The Gosselin GSDs- as sad as we thought it'd be - Page 1

Just thought I'd throw an update out there, since this was a hot topic here when "Jon and Kate plus 8" bought these 2 GSD pups.

My fiancee was watching American Chopper and for some reason they were having a picnic with the Gosselin family. The dogs were wandering around, coming near to the food, at which Kate freaked out, calling it "Gross" and made Jon put the dogs away. She said, "Put them in their crate thing!" told him he'd "be in trouble if (he) let them out before lunch was over" and "put them in their crate, that's where dogs belong".

How sad, I hope the breeder is proud of her choice to sell these dogs to them.

edit : holy crap those dogs are fat and in dire need of a brushing!

HA!  I like American Choppers and I saw it too, she could not hide her contempt and disgust at the dogs and she was screaching at the top of her lungs!  I don't think Kate will fight him over dog custody, which is a good thing.  In fact, I wonder if her hubby got them  purely out of spite in the first place. 

Raymond -- as long as the word dog or puppy is mentioned, you are ALLOWED to post it (I guess).  

Why would anyone want to watch that dumb show ??

Here *I* am again? Check out my post history and then kiss my ample behind, sir.  I post on GSDs related topics the majority of the time, and I've been on posting this board a long time, back when it was only frequented y people who had an interest in the working german shepherd dog.

The topic of the Gosselins getting 2 GSD pups was discussed here before, at length, because, like it or not, the press associated with it DOES affect the GSD. But I guess people who do NOTHING with their GSDs outside their own yard would not understand that.

It sure as hell is more pertinent that tax hikes, Obama, and Michael Jackson.

Oh no, darling, those are MY personal pet trolls.  They follow me around where ever I go,  they hang on my every word, they want to be sure I understand at all times how very important I am to them.

Let me just say I think it's silly to post political issues on a dog board, there are TONS of current event/politcal boards all over the internet to frequent.  That said, it doesn't bother me so much that I feel the need to have a conniption, make posts about other posts, or post scolding you all for it. I simply ignore them. Because 1) It's pretty easy for me to ignore, I just look for topics I DO want to read/post on and 2) You and a few others CLEARLY do it to piss people off over the internet whom you have never even met. I'm not going to waste my time nor enable anyone's mental illness.

Now, anything that brings the GSD into the public eye (the story was all over the internet when they bought the pups) is, in my opinion at least, an on topic discussion for a dog board, particularly GSDs.  I could really care less what you discuss, as I've said, I just ignore the posts I am not interested in. However, when I attempt to make an on topic thread and you use it to name call someone else, I hope you realize what a petty cretin you make yourself out to be. I also hope english is your second language, with that grammar. Good day.

Well kczaja apparantly you can not see that the thing you deplore is actually what you are doing! Now I trust that you also believe that ever increasing taxes does affect the future of gsd? Any time I am required to pay more in taxes it relieves me of money I could better put to use training my gsd and providing for her future. I seem to see less disqust about the vulgar threads as I do the so called political ones! One example being the cost of a quality dog cage to put in my safari van1 Instead of paying more and more for gasoline and utilities I would be able to afford those thousand dollar cages! Or maybe those 650 dollar cages. You sure can not find them at the thrift store now can one?

 Pedigreedatabase-German Shepherd dog General topic.............what part of that makes anyone think that this board is for anything besides German Shepherd Dog General Topics? This is not a discussion board for anything but DOG topics. For those obviously dyslexic folks who think we are discussing GOD, you have our sympathy.....but we mean DOGS, one of His creations, four-footed & fur covered, Man's Best Friend, & all that. Let me know where your favorite religious/ political discussion board is, so I can post about my bitch in heat, or my male who licks himself, or when the best time to x-ray hips is, or how to teach 'suche' or 'fuss' or any of the things we used to discuss here before you haters came along & ruined it.  What a bunch of ignorami! You all target the very people who have been struggling to keep this board alive & on it's original purpose. You impress no-one. With every post, you prove your indifference to what this board is about. GO AWAY!              jackie harris

I didn't see the show...Never could stand it.  The two of them argue a lot, and if I wanted to see that, I could argue with my hubby:-)

It is a sad thing when a family with that many young kids gets a dog.  It's fine if they have time, but with the way the woman insists on controlling everything, it wasn't likely to have a happy outcome.  There's just too much to do with eight small kids to begin to have the time and energy to train two little GSD pups.

I have taught Misty, our mix, (and am in the process of training Oakley) to go lie down when there's food around.  If the dog is getting up on counters, laps, tables, etc, it's the owner's fault for not training the dog correctly.  You can't expect a dog to just know what you want it to know.  Takes time and patience...

Got to love the down/stay!

Crys

 ...and now that Jon's gone, it's even sadder....  Tonight while watching the most recent episode of  J&K+8, I noticed at the very end of their "Camping Out" episode that the cameras had filmed the children standing near the house in front of the basement's glass doors.

In the basement, viewers could see the two German Shepherds, and it was plain to see that, despite all the extra space available around the washer, dryer, and exercise equipment, these TWO large dogs had been confined to ONE metal crate and were essentially having to lie draped on top of one another.  While the dogs may be only 7-8 months old and not fully grown, there was certainly not sufficient room for them to move around comfortably in that crate, let alone have any sort of space to themselves.

I was concerned enough to send an immediate email to TLC about this aspect of their programming, and explained how I believed that the cramped physical conditions forced on these large and growing dogs is unacceptable.  If anyone wants to join in on voicing their concern, the link for providing input to TLC is:

http://extweb.discovery.com/viewerrelations

and here's the comment I sent them:

"As a positive-reinforcement dog trainer currently living in El Paso, Texas, I would like to express my concern and discomfiture at seeing the Gosselin's two full-grown sized German Shepherds being forced to share a single cage intended to hold ONE grown dog of that size during the August 3rd airing of "Camping Out" on Jon & Kate Plus 8. Whether or not the dogs are permitted the privilege of entering any other areas of the house and living among the humans as family pack members, forcing them to exist in a basement setting and spend time in such cramped conditions, for however limited a time, is tantamount to animal abuse."

Maybe I'm overreacting, but I replayed the program segment several times just to make sure I hadn't imagined the paucity of space for those two large dogs. For anyone who saw the show, thanks in advance for any thoughts and/or support!