendous growth in the sport in the nineties.

JMO

SS

yeah, well MY FRIEND thinks some of you should probably just keep your mouth shut.  I have no idea who the man he is, or what he has done.  I've read some on his website, I liked it, thought there was some good stuff, especially by him.  I like some of the archives there as well.  I don't care if he's bought titled dogs or not, it still takes more than that to perform at a high level consistently.  Do all of of our current USA world team members do all the training on their dogs?????????????  Just because a dog is gotten when it doesn't have  a title doesn't mean it hasn't been trained.

DDR SDG,

Oh trust me, Steve has trained many a puppy through SchH III. He has bought titled dogs (SchH l)  and completed them through SchH III. Consider the fact that he started in 1962. Maybe his health isn't what it was in his younger days maybe he isn't physically able to trial dogs anymore. Damn, he's been doing this since before I was born and I'm 42. He's almost the same age as my father, so give the guy some credit.

Shelly and zdog,

You guys have got it pretty close to right. Thank-you.

jodagirl good point maybe he does have health issues. didn't know he was that old

Z-dog: Hence the new topic I just started: "One shot wonders"

I'm thinking thousands is probably about right. The guy behind the successful dog/handler teams rarely gets/takes the credit for their success.

I don't have a problem with people buying/competing with trained dogs. I like the dog. I can afford the dog. I buy the dog.

(I screw the dog up sometimes)

I like the puppy. I keep the puppy. I train and titled the puppy.

sure, I am prouder of the dog I trained from a puppy when/if it does well. But IMO its often just as hard or harder to maintain the edge on a dog somebody else trained to competition level, not knowing how the dog was trained all the way along, than it is to get one there yourself, and we all know not every puppy we try to raise up ends up a high-level dog. I've "kissed" my share of "frogs."

SS

"I'm thinking thousands is probably about right."

I don't think thousands is accurate.  Here's my reasoning: he probably has had some role in training say a thousand dogs, maybe more..  But those dogs were probably trained by others as well.  For instance in being a TD at a club, he could not take credit for those dogs that he helped train thru the titles because he coached the training and the handler.  If I could claim all the dogs I've co-trained with another trainer or trained thru coaching I could claim to have trained maybe 600 dogs, but that would not be accurate at all because I was not the primary trainer, just the coach.

I give a lot credit to my TD for my pups progress thus far, but I'm the trainer, my dog and I will train and get the titles not my TD.

Good point Jamie, hadn't quite thought of it like that.  My TD spends 95 percent of his time training me,  not so much on my  dogs......