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In 2004, my husband suffered a stroke. The hospital let me bring him home for Valentine's day.

We had a very special dinner together. For dessert, I served Hagen Daz ice cream, with strawberries cut into heart shapes. Roger dearly loved our dog, Tasha, and Tasha loved ice cream, so naturally, Roger shared his dessert with her, including the strawberries. Now, if any of you have ever used Fowler's Extract, you will know that strawberries are a laxitive, especially when given to animals that don't normally eat fruit!

Fast forward to the next evening...Roger was back in the hospital. Tasha woke me at 2 in the morning, with that bark that meant "I have to go out.,..RIGHT NOW!"

It was freezing cold in the downstairs hallway, and blowing a near-blizzard outside. Tasha's leash was in a hopeless tangle on the hall floor, and I was close to shivering, had a pounding headache, and couldn't bear the thought of taking the time to untangle it.

"She'sl not going to want to stay out very long with the weather the way it is," I thought. "It should be safe to turn her out without  the tie-out."

I opened the door, and she raced outside. I then retired to the living room couch, and coccooned myself in a blanket.

A couple of minutes later, I got up and went to the door. No Tasha. I called. No sign of her. Uh-oh.

Twice more I went to the door. On the third try, I knew we were both in trouble....deep, deep trouble. On the wings of the howling wind I detected a very strong whiff of skunk.

The next time I went to the door, one very sorry-looking German Shepherd was cowering on the step, trying vainly to wipe the burning stink off her face and out of her eyes. I left her there for a few minutes, while I thought out a game plan.

It was 2 am. There were no drugstores open nearby where I could buy hydrogen peroxide, and, even if I could find some, I was in no shape to destink her. I had been feeling really sorry for myself after I'd dropped Roger off at the hospital, and had drowned my sorrows in booze. As a result, I had a really bad headache, and my stomach wasn't in great shape either.

I finally decided to put her in the downstairs guest bathroom, and retreated to my bedroom. Her howls of protest would be muted by the house walls, so hopefully the neighbours wouldn't be disturbed, and, without my hearing aids in, I couldn't hear her, either. The bathroom was the smallest room in the house, and would be the easiest to clean.

The next day, I used Dr. Paul Krebaum's skunk remedy on her, and one treatement was enough to turn a badly skunked dog into one that was fit for human company again!

Here's the Skunk Remedy Home Page: home.earthlink.net/~skunkremedy/home/. Don't bother with tomato juice, it doesn't work, but this stuff REALLY does!

That was one Valentine's Day I'll certainly never forget! 

I miss you, Roger, and I miss you, Tasha...

I would sometimes take Tasha (the gal in my sig) with me while I was doing nursing visits. I didn't live in or visit areas where people were likely to think I was carrying drugs, but the "Visiting Nurse" placard in my front window might have tempted someone to break in.

Tasha was EXTREMELY posessive of the car. If you so much as laid a finger on it, she would jump at the window, snarling and barking. I'm sure in the 14 years I had her, she gave more than one person a pair of wet pants.

This particular day, as I assessed my patient, it became obvious a trip to the hospital was in order. The man's son called 911, then I said I'd have to go and move my car, to make room for the ambulance.

"Just give me your keys. I'll do it," he replied.

I handed him the keys, totally forgetting my watchdog was on duty! 

Suddenly, I remembered, and went racing through the house, to find he was already behind the wheel of my vehicle, and backing it up!   Tasha was sitting calmly on the back seat.

I think one of the best traits a true GSD can have is discernment, and I like to think that's what Tasha was using in this particular case. I guess she could sense the man's confidence, and decided to let him into the car without any argument. If he has shown nervousness or fear I am sure the outcome would have been quite different!

Re: just the presence being enough...

The lady who runs the local pet food store is used to dogs of all shapes and sizes. But even she took a step back, and exclaimed 'holy ****!' when I opened the tailgate of my SUV, to reveal 2 German shepherds, and Shiloh shepherd, even though the dogs were displaying no aggression whatsoever!

The female in my sig photo had weak pasterns, hare feet, poor bone, not enough muzzle stop, and the muzzle was too long and her ears too big. Her rear end was as high as her withers. She was a rescue of dubious ancestry, but let a stranger wander onto the property uninvited, and she would attack without hesitation. She had a high energy level and could run like a greyhound. I wish I'd known about schutzhund in those days...well, I DID know about it, I just didn't think we'd be able to do it, as I thought she had to have papers for it.

