Hi...

I am Duane, and this is my relatively new companion, Sadie. I work in a lab in the New Orleans area, testing petroleum products. Sadie runs, chases dragonflies, and has recently taken up fishing. She loves thunder, fireworks, rides, walks, A/C, being groomed, and me. She hates mini-bikes and the mail truck. She is a dominant alpha female and is dog-aggressive. She was raised with children, so she is overly sociable, but also learned some bad habits from them.

I've always owned dogs and other pets, but I've never been exposed to working dogs or bite sports. I typically would adopt shelter rescues to keep as yard dogs. I have always been able to do some basic obedience and manners training, as I do not tolerate bad behavior, but I've never attempted anything near what Sadie requires.

A little over a year ago, I lost a companion of eleven years, a shelter-rescued squirrel dog named Tera. Coupled with my only son leaving the nest, that left me feeling pretty lonely. I was working nights at the time and knew that my schedule would not be fair to a puppy, so I started considering rescues again. I've always admired GSDs, but did not meet the requirements of the GS rescues.

A friend of mine who was concerned about my predicament started looking at craigslist ads for free large dogs (I was also interested in a dog that could guard my property while I was away at night). She forwarded five ads, which I rated 1-5. Sadie was the first (and only) one I called about. After a week of visits and gathering as much info as I could, I realized that Sadie needed me as much as I wanted her. Here was a valuable, intact, mature (2.5 yo) female with a pedigree being given away by a so-called breeder. Surely something was amiss, but the owner would not truthfully disclose her motives. After a check-up by my family vet, Sadie came home with me. We had bonded during the week of visits, so Sadie was eager to go with me.

During that week of visits, the owner said Sadie was from a Leerburg line, as if I was supposed to know what that was. I raced home and searched on a popular search engine, and suddenly found myself in a huge new world of passionate, educated, vocal, and opinionated owners, breeders, trainers, and teachers. It has been an eye-opening experience to say the least, but Sadie and I are embracing the opportunity to learn and grow together. She was not in an environment condusive to working dog behavior, so a lot of her drives are seriously lacking. By chance, I met the president of our local SchH club. He evaluated her and her pedigree and feels like she has potential, so we are brushing up her obedience and starting some groundwork with the club.

Wish us luck!

What a cutie, looks like a nice girl!

Nice looking girl. Hope you have many years of fun together! Glad you found the LB forum & a club to help you both on your journey together.

What LB lines is she from? I have LB bitch out of Ed's Otis lines. She is the black & tan in my sig pix.

I'm interested in the lines too. My female goes back to the Otis lines also.

OK, so this is where my lack of experience leaves me dumbfounded. I have no clue about how to research or evaluate pedigrees. I know that she is maternal third gen out of Uri vom Leerburg. She has some inferior lines I'm sure, as she was bred by a puppy mill that emphasized color (rather than working traits). David (the local pro that I am working with who evaluated Sadie) was not pleased to see white and liver dogs in her pedigree. Her AKC pedigree appears (to me)to have German kennels on the paternal sign, but the CKC pedigree lists those dogs as "Original stock". There are also a lot of dogs in her lineage that have names with local flavor, which I'm sure means these lines have become obscured within the local breeding community.
Please feel free to help me out here.

Katie, my GSD and yours look like they could be twins!

I thought the same thing Duane. They look so much alike.

Could you scan a copy of her pedigree or post a link to it online?

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/dog.html?id=623862

I am not registered with this site, but the ugly little white, coated thing is supposedly a littermate... looks nothing like the dam or my Sadie, but the pedigree is identical. The dam's pedigree is also on this site. It looks to me (and my untrained eye)like Uri vom Leerburg is sired by Otis? Help me, guys!!!

Uri has a nice working pedigree, but the rest look like American showlines that go to white shepherds. I'm interested to see how she works. Let us know how Schutzhund goes for you.

I hate to say it but I would be really worried about the hips on Sadie. She has a dysplastic dog, a good number of fair ratings and a lot of mysteries in her pedigree.

There are some DDR (East German) dogs a couple of generations back that have some substance, but alot of dams with no info on them (so who knows on them)& then some white shedpherds. There were some good dogs mixded up with some BYB mish-mosh of dogs. Hard to tell what you have there. But she has some good stuff back in her lines, too....so just work her with the club & see what comes out of it all. She may surprize you.

Most of all...enjoy your new companion. She is a pretty girl & lucky to have you come into her life.