SAR Evaluations & Clueless Owners - Page 1

 Hi Everyone, 

We evaluated three (3) GSD's for our SAR team this weekend. I was so excited because I thought !!yea!! finally, we are going to get some GSD's on our team. We are currently a lab and border collie dominated team. Our dog evaluation consists of a basic dog information questionnaire and testing the of dogs socialness, sight and noise sensitivity and drives. Here's how the interviews and testing went:

Candidate #1: (10 mos old / med.small/ nice structure)
Where did the dog come from? Friend of a friend heard this guy who is supposed to be a breeder had some puppies to give away.
Do you know anything about the dogs parentage? No idea if parents had hips or elbows done. Did not know if parents are even registered.
Have you had hips / elbows x-rayed? Yes, prelim. on hips no elbows.
The dog was very social, high energy, medium drives, sight and sound did great. Showed promise as a prospect.

Candidate #2: (15 mos old / Size of SMALL PONY not proportionate)
Where did the dog come from? Breeder.
Do you know anything about parents? They are registered. I think they have had hips xrayed.
What were the hip results of parents? Not sure.
Does the dog come from working lines? What's that??
Have you had the dogs Hips / Elbows x-rayed? Yes, hips are being done every 3 mos, no elbows.
The dog was accepting of people but not overly friendly, low energy, low drive, easily distracted, did OK with sound and sight. Note: The dog was still intact.

Candidate #3: (7 mos / med.- lg / nice structure)
Where did the dog come from? Breeder of Blue Working lines. Breeder said this pup would make a great SAR dog.
Do you know anything about the parents? Both parents working line, hips good.
Does the dog have any health issues? Had cryptorchidism but has been fixed.
Have you had hips / elbows x-rayed? Not yet.
Dog was social, low energy, low-med drive, sight and sound did great. 

The point of this thread is, I am amazed that some of these people were so clueless about the parentage of their dogs, out of three interviews only one person even had a clue what type of dog is needed to become a successful SAR dog and the dog that showed the most promise was probably a mix (which is OK).

I am also amazed that the breeder (who picked out the pup for the owner) of the blue W/L thought this pup would be a great SAR dog. Makes me leery of buying a pup from a breeder who insists on picking out the pup for me.

C

I would allow the buyer to see the litter, evaluate and then give the buyers my observations on which puppy/s I believe would be a good candidate and why. For someone who has raised and trained SAR dogs in the past the puppy raising part should be no problem at all. They know what to do. On the other side of the coin, a puppy with loads of potential can be ruined by inexperienced first time handlers. I would reccomend a first time handler go with an older dog that has been properly raised and socialized so there is less chance the drive that is there will be squashed.

The last dog evaluated may have shown good potential as a puppy but if the owners did not properly raise it, building drive, socialization etc... then the dog is a wash. All you can do is evaluate  the dog you have in front of you.

Just my thoughts.