One night, a large dog came running out of someone's garage to attack my husband while he was riding his bike. Tasha and I were already down at the end of the street when he called her name. She broke from heel, and came racing back down the street. With teeth bared, and hackles up, she backed the much bigger dog off the road and into the garage.

Roger spoiled her rotten for the next week or so...

Of all the GSDs I've owned, her temperment was closest to the ideal, but fire in the eyes? I'm not sure I see it. 

Here she is at the age of 12, on a hot summer's day in Algonquin Park.  We were a little more than halfway through a very rugged hike. Roger had just said the word "squirrel" to get her attention for the photo. We've both gone grey since the picture in my sig, which was taken when Tasha was a year and a half old.

Tasha: Please, just ONE??



Sunny and Tasha: two happy girls!


Star, my toy hog and toy destroyer: YUM!! Does this taste good!



It lasted about 10 days before she chewed a hole in it. Better than some toys I gave her...

And, of course, this sequence of photos, where she's playing with my room mate's chihuahua/daschund cross! http://s14.photobucket.com/user/Sunsilver/media/Star%20and%20Toby%20Playing/IMG_1275.jpg.html?sort=6&o=0


Closest I've managed to come to snapping a photo of her sleeping with the ball (Bad Cuz) in her mouth. The noise the camera makes when I switch it on always wakes her up!



Ranger is my most dignified dog. This is about as goofy as HE gets...





 

My late husband used to take his Volvo to a repair shop in Aurora. The guy who owned it would let us bring our GSD into his office. He was sitting in his office chair, looking up a part for the car, and Tasha (the dog in my sig) came over and gave him a sniff.

"What do you want, Tasha?" he asked. "Too bad you can't talk. You know, I can speak dog..." He then gave a series of barks and yips.

Tasha looked him right in the eye, and gave a low growl. He backed off, and lifted the parts binder so it was between him and our girl.

Roger and I were both killing ourselves laughing.

"I guess she doesn't like your accent, Jim!" I said.

My priority on meeting small children would be to make absolutely sure the kids knew how to respect my dog, and not do anything that might trigger a bite. Even the best-natured dog can get upset it a kid pulls its ears or pokes a finger in its eyes.

My husband was introducing our GSD, Tasha, to some kids from the Sunday school. One little girl quite deliberately stepped on the dog's tail! I think she was feeling left out, as the dog was getting all the attention.

Luckily, my husband had the dog under good control, because Tasha was never that great with kids. But I think the girl learned an important lesson when the dog lunged and snapped at her!

You just NEVER know what kids are going to do! I have a book by Brian Killcommon, called "Childproofing Your Dog'. His #1 rule is NEVER leave your dog(s) alone with your kids, no matter HOW trustworthy you think they are!

When the gal in my sig was on her last legs at 14 1/2, I rescued a 3 year old male GSD from Quebec.

Two weeks after I brought him home, Tasha died in her sleep.

While I dug her grave, Ranger, the rescue, stood watching, as though he was expecting me to turn up a nice, juicy bone. Or maybe he was hoping for a good-sized rock, one of his favourite toys. He'd been kept chained to a dog house, and about the only things he had to play with were the rocks he dug out of the sandy soil.

When I stopped to rest, he came and crawled into my lap, and licked the sweat and tears off my face.

A short time later, he picked up a brick that had been part of the edging along a flowerbed, and began prancing around with it in his mouth. He then dropped it on the ground, and began pushing it end over end with his nose. Once he got it rolling down the slope, he began barking at it, as if it was alive!

I swear he knew I was feeling sad, and was trying to make me laugh!

He's 11 years old now, a little stiff in the rear end, and sleeps a lot more, but other than that, he's still going strong! 

And he STILL plays with rocks! 

Yes, it would.

It's very similar to my girl Tasha, who also had a reverse mask:
 
There's a lot of gray in her face in this picture, as she was 12 years old. She lived to be 14 1/2. That's her in my sig pic, at just over a year old.

Pfft! That's NOTHING, Dawulf!

When the gal in my sig reached the last year of her life (age 14) she developed 'old dog coat'. This happens when the metabolism slows down due to age, and the dog grows an extra-heavy coat to compensate.

