Auggie pictures

[Wiztherewoz]

Originally Posted by Anberlin

As my own personal protection dog.

Then why are you unsure whether or not you're keeping him?

Did you ever see TL's parents?

No, I didn't buy her. She was just yet another one someone bought and then decided they didn't want after all.

[e1beth1]

He is going to be stunning when he's full grown. I love how dark he is and those goofy ears.

[Anberlin]

Originally Posted by Wiztherewoz

Then why are you unsure whether or not you're keeping him?



No, I didn't buy her. She was just yet another one someone bought and then decided they didn't want after all.

I think you may have misunderstood. I don't mean personal protection dog as in.......a dog who looks scary to people who may walk by the yard, or who may come to the door, etc. I meant it as in one who is actually trained to do the protection work itself. Not all Shepherds can do that work. Many can work in Schutzhund which is prey oriented, and many of those dogs will only bite the sleeve. In order to do "real" protection work, like we would train a police k9 or a personal protection dog for they need to have the confidence to do so (it comes down to more than just confidence though, obviously).....otherwise we can't. He may be able to, he may not, time will tell........some Shepherds are already on the street at 13 months working as a police k9.....some take much longer to be ready and aren't out there until 2 and a half years or so. Depends on a lot of factors. His ball drive, and hunt drive are high enough already that narcotics training should not be a problem. And tracking itself will not be a problem either, I may start training him to track pretty soon, who knows. He has no surface issues either, I can take him on anything, table tops, swing sets, boxes all over the floor, fencing laying down on the ground, he likes to climb up odd surfaces, etc etc.

"If" he doesn't have the confidence to do real protection, we "can" always go the Schutzhund route, and I think I'd be okay with that, though I absolutely hate the local club. Guys who brag about using shock collars, and who use a prong collar while jerking it as hard as they can and screaming at the dog because they can't control them. Well, a few of the people there are like that with their own dogs. Of course I will correct at certain times to "proof" things when it is needed, but by far nothing anywhere near like what they would do. The two helpers there are good doing bite work with the dogs, and the rest of the training would be up to me. His prey, food, and ball drive are high so teaching tracking, obedience, and "protection" (Protection in prey) would be no issue. When I mentioned confidence earlier, I mean the confidence to apprehend a person without a bite sleeve or suit on, and maintain a fight during the apprehension (you proof this with muzzle work). A dog can be confident in many aspects, but not confident enough to maintain a fight with an assailant, or to actually apprehend the suspect in general.

Just for viewing, here is one of my favorite trainers. The first "bite" you see, she corrects him as it's all about control, the dog is only to fight if she tells him to, or if she is attacked herself, or if the guy was to actually just start attacking the dog of course.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5osw4ynoUI

This video you may hear some of the "terms" I use at times, but this would be one of the things I intend to train.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGTxEOBWsnU

Here is one where they started a pup in protection already. This was a while back though, that pup is grown up now and a police dog. These guys have a crazy sense of humor and act crazy at times as well......so you'll see that in some of the videos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQBNrkEcopA

[Anberlin]

Originally Posted by e1beth1

He is going to be stunning when he's full grown. I love how dark he is and those goofy ears.

lol they're huge. He should end up being a nice size dog hopefully. I don't want him huge or out of the standards, but hopefully about the size of his sire or grand sire, they're just barely above 80 lbs.

[Wiztherewoz]

I knew what you meant, I just honestly cannot comprehend taking on an animal for one purpose and not keeping it if it doesn't meet your expectations. It's like they're little more than pieces of equipment for a hobby; not good enough, get rid and buy an upgrade.

[Anberlin]

Originally Posted by Wiztherewoz

I knew what you meant, I just honestly cannot comprehend taking on an animal for one purpose and not keeping it if it doesn't meet your expectations. It's like they're little more than pieces of equipment for a hobby; not good enough, get rid and buy an upgrade.

So lets say a breeder donates a Shepherd pup to the police force. They intend to work on training it as a patrol/apprehension/narcotics dog. The pup ends up not having what it takes to do the job. Does the police force need to keep this dog? Some forces do not have the budget to buy a young (around 15 months) green dog, or especially one already trained. One already trained can be 15 grand. Sometimes all they can go by are donations.

Regardless of what I say though if it mentions breeding, it will be deemed a crime on this forum. Just as I mentioned placing a dog.....that is deemed a crime. The thing is, we're people, and most seem to believe that dogs can't "move on".....when really it's the people that can't move on. I think people on here would pick a dog over their own child sometimes.

