That was way too much fun!! - Page 1

Last week I had my 9 month old GSD into the vet to get a microchip and the receptionist and I got to talking about an Open House they were having today and she asked if I wanted to come out with my dogs as there would be demos and contests.
Since I've been looking for good venues to continue to socialize my boy and it's just fun to take my girl out in public I said I would and that I could do a small SchH demo, which they were excited about.

So we went today.

Now most of you know my dogs by now, if not here they are:

Hanni Apanta rei

And

Eric Vicona.

Yes as you can see they are those 'killer Czech' working line dogs.

Eric spent the day being crawled on by little kids who kept coming up and throwing their arms around his neck because he's so fluffy and cuddly.  Every time I looked around, he had some small person wrapped around his neck, his shoulders, his hips and at one time a baby in a stroller had gotten hold of his tail and was investigating it.  All this on a 9 month old, intact young male who took every touch, approach, sniff and investigation with relaxed aplomb. 

Hanni did a demo for tracking, which had people coming up and talking to us about tracking and SchH even though we weren't one of the offical booths.  She got snuggles from her vet and all the techs who just love her and at one point was in a small enclosed area playing ball with kids and adults alike.  They all loved her 'airs above the ground' leaps for tennis balls and the way she always brought them back for more games, ignoring all the other dogs who were running around in the area with her.

We did 'Gablout' and dumbbell retrieves for the 'tricks' contest and won first place easily which was a great deal of fun because there was quite the crowd, tons of strange dogs and horses doing pony rides but my girl never gave it all a second look as soon as her dumbbell came out!

I was genuinely shocked that by the end of the event I kept having people coming up to talk about my two dogs and everybody was discussing the two 'German Shepherds'!  

Trials and the scorebook is a wonderful thing, don't get me wrong but what is even more fun is being able to confidently take my dogs out to a friendly, chaotic event like the one today and know they are really going to shine as ambassedors to the GSD breed.

That's fantastic!  Congrats on the behavior of your dogs.

Thank you GSDTravels!

It was funny, we also had the old lab out with us and she was the one who got mouthy at other dogs.  The Shepherds never even looked at another dog.

Congratulations on having two such very well behaved dogs! 

All from high drive working lines.  LOL  Congrats on some well behaved dogs. By the way beautiful dogs.

Thank you Sunsilver, I was just so proud of them!  They made the day such a good time!!

SP, thank you!  They are both high drive and Hanni has of course been taught in drive, which is why I about burst like a proud as punch Mom when I watched her playing today with the little kids and adults.  Even though there were balls being tossed around she was relaxed and easy in her play, not the hard 'in drive' play she and I do.

That clear head (on and off switch) is what I love about both my dogs.

What great ambassadors for the breed.

Kudos!

Michele

Thank you, Michele!

Beautiful dogs! Sounds like an awesome day was had by all :-)
I am bad about constantly posting pictures of my dogs with my kids...Like you said:

"That clear head (on and off switch) is what I love about both my dogs."

Thanks for sharing!
Stacy

Vom,

Thank you!  I would be just as bad about posting pictures of the dogs if I could ever get them to slow down long enough to have pictures taken!

It was a fantastic time and I was just extremely proud with how they both handled themselves, especially the puppy.  At one point he had a tiny teacup poodle standing on his foot and I lost count of how many people wanted to take pictures of my two GSDs.

It hurts, at times, when people on this board say degrading things about the working lines, calling them 'killers' or 'junkyard dogs' so it really just makes me so happy to take them out and watch them both behave with poise and grace.