For some reason, she began shedding in late December. As you can see from the time stamp on this photo, this was January 2nd. I stopped after doing only ONE side of her body, as she was never overly fond of being brushed, and I didn't want to upset her too much!

I remember getting a call from the neighbour to the south of me one day, saying there was a dog picking through the garbage of the neigbhour just to the north of me, and it looked like my Tasha (the dog in my sig). Sure enough, she was scarfing down some pasta (both neighbours were Italian.)

The next evening, she came and put her paws up on my lap, and whined rather anxiously. She'd never done this before, so I wondered what was up. She then went to the door, and gave that special little 'woof' that said 'you'd better let me out NOW, or you're going to have a big mess to clean up!'

I let her out, and within two seconds, she'd lowered her bum, and the diarrhea just was pouring out of her. I shook my head, and said, "Tasha, I have NO sympathy for you at all!"

Well, this one probably doesn't count because it wasn't schutzhund and the dog still passed...

But I NEARLY failed my first ever tracking trial, because I tried to correct my dog part way through....thought I knew better than she did!  Heh, heh, I mean, which one has the nose, you idjit!!? 

I t was actually just a simulated trial at the end of a tracking course. When we were done, and Tasha  had found the article, the instructor told me, "Well Tasha passed, but YOU failed!"  

Hey, if you can't laugh at yourself in this business, you're in for a LOT of disappointment! 

It's a trial, that's for sure. Some people put a t-shirt or underwear on the dog to protect the floor. Most bitches want to lick themselves to stay clean, so it's a good idea to have a garment that's loose enough for them to push it aside and clean themselves.

With my first intact female, I bought this little harness that would hold a small menstrual pad. It was held in place by elastics which allowed her to push it aside to clean herself. If I could ever find one of those again, I'd be very pleased!

Tasha was intact only temporarily. She was a stray, and the vet coudn't say for sure if she'd been spayed. Of course, I had her done shortly after she finished that first heat. It was quite a messy one, too. She left blood wherever she lay down for any length of time, and since the house (which didn't belong to me) had wall-to-wall broadloom, a pad or diaper was a necessity.

I've tried diapers meant for bitches in heat, but my females really WANT to clean themselves, so they rip the crotches out...

The hariest GSD I've ever had to bathe was a watchdog for an industrial building that had been outside for the entire winter. There was just no END to the hair!

I brushed and brushed and brushed him before putting him in the tub. When I started soaping him up, my hands would just get covered with the hair, and I'd have to scrape it off!I It looked like I was wearing gloves made out of hair!

Then there's 'old dog' coat...the really old ones grown an extra heavy coat because their metabolism slows down, and they need it to keep warm. This is my female, Tasha, in January of 2005. That pile of hair is from ONE SIDE of her body only!  She passed away 8 months later. And she was STILL shedding heavily until her death!

I have no idea why she started shedding in January. My husband passed away two months before, and she was very attached to him. I wonder if there was any connection?  I mean, this is CANADA, and January is the coldest month of the year, so it sure wasn't related to the weather!

slamdunc & Tasha are right - it is an obedience issue.  He is "doing OK" with obedience, but obedience isn't just the sessions where you have him out and are teaching sit, platz, etc.  Obedience lessons are all the time in the coming in and going out. 

Don't let him out until he lies down in the crate and holds the down when you open the door.  Don't "try to distract him" when he's let out.  Take him right into a command.  For instance, you can heel him right outside and then play with him or reward him with a ball or whatever.  Set it up so he's only in the crate for a few minutes so he doesn't have to relieve himself.  So when you open the door, slip a leash on him.  If he jumps on you or goes nuts, tell him Sit.  If he doesn't, correct him.  He must learn that he needs to obey your commands not just during training sessions but whenever you tell him. 

Remember that now he is in the habit of spinning and barking and play biting when that door opens.  It will take a little while to get him out of the conditioned response that "out of the crate" means go nuts.  Use your training.  He knows "down," so say "Down" and don't open that door until he Downs.  He most likely will leap up as soon as your hand reaches for the door.  Stop, take your hand away, even walk off a couple steps & turn your back.  He will learn that breaking the down command means you don't open the door.