Maybe not in my case, but with some dogs in the world, they should be placed in different homes. Certain dogs grow up to be too high energy for many people, have too much prey drive, have certain things about them that certain owners can't handle, certain things that you "don't know" will occur. It's not realistic to tell all of those people they need to give up everything they do in life,so they can take the dogs on an extra walk hour walk each day, and play fetch for an hour, and implement 30 minutes of obedience twice a day. Sure they can hire a dog walker if need be, or something, but there are some dogs (like one I use to have a few years back) who at 6 months could literally walk 5 miles without any signs of fatigue. She would play at the house after that for nearly an hour and still was not tired. I developed asthma and other breathing problems during the time I had that dog (mold exposure), should I keep a dog like that and let it suffer from getting little to no exercise because of a physical problem I just developed? Or what about someone who has a dog and they exercise it every day, they do everything they can aside from that to help it live a balanced life. But then one day they get in a car accident, serious expenses, they can't walk anymore, they're having to wait a long time before their body is remotely healed, and then they'll have to go through rehabilitation. Should they place their dog, let someone else foster it in case they do get to the point where they can have that dog back again some day, or should they just keep it and let it suffer? Or what about someone who has a nice steady income, everything is going good, dog is doing great......and bam.....they lose their job. That happens a lot now, and many haven't been able to get a job for well over a year or so. You don't know when you get a dog that 3 years down the road you may get fired, lose everything, or whatever it may be. It's not unrealistic to say that now. Or what about someone who fosters a dog, after all that dog isn't going to stay in their home forever, they're placing it somewhere else. I know that's different as in it's not a "property" type thing like you claimed about the other, but they made the dog have to get use to once again another home. Shouldn't they keep it? Or what if I rescued a dog, rehabilitated it, trained it, and then found it a good home? I didn't charge them anything either.

In the working dog world things are different sometimes. Some people compete in high levels, like one of my friends close to here. She trained and titled her male from a pup up to a Schutzhund 3. And in 2010 she competed in the WUSV. Awesome dog, not too many like him. Then there are some like people in the videos. They often raise a couple of pups from their litters until a certain age, maybe 9 or 10 months. Like the pup (if you watched it) who was starting in bite work. They sold him, and he continued his training afterwards and is now a police k9. The other pup I think went on to train in Schutzhund because it didn't have quite what it took to be a police k9. A dog could have a much worse life than living here by far. Training, walking, fetch, playing outside, living inside, up to date on all meds, preventatives, etc, eating good quality healthy foods, car rides with me to different places, seeing people in town, helping other people to feel better by getting to meet the dogs, and the list goes on and on of what I do with my dogs. If my pup "did" go somewhere else he would go to good friends of mine who have been wanting a dog and are only looking for a pet. That is a big "did" and a big "if" as most likely he will turn out just fine for what I want with the way he's coming along.

You guys would literally have a cow, hippo, and a monkey if you went to the pedigree database for German Shepherds online. A forum with many who breed, many who have placed dogs, but many who compete, police k9 handlers, great trainers, and much, much knowledge for that matter.

[Wiztherewoz]

Nobody else here has done anything except compliment your puppy! Don't start slagging off the whole forum just because I said something that annoyed you!

I will come back to this later, I have to go to work now. Jeez.

[Anberlin]

Originally Posted by Wiztherewoz

Nobody else here has done anything except compliment your puppy! Don't start slagging off the whole forum just because I said something that annoyed you!

I will come back to this later, I have to go to work now. Jeez.

Oh, I know. I was just referring to other things, and what you said. Understood though, my apologizes for my "rant".

[streeting]

Sydney swore she never had a baby but what about the DNA? She could have been lying. Please don't let Michael be her father LOL if Sydney IS her mother LOL.

[Emi!y]

Beautiful dog! My brother is a K9 handler for our local sheriffs' department and he has a Belgian Malinois that is similar to your puppy, but of course a different breed and a bit lighter. He is just the coolest dog. These types of working dogs have so much stamina and are very smart. I wish the best for you and Auggie!

Here's my brother, Rockford, and Rudy training in Poland

[ilovepets10]

Oh they are so adorable! I love his little head tilt, what a cutie. I love the long gait that shepherds get too, good luck with everything!