Here, here Nancy, I searched and searched for a pup to use in SAR and the one I found is terrific. At 14 months, two weeks ago during a man-trailing class he followed a track that was over 4 hours old, 1.5 miles long, through a neighborhood, over a fence, across a five lane highway and found the subject in the back of a McDonalds. At the price of $1200 and worth every penny!

Jennifer, I think the question you may want to ask yourself is do you want a pet or do you want a SAR dog?

Many folks, myself included, started SAR with a pet who had good drives but was not a suitable dog (my Czech/W German cross lacked in nerve strength and has bad structure in his front - not crippled, but clumsy and I washed him after a year of training) and moved on to find a more suitable dog.

I think the best advice IS to start with a young dog of good structure and temperament if you can't afford to replace a puppy that may or may not work out.

Current mindset for me is that my SAR dog is a working dog first / pet-family member second. If things fall apart (and there is more risk of this happening with a puppy* than with a suitable young dog) I keep her as a pet and continue to work SAR as a grounpounder until the next dog comes along.



*the adage that pups are a crap shoot.....

Don't assume a high price will get you a great dog from a puppy. There are breeders out there that are selling pups for a reasonable price. Watch Ed's tape (I think it was bite training for puppies) on picking a pup. Read the puppy picking article here on Leerburg and perform Flink's test.

I have done this twice now and have two great pups with more ability than my training knowledge. The first pup I looked at 3 litters and ended up picking a female from the least expensive litter because she had the nerves,drives and temperament. The other pups had better pedigrees and cost 500 to 800 more but didn't have the same level of nerves or drives. The 2nd pup was chosen out of a litter of 4 demons and wasn't an easy pick I would have paid more. I hope the breeder is not on here to read that.

Even if you purchase from good breeder and stock there's no guarantee a 1500 dollar pup will become a working dog.Once the price goes 1500 plus shipping for a pup, it might be better to save up and buy a green pup that already shows the traits and drives you need. You can pick up a green pup 6 months to a year old for 1000 to 2500 depending on pedigree,ability and training. The advantage to green is you can see if he or she has working ability. But, there are disadvantages too, was this dog socialized properly is it good with other pets and children.

Thanks for all of the replys. I have had a lot to think about.

Currently my priority has to be pet because I cannot guarrantee that I will be able to work the dog. Roland had the potential to work and we tried for 1.5 yrs to become part of a SAR group. First he was too young, so we did some prelim training at home, then they had their teams in training and by the time they had room, I was pregnant with twins (surprise!!).

Since I couldnt work him the way I wanted to, I bought a cart and was planning on teaching him to pull a wagon with the kids, Then his ACL acted up etc, etc,etc. Timing just didnt work out.

So I need a dog that will be ok as a pet (with lots of training and discipline and exercise) that I can begin training SAR, and if it doesnt work out, I can get a better dog later. The older the kids get, the more I can focus on a dog. I just want a dog with the desire and potential to work. I want the experience training.

The problem paying 1500 for a relative of Roland is that his breeder doesnt work or title their breeding dogs (they seem to import nice dogs, but also use some of their homebreds who have no titles). If I am going to pay 1500 for a pup, I want to know its parents can work. I would also rather buy from a breeder who trains their dogs too--would be a good resourse if I had training problems!

Jennifer

when i look at the pedigrees i look at the females and if the females are say sch2 or 3 than i know atleast one or 2 pups will be good if not more.


anyone that does not title their dogs or atleast sends em out to be trained sounds like someone just in for the money.

do not mean to offend or degrade a memory of a good dog.

Unfortunately, you can have a full time working police canine in a pedigree that is famous but because it doesn't have a SchH title, folks won't know of the dog's history.
And AKC pedigree's are useless for showing working titles ( wow...big surprise there, huh? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> ) on a dog.

Will, have you ever seen a Belgian pedigree. They make the akc pedigree look like an encyclopedic look at each dog.

Yep, the "St. Hubert's"....my first examination of one of those many years ago pretty much had me going......"Whhhhaaaaa?" <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />
Fortunately, I retrain dogs from Belgium to respond to German commands......because nooooooo way am I going to learn Flemish! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I just got my new pup a couple weeks ago and took a look at the paperwork. The pedigrees for both sire and dam have some famous BSP and wusv competitors and you would never know they only had the losh# or German reg#.The few people I have dealt in Belgium speak and write dutch that's hard enough.