New From South Africa.. Hi :) - Page 1

Hi,

My name is Leendert, and the picture below is my shepherd, Max. He is 2 days from ten months old, and hes a pretty big boy, about 100-110 lbs. So far life with him has been a dream, that said it always good to have people to ask questions when you feel out of your depth.

Max is my first shepherd, and only my second dog. He is not registered as such, I found him in the back garden of, well, a less than ideal breeders house. His grand fathers do seem to be on this site and I did get to see his parents. Depite having had another dog on order, I took my wild, mangy, wormy pup home. Scared myself half to death when we got home, he was wild, he ate wires and didnt want terribly much to do with me. That said, despite being 9 weeks old, he was pretty much house trained. Between my golden retriever and myself though we soon got him calmed down and relaxed. Now when you ask him to be, hell be the a fantastic lap dog, hell sit on your lap, and kiss you for days.

At this point in his life we've done all the normal basic obedience classes, and when hes not feeling stubborn hes pretty great. Probably more accurately said, when I'm not a rubbish handler hes amazing. He is great with other dogs in the park and such, avoids conflict completely, and although he will ignore most dogs, he occasionaly makes friends. Most recently, an Italian Greyhoud called Jason. Haven't had any strange dogs in our house yet, not sure how friends bringing their dogs over will work.

I'd love to try do working dog type stuff with him, he has massive tenacity and he will under no circumstance give up on a task you give him or anything he sets his mind to really, if hes 'searching' for his tennis ball in the forest, he will not stop till he finds it which creates a problem if I've accidentally thrown the ball over the wall or something like that. The dogs on his fathers side of the family are all Police Dogs too, I assume that must help. I've tried to do lots of 'prey-drive' encouraging type stuff with him, that I've mostly found on these boards. I'm quite sure that if the 'prey' were that arm thingie hed bite the nonsense out of it too. If anyone knows of a trainer in Cape Town that could help me, that would be wonderful. There is a club here, but they turn up their nose at him a bit because he is not registered with them, and I dont really care for that enviroment, training should be fun I think. I know from my very limited experience thus far that it goes much better when we enjoying ourselves.



I made him pose for this picture, it was a beautiful fun day, thought it deserved a few nice pictures. I'd better get back to work, it is 9am in South Arrican after all..

Regards,
Leendert




Grandfather 1:
http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/dog.html?id=603652

Grandfather 2:
http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/dog.html?id=615393
Grandmother 2:
http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/dog.html?id=615397

well it's 1:26 in the A.M. here.
welcome.

Leendert, hi
Welcome! There are a few clubs in Cape Town, GSD as well as 'all breed' clubs. Google KUSA for clubs near where you are, or try GSDF. You should be able to join a GSDFederation club even if you cannot enter your dog in shows. (training is what we want)
Everything of the best for you with your dog.

Hi Leendert, He looks beautiful. I love the black shepherds! my previous girl was an older hill shepherd. Did you get him from Olderhill? Regards

Two Moons:

Thank you...

Six13:

Hi, thank you. There is a kennel in Pretoria called Cornfields, and they brought the dogs over from England. Max's father came from Cornfields and was at the time the most beautiful and imposing animal I had seen. Max however came from the a man who should not breed dogs or raise dogs, he just happened to have a beautful male and a puppy I fell in love with. Sometimes you see a puppy, and just know it is yours.

Frankow:

Hi, Max is a member of the Cape Province Dog Club, but yes I think we will have to join a Shepherd specific club. This message board has gotten me super motivated to train/title whatever else I can a dog. Not at all for breeding or anything like that, but I really enjoy working with the big boy.

Q Man:

Thanks for your mesage. Here is the big boy up close.