Has anyone heard any thing good about the Vandenheuvelk9. Iam in the process of buying a dog from them if so could you let me know

I don't know anything about this kennel one way or the other, but typically it's better to do your research about a kennel (or anything for that matter) BEFORE you purchase anything,especially a living thing.

Good luck, I hope everything works out well for you.

Why were all the posts taken off of this topic?

There was a double post made by the original poster. One in this thread and another in General Conversation.

So I take it they deleted the one in general conversation because I can't find it. Or am I looking in the wrong spot?

Another forum member is having some serious problems logging in to his account so he asked me to post this for him.

"I would like to respond to the VanDenHeuvel comments. I have not been into really hard dogs as long as Mr. VanCamp, but I did over a year and a half of research before deciding on where to get my dog. He is almost 3 years old now, and is a Congo son.

I even had the honor of actually working Congo and other dogs at VDH, so I have see Congo work first hand, and I have seen my dog progress from a puppy.

The reason I decided to go with VDH, is that, of all the breeders, Dari knew the most about the breed, and about breedings, and she was willing to talk to me as long as was necessary for me to feel comfortable with what I was looking for.

Now, I am not a Sch. person, in fact I really don't care about sport much at all. I do have 40 acres, the top 3 of which is fenced. We never lock the house, never lock the vehicles. I need a dog that protects that area. My wife and I are both physicians, and are on call a lot, so there are a lot of times when we are not home. I don't care how pretty my dog is, or what color, I just want to know that if there is a threat, he'll take them down.

Dari told me that the Congo sons tend to mature later, and that they have a lot of defense. I could tell early on he had a lot of defense, but now that he is almost 3, its out the roof. His temperament is rock solid, his structure is perfect, and his bite is unbelievable. He constantly is bruising, and puncturing our trainer through Manitou sleeves, as well as the heavy Ray Allen Kimono suits.

I read where Mr. VanCamp likes dogs that "eat people" I just don't know what else my dog could do to satisfy that desire. We work in trenches, through water, obstacles on the ground, obstacles thrown at him, multiple decoys, vehicles, you name it, and he always comes through.

We also have 4 other VDH dogs in our training group, and they are all the same. Some have more prey drive then mine, but all have a ton of defense, all bite hard, and all have a very stable temperament. We've had 30 year SWAT officers from Chicago say that my dog is exactly what they are looking for..we've had the canine decoys for our county wish he, and the other VDH dogs were on the police force. So, unless Mr. VanCamp really means he wants his dog to literally eat a person, I can't figure out what more these dogs could do to satisfy the desire of a prospective working dog owner.

I would urge anyone thinking about getting a working Shepherd to at least talk with Dari at VDH. You may not buy your dog from her, but I guarantee you will hang up knowing a lot more about the breed, and how breeding can help bring the gsd back to what it was. She does this to improve the dog. She has some rules that a lot of people don't like. No outside breedings, and she picks the pup. Some people don't like this, but way too often I see people at out club with the "pick of the litter" and its worthless, or worthless for them. She takes an inordinate amount of time to find out what a person wants, and she finds the right dog, or pup for them. I'm sure Mr. VanCamp would not go for this as his experience is so vast that he knows best for him what he wants, but for any given situation, even in the hands of very experienced people this strategy has worked very well. She starts testing the puppies as early as 3 weeks, and knows them well. Its the knowledge base of all the lines, and of the breed that impressed me so much. Its also the commitment to producing better dogs that hooked me with VDH."

John

Brian - thank you so much for that post - I was trying to convey what your friend said in an ealier post but didn't do as great a job as your friend. I have a 20 month old male who I was told had medium drive when he was about 12 months old. I know the DDR dogs tend to mature slower - but starting at about 15-18 months I started working him, and after the first two weeks he woke up and came unglued. Now is is the super protector, but is friendly when told it's okay and he loves children (and I don't have any children). We're getting ready to move so I haven't worked him recently - but he is going to be awesome fully trained. You can throw anything at him and he doesn't care what he bites when he's working. He has awesome prey drive, play drive, and defense drives. Dari is a great person to talk to and I agree with everything your friend said.

Quote:She does this to improve the dog. She has some rules that a lot of people don't like. No outside breedings,

This is not how you improve the dog. Unfortunately, we are not the community we should be, but this is not how you help. Typically, this is a money thing. I guess business is business. Try not to read this as she is a bad person, but I wouldn't mind using one of her dogs.

Brian, you need to post that person's full name please.

Thanks.

His full name is John Crane.

Actually he wouldn't mind the help of a Mod to figure out why he can't seem to log in. I would be happy to give his email to one of you mods in a PM if you could help.