Hello folks, I'm new to the forums, and glad to be here. This forum looks like a great resource. I may be posting this in the wrong place, so feel free to move it if needed. This could be a bit long, but I would appriciate any feedback from someone willing to read it all. I have a 7 month old pup GSD pup. I bought her to be a waterfowl retriever and tracking dog. She has surpassed all my expectations and am looking to do some advanced training in the future. Before I get to that, I want a solid back ground. So far she is doing great on retrieving, no force necessary, it is her favorite game(especially in the water). In addition, her obidience is very good for her age. She does all the basics, sit, down, stand, stay, bark, etc. on voice and hand signals. She also will respond to whistle. She has pretty decent focus, will hold a stay until I tell her otherwise. 100% recall on a heel. She works well off leash. I've started her tracking and she's pretty good. She will track a scented dummy or track my mother, father and roommate. I'm not writing all this to boast about my pup, just to give you readers an idea of where we are at in our training. I have a long time until hunting season started and would like to work on some other training fundamentals. I would like to explore personal protection work. My question is, what videos should I start with? There are so many, I don't really know where to start. I don't have any plans of doing schutzhund with her, although I think she has the nerve to do it. Could someone let me know where to start? Building drive and focus? Puppy bitework? Maybe someone could even suggest them in series for me. I would appriciate anyone who would take the time to read this and give some hints.

Thanks for your time.

Hi Ryan,
Interesting idea of using a GSD for bird retrieving. I've often thought some of them would take to that work well.
I found the Bernard Flinks video, Building Drive, Focus and Grip to be full of excellent ideas and has been a huge help in my dogs training. I think it would be a great starting point for whatever type of training you decide to follow.
I'm not sure if teaching your dog to grip would translate well to bird retrieves, though. Aren't Labs trained to have a 'soft' mouth for this job?

Welcome Ryan,
I am new to the forum as well.
Scott has a good point, why did you choose a GSD versus a labrador? Everything you described seems like you hired the wrong dog. That's not to say in the least bit that your dog is not capable, from what you have said, seems like she's doing great. I'm just curious how you aquired a GSD for your needs. I have a lab that I hunt with and a GSD that hunts everything else <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />.

Bad jokes come free.

I have no experience with it, but shouldn't it be possible to train a dog to have a soft grip when instructed to? When I was lil we used to have 2 dobie's that could jump up and grab an empty egg shell out of a tree without cracking the shell, but when they wanted to bite something, nothing would make em let go - and that was without any formal training.

As for the videos - someone else may have a different/better reccomendation for you taking into account the other types of training you are doing with your GSD, but if I remember correctly, it was suggested to me to start with the Drive, Focus & Grip video, then move onto the First steps to bite work followed by Preparing for the helper. I have the first of the 3 videos and it's been an awesome experience seeing my dogs speed and drive go up. I had one of the most impressive displays of prey drive out of my dog tonight, he's getting sloppy on his obedience when he's in as high a drive as he was tonight, but when I first started this training I was slightly concerned about my dogs ability to even do this type of work.

Welcome to the message board, I signed up a few days ago myself <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I posted a quick bio & some photos of Cujo in the bio section of this board.

A hard or soft mouth is as much (or more) genetics as training. In the 80s I shot birds over a Kerry Blue terrier. If it wasn't for the fact that he HATED feathers in his mouth, I doubt I would have gotten anything retrieved in one piece. My JRT will return to hand any rabbits he catches (hate when he chases those little bastards) but they ain't purdy when he brings them back. Bird dog folks have a number of methods to break hardmouthed dogs. I just don't know if you could expect to do both well. It's fun to do something "different" with a dog but don't expect the same results as you'd get from a dog bred for a job.
I had a cool little Norwich that did great in weight pulls. His attempt at hearding ducks was kinda expensive though. Those noisy quackers cost me 15 bucks at five bucks apiece, not to mention how it put the skids on the rest of the days hearding test. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I get asked this question a lot, so here it is. I chose a GSD because I've had plenty of labs and found them to be harder to train compared to a(my) GSD. And yes, I know I could try other bloodlines. I'm from the Texas coastal plains where everyone has labs in the field. Some are great, some are not, but rarely do you find one that can do more than pick up birds and do tracking. The sport of schutzhund has shown me that a good GSD can(should) be a jack of many trades. That is what I want in a dog. A dog that picks up my birds, herds cattle, tracks, and will protect myself and my family(even if its just a loud bark <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />. I didn't have any intention of doing personal protection work with her when I got her. She has done so much in such a short period of time, it almost feels like a natural progression. She already has the instinct for it. I'll get into that more if someone is interested. My question is, why not use a GSD for this kind of work? What can't they do?

Thanks for the reply. I'll be starting with Drive, Focus & Grip video and then try the Prep. for helper. I'm really looking forward to them. Wish me luck!

Ryan,

Here's a link for info about a Malinois who was trained for retrieve work. http://www.ducielrouge.com/retrieve.html

Hi Ryan,
Thanks for giving us that information. You do make a good point "what CAN'T a good GSD do?".

I don't think it's wrong to use any particular breed to do any particular job if they are able to do the job well and meet your needs.

There have been a few labradors that have been successful in protection, but you wouldn't normally seek a lab if you were considereing a protection dog.

I think it's great that you have such a well rounded dog. Is there anything he's not really good at? Who did you get him from? In a couple of years, I will be in the market for a puppy. I never own anything but a GSD from this point on.