I do a little GSD rescue, a friend recommended me to someone having trouble with their dog. I agreed to speak to them, and ended up meeting them and the dog at the Regionals. Dog was purchased from Kraftwork, working-lines, neutered male 2 years old. Raised in the house with the family - young couple no kids but neices visiting regularly. Dog is 100% fine with his owners, and kids he knows. But in the last few months, he has acted with aggression toward strangers in and around his house, children playing outside the house/neighborhood within sight, and other dogs. He has not bitten anyone, but the owner has been very careful, and was at a loss about what to do. He recognized, rightfully so, his aggression especially towards children, would become a problem in the near future.
When I met the dog he was interested in his new surroundings, and showed no aggression to me. Not licky-friendly, but neutral and approachable. However things changed when he caught sight of a puppy being walked some 20 yards away or so - lunging against his (flat useless) collar, growling and serious barking, IMO aggressive. No hackles. I asked the owner if this is the behavior he showed toward the neighborhood children, and he said "yes, exactly".I asked my trainer/decoy to come look at the dog, he had the same experience of no problem when first meeting, but then he "tested" the dog simply by walking around him in a circle, approaching him slowly with eye contact - and the dog erupted in aggression towards him - there would certainly have been a serious bite incident here if the owner had not been holding him tightly (on choke chain this time on my insistance).
Anyway, the owners elected to give up the dog - the liability of him in a neighborhood/family dog situation with an inevitable mistake leading to a serious bite on a child or small dog being a given. I took the dog and now need to figure out what to do with him.
My idea is to send him to a trainer who trains (in a correct and fair way) for PP. I believe this dog could be an excellent PP dog, with the correct training. He is naturally aggressive, and has a good foundation of in-house living. I am interested in finding such a trainer who would be willing to take this dog, train him and sell him for PP. My only criteria would be that this dog is placed only in a good an appropriate home situation, as I promised his owners.
I do not believe this dog is strong enough in temperament for police work. He does have good ball drive, perhaps detection work would be ok.
If anyone has any ideas that would help me figure out this dogs' future, I would appreciate it. I am only trying to help this dog, and his owners. I am thinking euthanasia is the only other option for this dog, but I think he is better than that. Just not a family dog.

Molly

Molly,
PM me please, we should discuss this further. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Will

Id be interested to know if this dog has ever displayed any aggression towards his owners, or handler?

Glenn

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I do not believe this dog is strong enough in temperament for police work. He does have good ball drive, perhaps detection work would be ok.

With the problems you described above, I wouldn't recommend this dog for a detector job.

Contact Will, he might be able to help you out.

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Id be interested to know if this dog has ever displayed any aggression towards his owners, or handler?

his owner was his "handler" - he was just a pet dog, showing aggression that his pet-owner didn't have any idea how to handle. As I said in my post, the dog is 100% with his owner (handler) - no aggression at all toward people he knew, to my knowledge and from what I saw in person.

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I do not believe this dog is strong enough in temperament for police work. He does have good ball drive, perhaps detection work would be ok.


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With the problems you described above, I wouldn't recommend this dog for a detector job.

Mike - I have some knowledge and experience with detection training and handling - this dog has very good ball drive, his problem is his social skills. Are all detection K9s required to be social with strangers, and have access to children? With the right handler, as I said I believe he might work out fine for detection work. I think the problem is, most Police handlers want dual-purpose, and as I said I don't think this dog is strong enough in temperament for patrol work. Thanks for your advice,

molly

I went to your web site and saw Raven with Tim. Those are some nice pictures. I met Raven a few times. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Raven was one of my own breeding, sold as a pet at 8 weeks old and became very naturally aggressive, strong and too sure of himself for his owner to handle. So as I do when any of my pups don't work out for any reason - I got him back. Tim took him for PP training and he has done extremely well. He says Raven is extremely serious yet absolutely clear. A very good dog for PP - not good for pet! But, at 8 weeks he was cute and friendly, his mother is an absolute sweetheart - who can tell sometimes. Tim took those pictures, they are good ones! Would love to hear what your impression was of Raven when you met him.

molly

I thought Tim did a really nice job with Raven. I enjoy working with Tim, we have a good time. Raven, I thought, was really a smart dog(smarter than most)in how quickly he was able to have progressed. I thought Tim got a lot out of that dog, and correctly in a fairly short amount of time.

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Molly,
PM me please, we should discuss this further. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Will and Molly,
Are there portions of your conversations that you wouldn't mind sharing publicly? 18 mos or so ago, if you substituted "German Shepherd" with "Briard", I would have thought Molly was talking about my boy (now almost four years old).

Would be interesting to hear thoughts of those who understand this stuff.

Thanks!
T