 

tasha...that is a great website...lost of ideas,if you're handy with basic woodworking it would be easy to construct a very nice box from some of the examples on that site.what i use is a 4' x 4' box made of 3/4" plywood...no bottom,the sides are 1 ft high with 1" x 4" "pig rails mounted half way up the sides on three sides...when the pups are big enough to climb over the sides,i detach the front panel(if they crawl out,the can't get back in) so at that point they have access to the whole whelping kennel area(6' x 8') the mommy has access in and out thru the dog door to an outside kennel..this set-up is in my basement,with a "baby-cam" to view the activity in the whelping kennel...i use chicken wire inside the kennel to keep pups from getting their heads stuck in the chain link( 36" high from floor)...good luck!

Tasha, the girl in my avatar, begging my husband to put down the camera and PLAY BALL!  She was 13 1/2. She passed away the next year at 14 1/2, just 9 months after my husband.

My girl was very active too, right up until nine months before the end.

Here she is at 12, partway through a killer 10 mile hike in Algonquin park. The trail was so steep in places, my husband and I literally had to crawl, and the flat parts had numerous deadfalls that had to be scrambled over. We were pretty well wiped out for the day by the time we'd finished!



Here's a larger version of the avatar photo. She had such a long muzzle that some people thought she might have some collie in her, but those big ears are 100% GSD! I think she was just a backyard bred GSD with maybe ASL (light bone, long muzzle, long weak pasterns) crossed with German working lines (reverse mask, courageous temperament, straight, nearly level back.)  Her butt was nearly as high as her head, and she could run like a greyhound. Yes, we went gray together... gawd, I miss her! Fourteen years is a huge chunk of your life to share with someone!

Yes, What was the guarantee? So sorry for the news. Been there, and if you planned on breeding it's a double whammy. My Tasha lived a great life and she had severe at 9 months. Breeder paid for 2 surgeries to remove femur on both sides. She lived to 12 and was one of the happiest GSD's I've ever  owned. Good Luck & Take Care 

The gal in my sig never learned the meaning of 'no sniff!' either. Everyone who came into our house got a crotch check.or butt sniff at some point!

She was constantly poking my husband in the crotch too. I didn't realize until much later she was probably trying to alert him to his bladder cancer.

One day, Roger wasn't paying much attention to her after he let her out of the car, and she went up to a passing woman and stuck her head up her skirt.

Roger was alerted to the incident when he heard her exclaim, "Oh, I love dogs, but THIS is TOO MUCH!"

Turned out she was an off-duty cop, and she gave Roger a bit of a tongue lashing. "You need to teach your dog the meaning of "NO SNIFF!'"

Well, we did try, but were not terribly successful. When we took Tasha into a motel room, she wouldn't settle for at least 20 minutes. Every inch of the room had to be checked out by that nose of hers!    Sometimes she jam the nose leather up against the carpet, and take a particularly deep sniff, as if to say, "AAHHH, 1978 Chianti...that was a very good year!" 

If she hadn't been a rescue, I'm sure I could have earned quite a few tracking titles with her! (No titles for non-pedigreed purebreds in those days. This was before the PEN or ILP numbers.

Heh...this is fun!

I did a reverse linebreeding on Nestor, and came up with one of Nogi's ancestors:  http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/dog.html?id=2543      Very nice looking girl1

When I saw all the Busecker-Schloss dogs in Nogi's pedigree, I figured there was a link there somewhere!

Her mask looks a lot like my Tasha's:

 

Tasha was a rescue, so God knows what her pedigree was, but when I showed her to a GSD kennel owner who had emigrated from Germany, he said she looked just like the dogs he'd worked with when he was on the police force after the war.

(Hopefully THEY had better bone than she did! But she DID have a true GSD temperament, and was very protective of our property.)

OK, Sitasmom, you have gotten some very good advice here from Amanda, Debi, Tess and Tasha.  Since you are serious I'll add my 2 cents.  First you wrote:

I spend 20 minutes per dog before going to work. 20 minutes when I get home and another 20 minutes per dog just before bed time......that's an hour a day per dog.......how much time do you spend per dog?

Honestly, I don't spend that much time on formal obedience with my dogs each day.  With a 9 month old puppy I might do 4 or 5 minutes tops and put the dog away.  With my current dog, who is now 3 years old I do about 10 minutes and stop.  At the end of 10 minutes my dog is pretty tired.  I do my obedience in drive and expect total concentration, focus and high energy.  I may play for a couple of minutes after I finish but that's it.  If I have time I may do a second session later in the day, that would be ideal for me.   My dogs would be too tired to do 20 minutes of high energy obedience and so would I.   Remember the SchH obedience routine is also only about 10 minutes. 

