Originally posted by Butch Crabtree:
To others reading this POST:
Not everyone wants or cares for Shelter Dogs, I do agree that most RESCUE GROUPS have above average dogs that need good caring homes.

If everyone went to the Shelter where would the GSD be today?? Just a simple question for a MONDAY. If everyone looking for a PET went to a shelter or rescue group, the breed would be FAR better off. All the @ssholes breeding pets wouldn't have a business anymore.

That said, I have one dog I bought as a pup, one dog I bought as an adult, and one that I got from the shelter. They are ALL good dogs, and the shelter dog is better than a lot of dogs I have seen people BUY.

I looked at a bi-color german lined female a few nights ago. Young, cute, no owner. Nothing wrong with her. Ball drive. Don't kid yourself that all shelters have is the crap. Lots of dogs end up there because they were too much for the family that bought them.

OK, off my soap box now...

It's obviously a Monday since you're double posting Butch. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Deanna, glad you got of your soapbox.

I like the answer you gave to my Monday Question.
Deanna Posted:

 Quote:

If everyone looking for a PET went to a shelter or rescue group, the breed would be FAR better off. All the @ssholes breeding pets wouldn't have a business anymore

Deanna, you and I both know that the PET Breeder's will be here forever. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />
"WHAT A CURSE ON ALL THE DEDICATED WORKING LINE BREEDER"

Education will be the only way to reverse this problem of too many dogs being BORN.

I wish I were a VET. I would do Spay's and Neuter's for free one time for a CARING/CONCERNED owner. This I think would be the Catalyst to get things started.

Bingo, Deanna. Likely what happened with my GSD. He had no training at all-but was a complete spaz. Enough ball drive to make him enthusiastic about OB training. Aloof, but friendly when introduced. A little dog aggression at first, but nothing 2 weeks of socializing didn't take care of easily.

12 weeks later, he's a blue streak on recall, intense for the ball, off-lead focus heeling, down in motion, long sit/down stay, distance commands, hand signals, etc. Yes, there are definitely a few good dogs in the shelters.

BTW, that's exactly where the GSD would be if people who wanted pets went to the shelters. We'd have more strong, stable dogs with strength of character. Dogs whose bloodlines would be untainted by the shivering nerve bags that are the inevitable castaways of poorly-conceived breedings based on quibbling over an extra $800 or so on the cost of a foundation brood bitch.

But I digress...

 Quote:

Originally posted by Butch Crabtree:
If everyone went to the Shelter where would the GSD be today?? Just a simple question for a MONDAY.

If everyone that didn't know enough about the breed to do years of research on bloodlines went to the shelter north america wouldn't have a pet overpopulation problem. Average joe can only hurt the breed unless they do months or years of research just before buying a pet. If we eliminated pet breeders the breed would be a little bit closer to what it is SUPPOSED to be, not the pathetic watered down sickly excuse for a dog that the pet dogs have become.

Until you have to watch someone cry uncontrollably because their young pet has to be euthanized, you won't understand how awful "pet" breeding is. Until you have to wake up every 30 minutes to take a dog outside because they have a sensitive stomach and a treat disagreed with them, you won't care about making sure that someone else and more importantly their dog don't have to live with this hell on earth. Until you have seen a pet line dog try to attack the vet at 12 weeks, you will not fully appreciate just how bad a GSD can get.

The GSD was never intended to be a pet. They are a working breed, and to make them anything else is asking for problems that haven't even been discovered yet. It is no secret that if there's a strange disease, it happens most often in GSDs (correction: in dogs that are claimed to be GSDs but aren't in reality what the breed is all about).

If pets came from the shelter and breeders focused SOLELY on producing the best working dog possible then America would be a better place. If breeding for pets and the associated temperment problems continue, then GSD will continue to get an even worse reputation and owners of GSDs (both good and bad) will face even more breed bans. Do you want to loose your dogs because somebody wants to breed their cute pets?

Originally posted by Butch Crabtree:
I wish I were a VET. I would do Spay's and Neuter's for free one time for a CARING/CONCERNED owner. This I think would be the Catalyst to get things started. There's no age requirement for vet school admission.

ok, call me a prick...I've been called worse...BUT getting back to original first post or two...

You want to get a "pet" for your dog? Ok, not only is this wrong, I'm am SO INTENSELY against this. If you don't have enough time to give your dog, in training and play time, not even including just "hanging out" time, then you have NO business getting another dog. You're going to make your first dog be "doggy" and care less about what it has with you, thus weakening your bond and undoing a lot of training that you have (or are supposed to be doing). As a matter of fact, I've been pissing people off saying this to all kinds of people, so I won't be surprised if it pisses everyone else off too, but...

If you don't have the time to dedicate to your dog that you need to get it a "pet" or companion, then sell or give him/her to a home that can give him/her what he needs.

Hell, right now, we've got 5 here, and each and every one of them gets worked/trained and played with until they're tired and satisfied, EVERY DAY.

Suggesting that someone who doesn't have enough time for one dog probably won't have enough time for two doesn't make you a prick-it makes you right.

Lauren, I'm past the age of changing career's. Something I can do is help pay for some of the vet cost at our local shelter. Anyone else up to the challange maybe we can get something started. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

This is something I don't understand. Until you do This or Do That. believe me, I've experienced most of what every dog owner has and most likely more.

Yes something needs to be done. Have any answers instead of suggestions?? I think everyone that has become a member of this BOARD have nothing but the Working Line GSD's best of INTEREST as their main concern.

However, Who are we the Working Line GSD owners/breeders/trainers/handlers to say that someone shouldn't breed this and they shouldn't breed that. Again, Yes, something needs to happen, will it, Proberly not. What a shame for everyone that has worked so hard for such a NOBLE breed.

OFF TOPIC!!!
Mike when are we going tracking??
We did a track over 500 yrds this morning. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Damn, all I said was "POSSIBLE FUTURE BREEDING"!

Some of you folks take yourselves much too seriously. Too much time in your hands, I would suspect. I do not show dogs, have no intentions of ever being a breeder, will probably never know as much as the most uninformed person in this forum; however, I do not want a dog from a shelter, as great as some of them may be. I want a dog I can know something about her bloodline. She will be a pet!!! A Pet and a companion for the male I have. Anyone who spends $3500 on a dog just for a pet is a moron...