Quote: Anne Jones

If you are worried about protection for your family...buy a GUN!!

Ditto! My dogs' job is to alert me to a threat so I can deal with it or send hubby to deal with it. After all, he's scarier than any guard dog.

Sorry guys I blame the breeder/importer 100 percent. You don't ship an adult trained dog without vetting the owner and offering some kind of follow up plan.

Love you, Betty!!!!

After I posted my message, and left the house I was thinking about it. IF I'm ever in the position to breed (DS's, of course, hahah), and all the responsible breeders I know will take a dog back, unconditionally, no matter what. Family gets a divorce, they'll take the dog back. Dog bites kid, breeder will take the dog back. Dog isn't working out, breeder will take the dog back.....

It's a shame, really. Poor Emmi. She's been through a lot in her life. Imported from Germany, short term home on the East Coast, and now back to kennel life till another buyer is found.


ETA: I had NO idea that Kraftwerk was well known enough to have a reputation on the East Coast. Interesting! Thanks, Anne.

Edited by Kelly Byrd (10/12/2011 12:33 PM)
Edit reason: eta

Adult dogs, especially working dogs, don't always ship well. When I worked at the kennel, Ed would occasionally buy a new female or we would get an older dog back for some reason. It was my job to pick up the dog at the airport.

There were a few times when the dog wasn't safe for me to let out of the crate. There would be some snarling and barking. Ed would be the one to handle those dogs for the first few days.

One of the worst shippers was a dog called Greta. I couldn't get NEAR the crate when I got her back to the kennel. She literally walked the crate around the room. After a few days, she settled in and became one of the most friendly dogs you've ever met.. and a snuggler to boot

If anyone is going to buy a dog that is shipped cross country or overseas, you need to know how to handle the dog when it gets to you. It may be completely freaked out and stressed. It needs time to be quiet and settle in before throwing more stress onto it by making it interact with other animals or kids that it doesn't know. It's already in "fight or flight" mode.

The shipper should have let the new owner know what to expect. He should have gone over the routine for the first few days or week with the dog - what to expect and what to do when it happens.

I blame both parties here. The dog was caught in the middle.

The buyer's comment that he was afraid the dog would be destroyed if nobody claimed her really torqued me off - he was the one that abandoned her by shipping her off with no comfirmation that anyone would be there to pick her up.

--Kelly

This article made me mad in so many ways. It's interesting though, I found this board when I was looking to purchase a "trained protection dog" from a guy in SC...and the board let me have it! Everyone weighted in unanimously with the fact that you can't just order up a dog...you want a good dog you got to put the time in...anyway, I ended up getting a GSD pup from a reputable breeder and love every day working with him. He ended up being a protection dog anyway because he's so loyal.

I do recall being amazed at what a racket there is out there for buying trained dogs. It's huge.

I'd have to say I'm against the breeder on this one. They should have checked to make sure the family was suitable for a working dog instead of being more interested in a sale. If they had done their homework the right way, none of this would have happened in the first place.

I really don't even fault the guy that bought her, he's not 100% not at fault but... He didn't know what he was getting into with that particular dog. On the other hand, he is the moron that probably hasn't got a clue what a real protection dog is all about, or how to manage one.

It's really sickening to see so many clueless dog owners in general. It makes about as much sense as me buying a horse, when I have no clue about taking care of a horse, and not caring to learn. Amazing.

It is sad but there are plenty of clueless buyers (hubby and I were amongst them, LOL) and irresponsible sellers.

Hubby and I got our GSD 3 years ago to be a pet, but she had way too much prey and defense drives to just be a pet.

She was the sole reason why we entered the world of dog sports. We've enjoyed every moment of it since. Hubby and I have decided that other than rescues, all our future dogs will be sports dogs But I am sure not every family has the resources or willingness to accommodate. The dog always gets the short end of the stick.

Although playing devils advocate here... The breeder may have done the right checks.

I once homechecked for a rescue. Guy wanted this huge pyranean/white Gsd mix - home was great for a dog but this dog had aggression issues with other dogs - The potenital owner was aware of them, I described in great detail what this dog was like. The guy knew the right techniques, the right buzzwords to use and had experience with a previous problem dog.

Long story short, he got the dog - had it 2 days, he let it off leash and it almost killed a smaller dog. Went back to the rescue.

I think the situation was set up for failure. With only a 72 hour gaurantee, and frankly who gives such a short gaurantee??, the buyer really had no choice but to put this dog through all it's paces as soon as it arrived, they didn't have much time to find out if there were going to be issues. But the dog had no time to settle in and even get to know it's knew owner/home/etc before the testing began. Assuming the issue was only training, ie the dog and/or owner needed more of it, I can see thinking the owner should have found a trainer to work with. But going after the child, forget it, dog is gone. For 7000+ I'll just find another dog where that isn't an issue right out of the gate.

The only time I would think a 72 hour gaurantee might be acceptable was if I was able to see the dog with it's current owner in all the normal situations I was going to put it in, ie working, around other people, dogs, kids, cats, whatever. But sight unseen, it's just not enough time.

I suspect that if you call up the kennel Tanith and express interest in a very strong protective dog you will be dismayed to find most checks are revolving around your payment method.........

Generally speaking brokers/importers just don't care.

And in a lot of instances with importers/brokers google may be your friend. <grin>

When Raya arrived from Germany it took her 6 months to understand my version of the German commands.

The buyer is not the expert here. Should he of done more homework? Absolutely! And that lesson has cost him a whole bunch of bucks he'll never see again.

When I sell a dog out of my area, especially an adult trained dog I make sure I have someone in that area that can offer help, an unbiased set of observation eyes, and most importantly someone that can grab my dog and house it in an emergency if necessary. I know Kadi does the same.

If I can do that based on a network built on a couple of litters a year and a presence in only the local training scene how can someone who has competed at a National Level and placed hundreds of hundreds dog not have a much better one at their fingertips if they choose to use it? And that is a general statement, not directed at Mr. Curry. Sadly I can think of a few names that fit the description.....

They can but they don't. They can but they won't. And it's dogs like this beautiful girl that get treated like livestock.

Really all the rest of us can do is educate when possible, put the blame where our morals dictate it should be placed and when possible vote with our pocket book if an issue is important enough to us.

Ok, off my soap box now....