Don't Look a Gift Pup in the Mouth - Page 1

Howdy All,

I haven't been on the internet in a long, long time. I have a young male dog I imported from Belgium almost a year ago from Dalenburghutte that I am working with. So I had tons of questions that everyone on here was very kind to help me answer.

Now I have a new pup, new questions...Recently an online friend/acquaintance from Germany came to TX to visit, and my husband and I helped him to get around the state. He insisted on repaying our hospitality by sending us a female GSD pup from a man in Germany who has been raising them for many years. Because of the language barrier, we had some difficulty understanding, but he had told us the pup was from a working kennel. As it turns out, I believe she is from a show kennel after looking up the website. The site is all in German,so I didn't get too much information there, but looking at the pedigrees of some of the dogs I saw show titles. I have not received her papers yet, and only her (registered) name is on her passport/health record book. So I am not even sure yet of her parents names/pedigrees. My biggest question is, can I just raise her the same way I am raising my workingline shepherd? My husband and I have been joking that she can't read her pedigree! And she really acts great and is fast to learn the basic obedience I've started with her. LOVES tug o war games and always has her nose to the ground. I don't know if I would be able to show her in the ring, as she's got some white on 2 back toes and a tiny white spot on her chest, also 5 or so white hairs on the tip of her tail... But I am open to any suggestions and advice anyone is willing to give.

Thanks in Advance, Stacy

 Congrads to you on your new Pup! Good Deeds often are indeed appreciated by some.

IMO, there are potential show dogs in Working litters and potential working dogs in Show litters and each puppy is an individual work of Art.

Work with her on the basics, evaluate her as you go along. See her talents and virtues and take it from there.

HV

Thanks! And I agree about good deeds... we tried insisting that "rewarding" us was not necessary, but he called shortly after arriving home with a flight number :-)

My husband and I decided that with such a generous gift, we would just appreciate her however she was bred...But wealso want to make sure we go down the right path for her, to bring out her best qualities...Looking forward to seeing which way she goes!

Hi -

If you might be interested in confirmation shows with your new pup, try to train her with two different collars - one for "positive" obedience and one for just fun.  Then you can use the "just fun" collar for  show ring training.  You want to keep the puppy happy and motivated to move out when it comes time to train her to gait in the ring.  Don't worry about the white spots.  Many dogs have the small white spot on the chest and the tail hairs will probably disappear as will any white on the toes.  Lots of good luck with her.

Judy

Hi Judy,

Thank you. Where can I get a show collar? Also are there sites where I can find pictures of pointed pups, or winning dogs as pups, that I can compare my pup to? I emailed our friend who sent to the pup and asked him the parents names so I can get an idea what she will look like as she matures. Hopefully the breeder has pictures of them on his site! I looked for litters posted for sale but didn't see any. I am really enjoying this pup (I nicknamed her Bella) And even though my first interest is titling her in Sch., It might be fun to try the show ring, too.

If you post the site where the pup came from, some people here could possibly help make heads/tails from it. All I need is some pedigree links, then I can tell you what you have. Did he tell you who here parents from the website are? Am I understanding correct that you don't even know who her parent's are? Just asking-I know she was a gift-just wondering if you knew.

That WAS pretty darned nice of the guy to send you a nice puppy. Congrats, and I'm glad to hear your good deed yielded such pleasant howbeit unexpected results. Enjoy her-whether she's working or show, she can be trained and titled in obedience work and thus show back your appreciation to your friend. Best wishes with her!

Congrats on the new pup!   My question is:  Why does it matter if she is show or working lines?  If she shows the potenial to work, why not pursue the work.  I've trained many showline GSD's to work in schutzhund and SAR.  Why not let the dogs ability determine your course of action.  Sometimes the showlines can take a little more effort and creative training techniques.  If you are not into competing at higher levels or breeding, then it shouldn't really matter.  It's just more time spent with your dogs, training and bonding. Build the drive and work the dog.  Happy Training!!!

Aloha,

Jim  

Congratulations on your new pup!  What generous people you must be to inspire such generosity in return.  What a lucky puppy!

Don't get caught up in a lot of the nonsense you read that show dogs can't work and vice versa.  Raise her exactly as you want.  If that's exclusively working, great.  If as a show line you need to do things a little differently, you'll know by her responses what she needs to build drive or whatever.  I'M NOT SAYING THIS WILL HAPPEN, I'm just saying raise her as you want.  If she turns out to have the looks for show, then you can do that too down the road.

As to the white hairs, how old is she?  My response it don't worry about small bits of white.  If she's young they'll probably go away.  Last year I bought an 8wk old puppy who had a little white on two toes.  I was assured it would go away.  Only one of all his toenails was white and I thought, well, that's a bummer, but I liked him by far the best of the litter so I bought him.  Sure enough the white hairs are gone and at 12 months THE WHITE TOENAIL IS NOW BLACK-STRIPED.  I would never have believed this if I hadn't seen it myself.  I don't know if it will stay striped or turn black all the way but you'd have to pick up his back foot and examine it to see the white on the nail today.  Very cool. 

Good luck!

Thanks everybody for all the kind words and encouragement! Bella came from Ernetranch, and her name on her passport is Jena v.d. Ernetranch. I was looking on the site for a "J" litter but didn't find any pups. She was born in March, so is still a baby. She is black and tan, with a lot of black, which I personally really like. The tan is dark and rich. She does have the stance of the show dogs, with the slightly sloped back. She seems to have a nice, heavy bone structure, and her face looks like a little bear, with a somewhat short muzzle. I really need to get a new camera so I can share some pictures.

She really was an amazing, unexpected and generous gift!  I want her to reach her full potential and like the idea of letting her show us what she's capable of. I have read some really cool "creative training" ideas that people have posted here. I will definitely keep posting her progress, and be asking more questions.  It would be awesome if she could excel in Sch and get titled in the show ring, but if we don't do well in either, I know at least she is very bright and a fast learner, so we can find another avenue for her... But I do have a good feeling about her!

Hey, Kind of off topic here, I don't know if I have just been lucky in temperment department with my two, or it's the breed, but  my year old male, Galan,  right from day one, has been extremely gentle and even submissive with my now 15 month old son. He can go from practicing bitework and all hyped up to coming indoors and crawling all over the floor on his belly when he sees the baby! Bella does her puppy biting on everything,yet she sits down next to my son and licks his fingers. Of course I still never leave my kids unattended with the dogs, but I bet if I wanted to I could. Are most shepherds this good with kids?

Thank you-that sheds some light into it.
A majority of the dogs shown to be owned by ErnetRanch are essentially West German show line-lots of good bloodlines in their dogs like Hill Farbenspiel, Ursus Batu, Ursus' son Yasko Farbenspiel, Karly Arminius, Esko Danischen Hof, etc. http://www.ernetranch.de/hunde.php.  There is some French/European show lines(Amos is registered LOF which I believe is French), but they're still similar to WGR show. Looks like a decent enough smaller kennel.

The one sable male Harras is working lines.

So, depending on who your puppy's parents are will now tell you what you've got bloodline-wise.

You could contact Klaus Kubczak of ErnetRanch via email at info @ ernetranch.de.  Tell him you have a hundinnen(female dog) produced by him, give him the DOB, and ask him who the vater and mutter are of your puppy. Keep the English VERY to the point and clear and don't write long emails-he may not be very sharp on English to understand alot of 'small talk', so consider such. You may want to identify your 'friend' you helped to him also-your friend might be who obviously purchased or got the dog for you. It might help tie you up some loose ends concerning knowing about your puppy. Hope that helps.