Hi! I am new to this board and read your messages with great interest. I have as I was told a pure-bred show line coming from Europe. The dog is 8 month old and our trainer is thinking that he will be great on the show ring, but is this the only thing that the dog can do and we should close our prospects on his working abilities? We have received basic obedience training, thinking of advanced one, but not even sure which way to move. Any suggestions?
I would think as this is GSD - than working abilities, but the show can go on the background too. Right now I do not know (as I am new to GSD and training too)which way to proceede with it. I am assuming some kind of intermediate or advanced obedience combined with beginer protection training would be good (may be I am wrong about that but you can suggest the right direction.)
Thanks, plus I know that time is running out for him to and for us if we plan something done with the shows or in future Szhunthund.
The better way of doing this would have been first decide on a goal and then search for a dog that can achieve it. To first purchase a dog for reasons other than being a pet and then try to fit him into your goals is very difficult.
Thanks for the insight. Unfortunatelly my son has got him as a present from grandma, plus he has brought him from abroad. So there we are. He is already a member of the family and now it is up to us to make something good of this valuable present with pedigree and all that.
Well just because you have a show-line gsd doesn't mean you can't do any working sports. Each dog has its own temperament whether it's from working stock or show stock. Primarily getting a dog from working stock stacks the cards in your favor. I have a showline GSD who is extremely smart and obedient, has great prey drive but is soft and don't think he has much of defense drives, but that's just him. Your dog might have all the attributes but you won't know for sure until you have him evaluated by a good trainer and how you bring him up can have a big impact. So, don't write him off just because he is from show lines, some good working dogs do come from those lines too.
Thanks Lanegirl. What we were told at his evaluation that he is really smart, has a really good "food drive" (for sure any one of them), but no protection training was done with him, plus I feel that we have to work on his obedience more, so that's a long way to the working dog if he cannot do obedience properly. Also, my son has fiddled to much with his legs, so the dog is now when playing or tagging is looking mostly at people's feet instead of the eyes. We have to correct this. I do not know the best way to approach these problems, and assume that professional training would benefit him, but to spend a big buck on this is a little bit overboard for my pocket. Is there any way that we can do this training ourselves?
For obedience......do you have a local kennel club there? Most of the time they offer obedience from beginning to advanced. That is the route I took. I also would recommend getting the book PURELY POSITIVE TRAINING -- COMPANION TO COMPETITION by
Sheila Booth. I think it's one of the best books and I used it on my dog. The reason I like this book is because it realy explains on how a dog thinks and learns. You must understand this first before you can really embark on doing this yourself. I trained my dog using food and the positive methods and he is extremely obedient. The only time I had to use corrections was in the down. You can do a large part of your training at home, but it's nice to have actual trainers who know your dog so when you run into trouble they can help you out. Also the dog needs lots of socialization and what better place.
Thanks for advise. I'll try to get the book and implement whatever I can, re "training clubs": does anyone now good trainers in the area for intermediate/advanced obedience and starter protection (north/west part of Toronto),no offense to PETSMART and to you Jerry ( you are in Markham and unfortunatelly far from me as I am working and studying full time, plus I would not want to leave the family without Archie's company and protection)and that would not empty my pockets too much?
Vagabond if you listen to Lanegirl's advice you will have a dog that is not reliable under distraction. She does most of her training at home??? Where is the proofing in this training? "Purely Positive" sounds like a fluff piece from liberal.
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