Hi, new poster here. Im looking for specific advice. I am and have been a GSD fancier for most of my life and have been involved with ambred dogs, long story short in looking to improve my breeding program I selected a certain sire and looked for certain traits in the puppies I kept to start becoming involved in other sports. While I am familer with puppy raising and OB training, Schutzhund and the like will be a new experience for me. I do know the phases and what is involved in the sport but am worried I will not raise my puppies correctly for this venue.....soooo I am looking for advice, Leerburg tape suggestions, equipment suggestions etc. I am reading conflicting information about correcting young puppies, what phases to work on first (ob or bite work or tracking etc) and just really want to give this a good effort and enjoy this with my new puppies.

Suggestions will be very much appriciated. My puppies are 11 weeks old, very social, bold and curious, confidence is good......now what do I do? lol I am worried about where to start so that I do not inhibit them for this sport in the future.

Thank you all in advance..

Cherri

Cherri,

I recommend to start imprinting puppies in tracking as early as possible. With that said, learn about tracking and set up at least a 2-3 month gameplan BEFORE you start. Start the imprinting at a time when you can consistently keep doing it on a daily basis. To me, it is more important to start at a time when you can continue tracking training on a regular basis vs. starting right away with a young pup and then interupting the regularity of the training. Your puppies are plenty young for you to accomplish this. I highly recommend the method that Bernhard Flinks teaches to imprint young pups on tracking.

OB and tug work can be done very young as well, but NO CORRECTIONS. OB is short sessions of shaping the sit and down and tug work is prey driven, fun and the pup ALWAYS WINS the toy/rag. Have two of whatever toy or rag you want to use so you're not 'taking' the prize away from the pup, he/she gives up the one to go after the other. Burlap, cotton towels or suede leather make good tugs for puppies.

Most importantly, get the pup out and socialize them. Positive socialization with new people, places and things will help develop a good dog in many ways training alone cannot. If you have multiple puppies, at 11 weeks they should be separated as much as possible and the socialization and training needs to be done on an individual basis.

Hope this helps.

Thank you John, exactly which of Leerburg's tapes are recommended?I was also looking at the equipment and the ball on a string and one of those mini tugs for puppies look good. I think he has a tracking tape as well? This is the direction people are telling me to go in so I guess thats where to start, bad thing is that is where I am most inexperienced <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Cherri

edited due to my stupid keyboard lol

I am and have been a GSD fancier for most of my life and have been involved with ambred dogs Are these American Bloodline dogs? Showdogs?

Originally posted by Chad Kinsey:
I am and have been a GSD fancier for most of my life and have been involved with ambred dogs Are these American Bloodline dogs? Showdogs? They are ambred bred to german show.

Cherri

So ambreds are AKC American German Shepherds? Not being mean...but why would you breed those American GSD to German Lines. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />
That makes me cry. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Ok, all crying aside lets stick to the questions. If a breeder decides to breed his dog to a poodle- so be it. She originally asked about what to do with her puppies and for help raising them differently. I do not want to see a trashing session here on the bloodlines of the dog. Time will tell if this is going to work for her, and stranger things have happened. Consider that a warning to all.

I see you mentioned "puppies" so I am assuming this is a plurality of dogs. If you have not "tested" the litter you might want to consider doing so and keeping back the best two for you to work with. Being that you are new to working sports in general- even keeping two will probably be more than you bargained for.

So far as tapes- The bite training puppies tape will be a very good tape and goes into the temperament selection. Training a competition tracking dog is also a good tape covering tracking and tracklaying. The first steps of Bite training is designed for older dogs (over 6 months) but Ed does an excellent job of explaining drives and what is going on for the dog as well as what you need to do as a handler. That in itself will often save you from getting yelled at on the SchH field! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

For puppies the ball on a string is good and the small puppy tug. I like a chamois cloth that you can pick up anywhere for bite play with little brats and they are widely available- and seem to withstand the sharp teeth well. The next few months are critical for socialization. Take the pups with you everywhere you can. Play with them everywhere you can think of that you can sneak them in (safely of course)and make things fun.

I am sure people will add more...

Thank you Deanna, I selected a bitch puppy with the outgoing, drivey nature for the sport based on everything I read and what I know as a dog owner for 30 some odd years, anything she may be lacking will be part of the learning experience.I selected the bitch with the best temperament IMO best suited to what I would like to achieve and placed the better conf puppies in pet homes lol "Cinder" is curious, intelligent, very social and confident, she has great prey so far (her dam has this) what I was looking for in the breeding was more "joy" and less handler sensitivity (her dam is very handler sensitive and not very forgiving with corrections, but is sound) I just dont want to screw Cinder up as I feel it was part of how I raised her dam that either caused or lended to the issues I mentioned above. The male we kept is my sister's puppy "Isaac" his conformation is stronger, temp is more laid back and less forgiving in nature, he is compeative (jealous) however in nature and demands attention so we shall see how he continues to develop. He is her puppy and will most likly be doing conf, OB and being her companion. My puppy however, I have higher goals focused on.

Looks like I will be ordering the Bite training for puppies, the tracking tape and the two tug toys, thank you <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Any further advice is of course appricated. We are attempting to start tracking with Cinder, are straight short tracks best to start with? The book I have has me putting food in each step....is "hide and seek" a game that helps develop the traits needed for tracking ( I used to do this with a previous bitch and it was a great game and confidence booster as well as teaching her to use her nose)

If anyone is interested in pictures of these puppies emails are welcomed, Im not sure exactly what ED allows post wise with pictures and links. My email is eastgsd@aol.com<br />
Cherri

I start my puppies by laying large scent pads with food in them. Maybe 4'x4' with a flag. I want them to start associating the flag with food. Only after they are getting every last scrid of food on the scent pad and you see them really working the perimeter to tell where is on- or off- do I start going forward.

The problem with "hide and seek" is that a dog can learn to focus on the hide and will start airscenting for the reward. For SchH tracking or foot-step tracking- the track itself must be the reward to maintain a deep nose.

Ed doesn't allow pictures to be posted.