Opinions and experiences of this working line... - Page 1

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/pedigree/561432.html

For those of you that have experience with this line of GSD's, what are your opinions and expectations?  What have you noticed out of the pups as far as drives?  Temperment? Health?  Do they show a whole lot of drive and focus as youngsters?  Are they slow to mature? 

I know my way around the DDR pedigrees as well as most of the west german working lines, but these lines are a little new to me. 

Thanks

Work Work and More Work. Clear in the head. No On OFF switch and slow to mature.

cheers

Donl;t start defence before 20 + months. Do the outing correctly least by correction.

I meant Defence not protection

cheers

Im quite sure Veronica K9 can fill you in since she owns ALtos..He is a lover boy..I do know that.

She will probably see this post and let us all know what to expect. , at least his part of the pedigree.

Good lines. Don't worry he'll settle down ........maybe at 6-7years. Good luck.

I expect he's a biting machine right now. How is he on the bite? Really calm or still some vocal and thrashing? Won't be a fun puppy or I should say easy puppy to raise, watch for dominance issues. You will probably see bidability come at about a year, before that I bet you get allot of the finger form him. Work that damn dog now don't wait till 20 months, that's craziness. Socialize the crap out of him, take him everywhere and show him everything. Whatch his environmental reactions to new things, I expect sure as all hell and a really solid dog. I have pretty much that top half in my male too and then you have Tom again on the bottom. The DDR dogs I don't know much about but hopefully your boy will take on the Tom stuff. He'll probably be a one man dog.

Hardness, courage, FIGHTING DRIVE.

I have a male from this litter also ...has settled in nicely ,and has already started to give me attitude ...gotta love it !!!I love him already and can't wait to see how matures out ...I think he will be one powerful , working dog ...already he is fast onto the bite and his grip is full and calm ..here's hoping ....

I have Athos v.h. Sevens, the sire of Dissy.  I got him last year at six, so what I observe of him is as a male with loads of great training and maturity.  Athos can cap his drives and settle down in the house...for a while.  Then up and busy again.  At this point, he needs to be crated or he'll make tug toys out of the seat cushions. 

In training, he leaks drive, he can get noisy, so you should put a lid on that so it does not interfere with training down the road. Crushing, full to the "grin ends", calm bite.  His bite is a another whole level UP according to helpers.   Loves to work work work.   Territorial of house and truck, protective of the family. Good athletism.  He has fantastic good common sense.  Likes children, and has good manners around smaller ones.  Never handler aggressive, no matter how I push him. 

When I broke my ankle and was in great pain until they could do the operation a WEEK after the break, to set it and plate it, Athos showed endearing caretaking behaviors.  "Dr. Athos" was checking out my leg a couple times a day, so gently with his nose like like it was an expensive diagnostic instrument, to see if I was better I guess, licking me gently if I seemed to be in particularly bad pain, moving very carefully around me and he NEVER bumped me like most of the other dogs did.  I've used him as a mobility assistance service dog a couple of times...prey drive goes away like it does not exist as he took his job seriously and helped me walk around the house with my hand on his back.  We did this later outside when I forgot my crutch and hurt my ankle, trying not to cry, hobbling around on the rocky area by the kennels.  I needed his aid to get back to my crutch, up the hill, him off leash and he was just sticking with me carefully, helping bear my weight until I could get my hands on my crutch. 

I think this caretaking ability is just in the line.  Athos has some close ancestors he shares with Zidane v.h. Sevens, and Zidane did much more of this for Marlene's late mother when she was so ill.  I love that part of  Athos.

I have produced only two litters of Athos pups just yet, though two more are due soon.  My daughter kept one from this last litter out of Zulma van't Leefdaalhof, so I'll have one to observe.  She was not the highest high drive pup in the litter, just the one whose personality clicked with Autumn.  It was a great litter of nine healthy high drive pups.

Veronica

I can't say anything about the dam's side, but I have a Tom grandson and am very pleased with him.  His drives were not extreme from the start, but rather came on strong around 7 mos and show no signs of slowing.  Mine actually does have a good off switch and overall is a very biddable, pleasant dog to live with.  I agree with the above comments about being clear headed and having a good work ethic.