Carolyn,
I think really to look at a pedigree,was to determined ,working ,show, american ect.. but over all like I said, it makes no difference really.And you are right have fun , give this pup the life it derserves.That's more rewarding than any thing else.I hope you enjoy your new pup and don't forget pictures!!

carol B. I disagree with you.... Food is a great reward while tou teacc the focus, sit, stay etc. and contrary to you reasoning food you give right away and dont have to take it away to start over. Food is the best motivation tool you have. If you tell me the dog is not food motivated I say your feeding the dog to much... as for which dog you want. I say what kind of handler are you ? can you handle a handler agreesive dog ? is that the kind of dog you really want ? have you ever competed a working dog before? Its not just the dog, you want the best team, it all goes together. Do you have a good trainer to work with ? Are you willing to kennel the dog and do whats needed to make the dog all it can be ? there are to many questions to give you a good opinion. I belong to a club that has quite a mix of dogs from mal, to pit bull. I can tell you not every handler is able to have a hard dog.... Although bite work is very important OB is just as.... hope this gives you something else to think about. good luck....

 Quote: lance_wright

carol B. I disagree with you.... Food is a great reward while tou teacc the focus, sit, stay etc. and contrary to you reasoning food you give right away and dont have to take it away to start over. Food is the best motivation tool you have. If you tell me the dog is not food motivated I say your feeding the dog to much... ....

Lance, aside from the fact that Basic Ob was not the topic, there are dogs who are motivated more by food, and dogs who are motivated more by tugs or toys. If you have a dog who goes crazy for a ball, then in that case "Food is the best motivation tool you have" isn't true.

 Quote: lance_wright

carol B. I disagree with you.... Food is a great reward while tou teacc the focus, sit, stay etc. and contrary to you reasoning food you give right away and dont have to take it away to start over. Food is the best motivation tool you have. If you tell me the dog is not food motivated I say your feeding the dog to much... as for which dog you want. I say what kind of handler are you ? can you handle a handler agreesive dog ? is that the kind of dog you really want ? have you ever competed a working dog before? Its not just the dog, you want the best team, it all goes together. Do you have a good trainer to work with ? Are you willing to kennel the dog and do whats needed to make the dog all it can be ? there are to many questions to give you a good opinion. I belong to a club that has quite a mix of dogs from mal, to pit bull. I can tell you not every handler is able to have a hard dog.... Although bite work is very important OB is just as.... hope this gives you something else to think about. good luck....

Let's see, where to start...I will go question by question....

1) I thought we were talking about drive in a SAR dog, not basic obedience. Of course I use food for obedience. If you have a dog that chooses toy over food, then no, food is not the best motivational tool use.
My dogs are on RAW diet, and get 2-3% of their body weight, 1 or two ribs show when not working and all ribs show when working or exercising.


2) Yes I can handle a dog, handler aggressive or not. No I have not competed but I have 6 working dogs right now, all search for HUMAN LIFE and there IS NO competition in that. It is a TEAM effort by ALL agencies involved.
I contract privately with a MASTER Trainer out of the International Police Work Dog Association, North American Police Work Dog Association and will also be being introduced and hopefully working with Wayne Semmonovich (spelling, sorry) and Ivan Balabanov this year at seminars. This will insure that my first PPD is trained correctly!!!
I have a IPWDA AND NAPWDA certified Bloodhound in trailing and area search, a FEMA trained disaster dog, a Malinois that is testing and WILL certify in Human Remains Detection and a Gun Dog (Black Lab) for bird hunting. I also have two czech GSD's that just flew in today on a contract for Search training.


3) I have 10 kennels here and run a training operation for SEARCH dogs. I also train obedience and work with dogs that have aggression and anxiety issues.

I do not know what woodwork you came out of but I am seriously offended that you confronted me the way that you did. You obviously skimmed this thread and came to your own conclusions instead of seeing the QUESTION I was asked....."What makes you think puppy B is a good SAR prospect?" I think those were exact words.
So therefore, I should not have even addressed this post, but, it pissed me off.

What does your resume look like? Not that it matters, the evidence is in the team.

well I have three GSD,(czech,ddr,west german import) one of which is just a pup. I have a schutzhund bh, sch 1 psa pdc and will compete for a one during the national this year(if the dog is ready). So I may have a different resume, the only national person I have trained with is Jim lempner(WDA world team) and that was two years ago. You should not be pissed off, I have the right to disagree with you. how ever I think other than the food, the thread was ment for the person wanting a dog. It does matter what kind of handler they are. The handler agressive dogs that I speak of are the dogs that come up the line while being corrected during bite work, SAR would not except this type dog. I too have trained and do train with trainers of police dogs. I'm not sure that means anything. Because you train with tugs, and train with a police dog trainer you also know that in the wrong hands a tug can and will create conflict between the handler and dog team. This is why we teach the use of two tugs. In SAR this may not be an issue but it sure is in any bite work, teaching a calm grip,and to stay in the bite can be ruined buy taking the tug away and forcing the out to early. I may have not been as clear or eaven read more into the question than I should have but you know as well as I do it is very hard to be clear in so few words. I'm glad you have done well in the SAR world, that doesnt make you the end all be all in correct imformation. I guess I'll just say I'm sorry you got your feelings hurt.

No worries Lance, I do not allow my feelings to get hurt when it comes to posts like you posted. I will however stand my ground when people do not read thoroughly and then offer advice that has very little to do with the original post.

Carolyn,
I apologize for hijacking your post.

I think it is great that you went with pup B and I am sure you will be great with her.
I am kind of interested in what comes up as far as lineage.
I bet you are excited.

lance, I agree with you with what you are saying the only thing for me is that Iused to think like you about food motivation .If your dog won't track for food you must be feeding way too much.Until I got a pup now 15 months of age that will not track for food!!! Call me crazy but I skipped 3 days of feeding and he tracked like crap and slow not very motivated to track for his food.I feed raw 100% and he is 100lb solid, lean and strong.I went from a food driven dog(yaggo) to Bandit who is TUG NUTS.SO I am already doing articles with him and skipped the food tracks and went to teach him to track for his tug.I like using food for tracking far better but I just did not have a dog that was motivated for food.And if you were to put food down and have a tug in your hand , he would not flinch for a moment to look at the food in his bowl he would be looking at his tug instead.
And that is my experience...

I use food as a reward, pull out ball or jute roll to bring up drive.

But don't you use food on your track ? He won't commit to the track unless I really take alot of food away (his daily ratio over a time period) Gino was telling me use his toy since he is literally tug nuts.What do you think?
Sorry no hijacking...

Actually, I was thinking about ob when I posted that. If (in ob) I bring out the ball or jute roll he completely looses his little mind so that's why I use food as a reward & toys to bring up drive & keep him guessing. I agree with you 100% about using whatever works in tracking. My dog is such a chow hound that if I skip his breakfast before tracking he is too frantic on the track and impossible to control!! If your pup is doing well without food, I say you are on the right "track" (ha ha ha).