I should mention that my dogs have two sets of commands, German and English.  Only I use the German commands and they are reserved for training and working.  They have different meanings to the dog.  Fuss means heel with total focus and attention while heel means walk next to me shoulder to my knee, but you can look around.  Fuss is for obedience, Heel may be used while I'm working or in protection when I want the dog to focus on the decoy.  Easy means don't pull on the leash lets just walk.  I rarely tell my dogs to heel, except going through a crowd where I want the dog to heel close to me but watch people around me as well.  Fuss is only for sport work and it puts the dog into drive and focus.

It's quality not quantity.  I rarely do the SchH heeling pattern, rather I break each exercise down to it's fundamentals and work on that for several training sessions.  If I am working on the sit out of motion for example, I may work that exercise for a week of training sessions and nothing else.  Only 4 or 5 minutes, maybe 8 - 10 reps each session, but this varies too depending how well the progression is going.  I do the same for the platz, stand, dumbbell, the voraus takes a little longer in the sessions. 

I plan each obedience, tracking or protection session before I go out on the field.  I have specific exercises to teach or issues to proof or work on. 

As far as general behavior goes I am very consistent.  My dogs are never released from a Kennel or crate until they sit or are at least calm.  My dogs learn form puppies that barking in a crate will not get them success.  They learn the door only opens when they are calm and can contain themselves.  I do have specific things I work on in the house.  My dogs do not go outside when the front or back door opens, they must sit and wait for me to release them.  I go first and they wait.  This solves the problem of them bolting out the door when it is opened.  If both dogs are there they must both sit and wait.  I don't put the dogs food down until they sit and focus on my face, then the bowl goes down and they wait till I say "ok".  This was the same when I had 3 GSD's, all 3 had to wait until everyone was sitting, calm and focused on my face then they could eat. 

I never give my dogs commands that I cannot immediately enforce.  Once a dog understands a command it has 1 1/2 to 2 seconds to obey it then I will enforce it.  There is no grey area when the dog understands the command.  I never scream at my dogs and I never hit

If you'd put your hand inside my car with the gal in my sig, she would have nailed you, for sure!

The wife of one of my patients wanted to say 'hi' to here - I let her out of the car, and the woman gave her some treats, and petted her.

Put her back in the vehicle, and the woman stuck her head inside to say 'goodbye' to her, and Tasha showed her teeth and gave a warning growl. 

Wish I'd been able to do more with her. She was one of the best damn dogs I've ever had, but schutzhund wasn't on my radar at the time, and anything to do with CKC required the dog have a pedigree, so I couldn't even put a tracking title on her, though she aced the tracking test in the course I did with Ginny Neher. The States had the ILP at the time, but Canada didn't get the PEN number until later.

hi mo im doing sch sport now ive 2 working dogs now not ur type lol   .
 mind that bitch that won puppy when u  were the judge  at working breeds of scotland
  plus her  mother and her half sister    who are all nice bitches they go back to annie
  oops pencil will be on my case now  for  tasha winning under u   lol lol
  so ur still going strong good for u xx


  hi liz  yep i used to train at the bush when showing was fun  were u there as well?.


                                           RAB.

I have never met Hans in person, but I  knew his story long before I ever came to the PDB.  He wa a new immigrant to the U.S., living in his car with his dogs in the middle of winter. Tina Barber, the breed founder of the Shiloh Shepherds, someone else whose name has frequently been dragged through the mud on this board, found out about him, and took him in and gave him a job. He worked for her for several years, until he found his feet in this new country. His first SAR dog was a Shiloh of her breeding.

So much for those of you who think Shilohs are good-for-nothing couch potatoes! The GSDs in their lineage were doing SAR long before Tina outcrossed to a dog that was part Malemute, and broke with the AKC to start the Shiloh as its own breed.

