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by Sunsilver on 07 May 2010 - 04:05
The ONLY thing that bothers me about what she does is the baloney line about breeding old-school GSDs. To me that is just a lame sales-pitch that plays on people's sentimental attachment to some badly-bred dog from their childhood. It's not really an honest attempt to breed a better wheel, as it were. WHAT giant hairy GSDs from the olden days?
Okay, I have to admit that some of us are attracted to the breed due to wanting a dog that looked like the ones from our childhood. I grew up watching Rin Tin Tin and Roy Rogers (Bullet). When I got my first GSD, she had a straight back, and moderate angulation. My next GSD had a bum that was almost as high as her head. The one after that also had a level back. I still have him, and he is likely working lines, or mostly working lines.
By this point, I was getting the show bug, and after three rescues in a row, wanted a registered dog. I started looking at dogs on the net. WTF??? They looked like FREAKS!! What in heaven's name had happened to the GSD??
I searched website after website, and couldn't find anything that appealed to me. Finally, I googled "Old fashioned GSD", and you can guess what popped up!
I joined the Shiloh forums, and found out many of the members were eitehr GSD owners or former owners. Many had had terrible health issues with their GSDs. I just listened and learned, and attended a few Shiloh events to meet the people and dogs. But still I held back. The politics between the ISSR and the other registries was the main reason for that. The other was the GSDs I remembered from childhood were NOT 30 inches tall, and they definitely were NOT long coats!
What finally convinced me was the stories from the owners about how very intelligent their dogs were, and how easy to train. I also met Sarah and her dogs Story and Nero. and really fell in love with Story. When Sarah announced her dogs were going to have puppies, that was it. I made the leap.
At 9 months, my Shioh pup walks better on the leash than my 3 year old German showline bitch. She is gunsure, and very easy to train. Everyone who meets her exclaims over how pretty she is. She is much softer than my GSDs, but she WAS the most submissive pup in the litter, so I have to take that into account. The others all rated very low on submission. I'm having to learn more positive, upbeat methods of training her. And since the first book I used for dog training was William Kohler, well, that's probably not a bad thing to be learning...
Okay, I have to admit that some of us are attracted to the breed due to wanting a dog that looked like the ones from our childhood. I grew up watching Rin Tin Tin and Roy Rogers (Bullet). When I got my first GSD, she had a straight back, and moderate angulation. My next GSD had a bum that was almost as high as her head. The one after that also had a level back. I still have him, and he is likely working lines, or mostly working lines.
By this point, I was getting the show bug, and after three rescues in a row, wanted a registered dog. I started looking at dogs on the net. WTF??? They looked like FREAKS!! What in heaven's name had happened to the GSD??
I searched website after website, and couldn't find anything that appealed to me. Finally, I googled "Old fashioned GSD", and you can guess what popped up!
I joined the Shiloh forums, and found out many of the members were eitehr GSD owners or former owners. Many had had terrible health issues with their GSDs. I just listened and learned, and attended a few Shiloh events to meet the people and dogs. But still I held back. The politics between the ISSR and the other registries was the main reason for that. The other was the GSDs I remembered from childhood were NOT 30 inches tall, and they definitely were NOT long coats!
What finally convinced me was the stories from the owners about how very intelligent their dogs were, and how easy to train. I also met Sarah and her dogs Story and Nero. and really fell in love with Story. When Sarah announced her dogs were going to have puppies, that was it. I made the leap.
At 9 months, my Shioh pup walks better on the leash than my 3 year old German showline bitch. She is gunsure, and very easy to train. Everyone who meets her exclaims over how pretty she is. She is much softer than my GSDs, but she WAS the most submissive pup in the litter, so I have to take that into account. The others all rated very low on submission. I'm having to learn more positive, upbeat methods of training her. And since the first book I used for dog training was William Kohler, well, that's probably not a bad thing to be learning...
by starrchar on 07 May 2010 - 19:05
Sunsilver, Thank you for clarifying the "Old Style or Old Fashioned" GSD issue. I figured you'd know :)! You always explain things so well too. The intelligence of these Shilohs continues to amaze me. My last GSD was over the top brillliant and Josey is right up there with him. He catches on so quickly and retains everything. He is so alert and doesn't miss a thing either..not to mention his vocabulary. He is also a comedian with his hillarious antics that seem so human-like. My present GSD is a sweetheart, but let's just say she is not in the top percentile when it comes to intelligence. Thankfully she has a lot of other "gifts" and I wouldn't give her up for anything :)
I'm so sorry about your husband and what you both had to go through. I can't even imagine the stress as it sounds like it was one thing after another. When you are going through something like that it's one day at a time, just trying to keep your head above water, not truly realizing the stress you are under. I'm sure it took a long time to to be able to move on in your life after losing your husband. I just can't magine....
In addition to my mom's battle with ovarian cancer for the past 6 years, she has broken her hip, her pelvis and some vertebrae in her back, but miraculously bounced back each time. Those times were horribly stressful. The worst and most stressful thing for me is seeing someone I love so much to be in so much pain. I'm sure you would agree. My mom is a trooper though and always so positive. I hope I have her genes! Thankfully right now she is doing okay, although the recent chemo she was put on hasn't been very effective, so I really don't know what tomorrow will bring. You know how that goes... Pretty soon we'll run out of options and that is when I'll really start to fall apart- I just can't imagine losing her. She is my best friend and my hero. I'm sure you'll be hearing from and I so appreciate the offer of support :)
The best,
Char
I'm so sorry about your husband and what you both had to go through. I can't even imagine the stress as it sounds like it was one thing after another. When you are going through something like that it's one day at a time, just trying to keep your head above water, not truly realizing the stress you are under. I'm sure it took a long time to to be able to move on in your life after losing your husband. I just can't magine....
In addition to my mom's battle with ovarian cancer for the past 6 years, she has broken her hip, her pelvis and some vertebrae in her back, but miraculously bounced back each time. Those times were horribly stressful. The worst and most stressful thing for me is seeing someone I love so much to be in so much pain. I'm sure you would agree. My mom is a trooper though and always so positive. I hope I have her genes! Thankfully right now she is doing okay, although the recent chemo she was put on hasn't been very effective, so I really don't know what tomorrow will bring. You know how that goes... Pretty soon we'll run out of options and that is when I'll really start to fall apart- I just can't imagine losing her. She is my best friend and my hero. I'm sure you'll be hearing from and I so appreciate the offer of support :)
The best,
Char
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