Most Popular - Page 4

 Ladies of Schutzhund I salute you: Actually Rhoda participated in Schutzhund with Lasso von Fidelius, now there was a Showline dog that would put many a working line dog to shame. Horst Sitzman saw him working in ALL phases here in the UK.

That's it Videx, your learning fast, welcome to the club
As for my birthright i am a Cockney  by birth. Born within the sound of the Bow Bells makes a child a Cockney,  Born in Rendell road off the old Mile end road,now gone, bombed during the war and was never named that again when rebuilt
Moved to Berkshire as the house no longer stood just rubble, then on to Shropshire, down to Somerset, now Belgium
So my accent is best mixed now, probably with a little
Yes Bob, I like 'The Ladies of Schutzund' sounds good and some are good at what they do
Steve

I hate the word "Schutzhund"  - I keep thinking it sounds like a sneeze... LOL!

Not to stir it, But lets get something in the right context regards the Sport of Schutzund,
There are quite a few Showline dogs which have SchH3 that we all know, But it is not the fact they earned the SchH3 it is the manner of which they obtained it,
Now i am not knocking the showline which has the 3 that is stupid and wrong because there are many working line dogs who only just scrape through as well, 
Now this year up to date i have attended about 6 or 7 trials, and in these trials there are some dogs who only just get through with low scores but passing scores and it was the same last year, I have seen some of these dogs a year later doing another SchH3 competition and a lot have not improved  on there scoring from a year prior
These Dogs get the grade but will never get to the heights the handler wants of them, they are at there limit,  But saying that the Handler ,Owner enjoys themselves and so does the Dog and that is all that counts
I have seen dogs scrape through the 1 2 and 3 some i thought the judge was a little too fair, but i am not a judge so what i think does not count, but the owner is happy and gives him the push to go on to the next stage and hopefully improve
Now when you see the really Top Dogs in a Competition you always see that when ever they compete they get high scores, that is the difference in class of the animal and perhaps the handler
So unless the actual scores are put up for all to see when a showline or a working line enters the Schh1 2 or 3, the result is over rated to my mind, unless you can see the scores they got for Tracking, OBed, and Protection
Steve

I have seen Malinios and Rottweilers both come and go among police in my area and more GSDs back in force.

The typical working police dog in my area has an appearance that would lead you to guess Czech lines.

My own dog is an "ugly Czech working lines dog" and more of the ones I see doing SAR are of same ilk.  Most of these people could give a rats ass about pedigree or coat or anything; they just want a dog that will and can do the job.  As for myself, I am very happy with a dog that can scale anything, crawl under anything, face any new challenge without having to be desensitized to it, work all day and has the heart to do it.

Much of what I have seen in showlines attempting SAR is adequate prey drive but not adequate nerve strength and not as good agility in the woods.  You still see some of these dogs but the numbers seem to be dwindling.

These are not slams; they are just observations.

Probably a higher percentage of police dogs in the U. S. are Czech dogs. I'll tell you a quiet little secret, the Capt. would be probably more pleased with the Czech republic than any other country(maybe sweden), if he were here today. Why??? Because a high percent of Czech breeders breed dogs to provide resources to police/military/SAR throughout the world. Their INTENT in breeding is to provide a dog for service....sound familar.....WHERE?????....The point being is their dogs tend to have good structure(conformation), good working ability, and definitely the nobility and courage that the breed must have to conjure up the image the GS has cultivated over the years. Now they are not extreme enough to win in the showring though I have seen some that were drop dead gorgeous, and they are not extreme enough to win consistently in the top layers of sport, but for SERVICE work, family dogs, and "regular club sport", these dogs excell. Even their conformationline show dogs seem to have much stronger temperament for working than typical showlines I see in states and imported from Germany.  The point is that they are successful in the breed far greater than their history and size TODAY, because by and large they are breeding the dogs for the right reasons, and subsequently are more consistently producing a dog that is closer to the type of dog the GS is supposed to be. Especially in structure and mind, moreso than many people who breed for reasons like sport and show which will ultimately create extremes because the parameters become a person's personal view as opposed to ability to do what the SERVICE entails.JMO

This  little girl of mine is 3/4 showline,,1/4 working line. She is not quite 3 months old yet, but I have been training her for persoal protection. She is doing GREAT. She so far has proven herself as "fearless". She does not cowar, or run and hide. No matter how you come at her, She is "right back at ya". 
         Does the looks of a dog, make the dogs personality, or does the "situation" make the dog???
YOU GET BACK, WHATEVER --YOU PUT IN.  JMOO