After my husband died in 2004, and I started looking for a dog to train as a Hearing Ear dog, I was shocked by what had happened to the AKC and CKC German Shepherds during the 13 years I'd had my dog, Tasha (the one in my sig pic.) I did a search for 'old fashioned' German Shepherds, and this led me to Tina's webpage. However, her breed was not yet recognized (still isn't for that matter) and I wanted a dog I could take in dog shows, or at least in performance events.  (Canada did not yet have performance numbers for non-pedigreed dogs.) I told Tina what I was looking for, and GUESS WHO SHE REFERRED ME TO?

The cost of Hans's dogs was way, way beyond what I could afford at the time, as I wasn't working, and I never thought to ask him for charity.  Also, having a dog or puppy shipped from Arizona just didn't seem like a good idea. I wanted to be able to meet the dog in person before I made a decision about buying him/her. Then, Ranger came into my life as a rescue, and I began training him instead.  He turned out to be the perfect dog for my needs, and I lost contact with Hans until I joined the PDB, and realized he must have been the person Tina referred me to back in 2005.

Before you see the first show of blood, you will likely notice her vulva getting swollen. Her nipples may swell, too.

Male dogs will often start to show interest even before the first sign of blood, and lick and sniff her rear end. It depends on the dog, though. I've heard mature, experience breeding males may ignore the female until she's nearing her fertile period, which will happen around day 12 of her cycle.

With the three females I've had that have been in heat, I didn't really notice much of a change in their behaviour, just the physical signs (until they were nearing ovulation). Some say their females become more playful and flirtatious just before their heat.

With that many intact males in the area, prepare yourself for trouble. They will do ANYTHING to get to a female in season. DO NOT let her outside for ONE SECOND unattended once she nears her fertile period! Expect those males that are allowed to roam loose to be camping on your doorstep for pretty much the entire heat. They will even try to get into your house the second you open the door.

Seriously, I've been there!

Don't assume a fence will stop them, either. They will dig under it or climb over it. I've even heard of litters being conceived through a chain link fence! 

Some people actually will take their females in the car to an area away from their house to let them relieve themselves, so there is no tell-tale scent around the house for males to pick up on. I'm not sure this will work, but it might be worth a try!

With Star, her first heat was not a full heat, and she likely did not ovulate, as Ranger showed very little interest in her. With Tasha, the girl in my sig, the first heat (at 10 months) was full-blown, quite messy in terms of discharge, and had a neighbour's intact mutt camping out on my doorstep for 3 weeks! (I sent him off to the Humane Society twice!)

He's a PUPPY, they mostly do this ALL THE TIME, it ain't a bit unusual 
Seriously, Mario, if you pay too much attention to whether his testes
stay dropped, you may not be helping with the frequency of the
appearance of the 'lipstick', if you see what I'm saying !

As others have said, its only if it comes out and stays out long enough
to seem to be getting dried out, that you need to start with the KY, or a
trip to the vet.

Puppies need to learn muscle control as they grow, that muscle just
as much as anywhere else on their body.  As he is so young, while
isn't impossible that Tyson is reacting to Tasha's heat cycle, it could
be this is unconnected.  One of the joys of having a young male dog
in the house!  You will probably notice that even as he gets more control
as he gets older, it may still pop out when he Sitz - that's because there
is a bone in it.

Linda.

OK, Sitasmom, you have gotten some very good advice here from Amanda, Debi, Tess and Tasha.  Since you are serious I'll add my 2 cents.  First you wrote:

I spend 20 minutes per dog before going to work. 20 minutes when I get home and another 20 minutes per dog just before bed time......that's an hour a day per dog.......how much time do you spend per dog?

Honestly, I don't spend that much time on formal obedience with my dogs each day.  With a 9 month old puppy I might do 4 or 5 minutes tops and put the dog away.  With my current dog, who is now 3 years old I do about 10 minutes and stop.  At the end of 10 minutes my dog is pretty tired.  I do my obedience in drive and expect total concentration, focus and high energy.  I may play for a couple of minutes after I finish but that's it.  If I have time I may do a second session later in the day, that would be ideal for me.   My dogs would be too tired to do 20 minutes of high energy obedience and so would I.   Remember the SchH obedience routine is also only about 10 minutes. 

I should mention that my dogs have two sets of commands, German and English.  Only I use the German commands and they are reserved for training and working.  They have different meanings to the dog.  Fuss means heel with total focus and attention while heel means walk next to me shoulder to my knee, but you can look around.  Fuss is for obedience, Heel may be used while I'm working or in protection when I want the dog to focus on the decoy.  Easy means don't pull on the leash lets just walk.  I rarely tell my dogs to heel, except going through a crowd where I want the dog to heel close to me but watch people around me as well.  Fuss is only for sport work and it puts the dog into drive and focus.

