GSD the working dogs, are your sure? - Page 1

All have seen or heard of ppl trying to live their dreams through their kids (the penne ramsey girl RIP), will smiths kids, the college football player who never made the NFL.........SOME push their kids so hard and far into what they decide their kids should do that their kids never get to be kids. I THINK THATS CRAZY............

ARF ARF to your dog, how much is to much 2 work your dog, Captain Max von Stephanitz  was trying to create a super herding dog.  God gave us dominion over animals, after garden of eden, but what exactly did he mean by that.  The elephant was not designed to do circus tricks, so when he buggs out, i laugh and say good 4 him, the (old navy) monkey that bugged out and ripped the police car door off, GOOD FOR HIM.... @ what point are we doing to much and trying to MAKE thines socum to our will regaurdsless of Gods intentions for them.  For that matter I LUV GSD'S glad their around, but if God wanted them around wouldnt he have made them, and not us.

Is your Dog really supposed to be a Protection dog, a bomb sniffing dog, or should he herd only, and if he wants to, are we being uber human by makeing our dogs work. now im not saying by any means dont train your dog, (for that matter im not even sure how i feel about this whole topic) to live with us dogs must be trainned to a certain level, BUT WHAT LEVEL IS THAT?

This is something i was thinkin about when i woke up an hour ago. just wanted to bring this up as sort of a "lets c what others think". Im not even exactly sure what i think..........

I am having a hard time understanding exactly what you are saying...pardon me! lol.

I believe that making wild animals work for our entertainment is different than training working dogs. I believe that most dogs love to please humans and enjoy working and doing what we may ask from them. I think for the most part police k9s, detection dogs, service dogs, farm dogs, ect...love what they do. Its wonderful they have a job to do. They dont look at it as a job, rather a fun game and making their human happy!

One also has to remember that these dogs have been bred for specific traits for 100s of years.  The trainability, drive, and conformation to do the work. 

High drive dog + nothing to do= disaster, destroyed house, etc.

A perfect example would be one of our working sheepdogs.  Kept in the house as a puppy - fed, walked and all early training and socialising done by me.  You would think the bond would be very strong, well, it was, but as soon as my husband started working the dog fully with sheep I became of much lesser importance - they live for and love their work.

i tend to agree, i have a tendency 2 overthink things @ times,like i said it was just something i was thinking about, I dont wanna b part of a fad/trend, and be unfair 2 my dog.  has anyone seen a dog pushed to hard well past the point of "work they love" where is that line?

I've seen everything pushed too hard, including people thinking too hard, yet these cases are exceptions and should not be set up as examples for change....because there are countless examples of these dogs being successful in the things you mentioned. Unfortunately, today there is a pet mentality that has given ample foundation for pet breeders to emerge. These pet dogs from pet breeders often are not capable of the stressful applications of use for this dog....but that's the world we live in!

Every dog has its talents, and it is up to us humans to figure out what those talents are. IF your dog hates water, for example, you're not going to train him to retrieve water fowl.

My female loves to track so much that if she sees the tracking harness, she does a happy dance, and starts fussing and whining. She then runs over and sticks her head into it, and lifts her right leg so I can put it on her..She does the same thing if I pick up her service dog vest, though I wouldn't think accompanying me to the store is nearly as interesting as doing tracking.

One reason I don't criticize Cesar Millan too much is when Marley's owner (Marley the lab,the one the movie is based on) got another lab after Marley's death, and the dog became destructive, Cesar told the owners she needed to work off her instinctive drives to retrieve. That's what labs were bred for. The owners listened, and began 'working' with her and she became a much nicer dog to live with.

Gustav, LOL, at thinking too hard :)

...some people need to have some coffee before typing.

I have only had one cup of coffee and this post is too much for me.