Dogs without prey drive.... - Page 1

So,  have any of you guys heard of Robs canine? He sent me an email asking what I thought of his website and German Shepherds,.........and I think he sends these out to quite a few people... so I gave him an honest answer.....and on his site he also states....

Did you know, That you really don't have to buy a $1000.00 shepherd just to have a dog that will be a great companion and protect you and your family, If the shepherd is a purebreed it is most likely to do the same thing's a $1000.00 shepherd will do.

you see: that is what a German Shepherd is

it is loyal, loveing, obedient with training

and I do strongly believe that every owner of any dog get training for the dog and the owner

because a trained dog is a very happy dog.

as far as the protection part,A German Shepherd is naturally protective over his or her Family and home, But then again still get some training for your dog and yourself.

In my email I explained to him about prey drive, training for schutzhund, what it takes, I explained about genetics and the role they have in it, and that weak nerved dogs shouldn't be bred, ect ect and that dogs with a ton of prey drive and hardness could not be handled by the average family or person.  Then later on, he sends me an email back and we get to talking about everything and here is what his response to my email is

Thanks and I understand what your saying, But what I mean is a person can take any breed of a dog
and train it to do any type of police work even schh-3 work with the correct training, But just in the German Shepherd's I can train any of mine to do anything that a police dog can do, I understand that the dog would
have to have the intense prey drive but no matter the traits or the drive a German Shepherd can be trained
to do what you want it to do,  I have had them so timid they would pee on them self, But with love and patient's and building it's confidences I have trained them to jump from high place's and even to attack
and release. True it would take longer to train one that doe's not already have the confidence it need, But I can do it. but then again my dog's already have schh-3 bloodlines that may be why.


So guys.....what do you think? Because from what I've learned....without prey drive you couldn't do sport, or police work.  I can see truth in some of what he says, but most of that I don't agree with.

You can do sport work without prey drive but you would have to have SOME kind of drive.....like defense for protection, and food or praise drive for tracking and obedience....you COULD do the tracking and obedience with compulsion but that would be wrong in my book and just not worth it!  It would be ugly but I think it could be done, I don't think all the way to a SchH3 though.

Vickie

www.PowerHausKennels.com

 http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/bulletins_read/111118.html#111212

you won't find a more exhaustive discussion on the subject than the above thread. That is if you have the patience to read through the entire thread

regards

Vikram,

Nice link!

Vickie

www.PowerHausKennels.com

Thanks Vickie, and thanks for the link vikram....I'm about to leave for work in an hour and I have things to do before then so I'll have to read it later

If a dog does not have prey drive it can not do shutzhund work.and if anyone tells you that they can,then they do not know what they are talking about. have a nice one.

Held,

I have not been in the SchH sport very long. But I have been aroung gsd all my life. The part you say about:

If a dog does not have prey drive it can not do shutzhund work

is 100% incorrect. If a dog does not have prey drive it makes it a lot harder to do. No, I don't tink all dogs can do it as good as others, no matter how they are trained. Some dogs are breed for it as others are not. Some gsd could never make it, but not ONLY because of the lack of prey drive.

I have a female that will not heel with me when I used a toy. She could care less about that damn ball or jute. She would heel with me with food, hot dogs and/or an apple. Yes an apple. Now how could I use the apple or hot dog for protection. Tracking was easy, duh. Now the protection part would be hard tho.Well during our OB routine I started to praise her more in a high pitch, girly kind of voice, remember, its not about how you look but how the dog does. Well the praising part worked even better. So now I had to learn how to praise her in the protection part. It is a very long and tiring process, but I love her and will continue to work on it.

I have seen plenty of showline gsd without the prey drive. The trainers would build it up to the best of what they could or used themselves as a reward for the dog.

High competion in the sport without prey drive, no you are not going to go very far, but you can still do the sport. Anyone tells you that your dog can not do it, well maybe its true maybe its not. But don't just give up.

Held,...I have a showline that had no prey drive at all, I played with him for 4 months straight. He does really good on the sleeve now. king del monte albino is his name.

John,

It is usless to tell Held otherwise.....I think I recall having this very conversation!  Don't bother he knows it all anyway!

Vickie

www.PowerHausKennels.com

Vickie,

Thanks for the heads up.

John Kennedy

John and vicki it showes you have not been around shutzhund too long if you did you you will not respond l;ike this to my post.you are confuse you really do not know what a prey drive is.perhaps i am the wrong person to teach you guys.do you have access to any good trainers.for your sake i ho[pe you do .just go to them and learn.have a nice one.