It's quality not quantity.  I rarely do the SchH heeling pattern, rather I break each exercise down to it's fundamentals and work on that for several training sessions.  If I am working on the sit out of motion for example, I may work that exercise for a week of training sessions and nothing else.  Only 4 or 5 minutes, maybe 8 - 10 reps each session, but this varies too depending how well the progression is going.  I do the same for the platz, stand, dumbbell, the voraus takes a little longer in the sessions. 

I plan each obedience, tracking or protection session before I go out on the field.  I have specific exercises to teach or issues to proof or work on. 

As far as general behavior goes I am very consistent.  My dogs are never released from a Kennel or crate until they sit or are at least calm.  My dogs learn form puppies that barking in a crate will not get them success.  They learn the door only opens when they are calm and can contain themselves.  I do have specific things I work on in the house.  My dogs do not go outside when the front or back door opens, they must sit and wait for me to release them.  I go first and they wait.  This solves the problem of them bolting out the door when it is opened.  If both dogs are there they must both sit and wait.  I don't put the dogs food down until they sit and focus on my face, then the bowl goes down and they wait till I say "ok".  This was the same when I had 3 GSD's, all 3 had to wait until everyone was sitting, calm and focused on my face then they could eat. 

I never give my dogs commands that I cannot immediately enforce.  Once a dog understands a command it has 1 1/2 to 2 seconds to obey it then I will enforce it.  There is no grey area when the dog understands the command.  I never scream at my dogs and I never hit

Thanks! She was a stray, so no idea of her breeding, but she had the true GSD temperament. No one DARED lay a finger on our car when she was in it!

Here's a larger version of the sig pic. It was the weekend of our first wedding anniversary, and of COURSE the dog had to come along!



You might say Tasha and I went gray together...

So many years, so many memories... [sniff!] 

(OOPs, didn't realize I'd already posted that picture above!    Aw, heck, it's one of my favourite photos, so I'll just leave it!)

Sunsilver's Tasha and the dog Flite are what I would consider to be reverse masks vs open faced or barred dogs

Thanks,
      I'm gonna do shutzhund with her and my male max, the medium one. She does good with the rest of them, but my other female tasha, the large one is very aggresive and I always have to be careful when Marley is around her. She is definetly a handful
                        www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/pedigree/618984.html
Max. my male 5 Months







www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/pedigree/618985.html


Tasha. my other female 6 Months

I had a GSD with the same looking xrays. Had both femoral heads removed. Some pain meds after OP and that was it. The OP were 6 month apart. She never took anymore pain meds. She lived with 3 other GSD's and just loved life. Sure she didn't move so pretty. She ran like a goofball, but she was the happiest girl I ever had!!! I wouldn't be so fast at putting her down. Tasha lived to 12. If you do go this route, make sure to keep them as LEAN as possible. Swimming and a light exercise program will do wonders. Good Luck and I hope all goes well for you two. Take Care   Pete 

Back when my husband was still alive, I bottle raised a litter of feral kittens. Our GSD, Tasha, was very fond of them, and used to give them baths. They in turn, would crawl inside her big ears, and give them a cleaning!

When we went for a walk with her, one or the other of the kittens would sometimes follow us all the way around the block!

The gal in my sig was a rescue, picked up from the streets of Scarborough, Ontario after her owners dumped her. God knows how she was bred, but a former German K9 police officer said that in his opinion, she was purebred, and looked like the dogs he'd worked with in Germany after the war.

One night, she was walking by my side, at heel, and off leash. Suddenly, she broke her heel and went tearing back down the street.  At first, I was pissed at her for breaking the heel, but then I saw my husband standing in the middle of the street with his bicycle.

It turns out, he'd been planning to follow me on our walk on his bike, as he frequently did, when a large dog came out of the garage of a new home that was under construction, and tried to attack him. He jumped off the bike, and put it between himself and the dog. He also called for Tasha, who came running.

When she arrived, she bared her teeth, raised her hackles and backed that dog right off the road into the garage of the unfinished home. He was a GSD mix, and bigger and heavier than she was.

She got a nice piece of steak for rescuing him!