Common People, Common sense, and Opportunity = Success - Page 1

There is so much discussion it seems to me on what is and what isn't a Czech dog that at times I feel like it's like chasing the wind. In most cases it looks like we are trying to recreate instead of trying to create. By that I mean if were not going forward were going backwards. First , I think we can all agree that there are no perfect dogs,people, horses, and the list goes on. Before I go much farther let me say  I am certainly no authority on anything. I have no degree in genetics. The only certifications I possess are welding certs which I have a stack of, since I've been a pipe welder all my life, until I retired last year. The only thing I can offer is my experience. I have always had dogs, and horses. They have always been a big part of my life and I've always strived to have the best in them. Now saying that, comes the important part. Greatness can only be evaluated by the standard you judge them by. As a 10 year old kid in the 50's I was given a german shepherd pup by a old man that had a shoe shine chair outside of a book store that I got to be friends with. The dogs name was garr. Man he looked just like Rin tin tin. At about 2 years old he was strong, athletic, and the smartest dog I ever saw. We didn't have video games and didn't watch tv much, but we had a big vacant field by our house and all the neighborhood kids would dig fox holes and we would play army or cowboys and indians. That dog would lay in the fox hole and crawl on his belly to attack the other guys. we used dirt clods for bullets. if someone would try to escape i'd send garr to catch them. He would attack them knock them down and wouldn't let them up till I told him. But he would never hurt them. I was kind of cocky growing up so when a grownup would try to run us off I'd call for him and he would immediately get between me and them and look at them and growl. I'd always end up staying. On my birthday he was in a pen and my grandpa was going to give me a birthday spanking and he was chasing me, I ran and jumped on garrs pen and he exploded on my grand dad and that cost him his life. You can only judge greatness by the standard you judge greatness by.  

Ran out of room, sorry didn't mean to write a book. As I grew up I was fortunate to know a guy that field trial dogs. he had a english pointer that was a super  dog. I started working dogs with him and since he also had reg. quarter horses so I eventually got into horses. At any rate he was the best english pointer I ever saw. I got a female from him that I latter bred and raised a litter from. One female won the national chucker championship puppy class, and the following year with another pup won the national chucker championship derby dog class. Latter in life i got into nite hunts The guy that got me into that had a grandnite ch. dog that I ended up as his handler. Later on after I started raising my own I took one of mine to the grand national in Green Castle, Indiana and placed third. Later I had a pup at that time was the youngest dog ever to qualify for the world hunt. I've been back with german shepherds for about 17 years. I know from experience I can't be Jiri Novotny or Hans or so many others that have had great dogs and don't have a desire to be. I do not want to clone what they have had. I value their advice and knowledge. But the only standard I can judge my dogs by is by what I've seen. I don't know Koos Hassing but I love what he said about the bark and hold of this one dog, he said he could almost feel the dogs heart like you could in some of the old czech dogs. If he had not seen it before he would not have recognized it. In closing be around the best you can, learn the qualities of their greatness and you will always strive for greatness in your dogs. You are the only one that knows what you're looking for I'm still looking for garr. All my dogs came from Czech or Czech lines but they're not Czech, They are Mine!!

Very well said