Hi everyone. I signed up to this forum because I have a GSD from almost pure DDR lines (Dad is Dargo vd Thuringer Kronjuwelen, all DDR, and Mom is Elba z Esagilu, heavily DDR, with Czech). Anyway, Caleb is going to be 2 in December, and I think he's immature for his age. I've done some obedience with him, and I tried to do some protection with him because of a certain situation with an ex, but the trainer thought his defense drives were too low to do protection. Not to be an overprotective mother who can't take criticism, but I kind of think, after talking to the breeders who own his parents, and several people who have his siblings, that maybe he's just not mature yet. I've heard that some of these lines, his in particular are MUCH slower to mature and develop prey and defense drives than West lines, and that many trainers are not aware of this and mistake immaturity for lack of drive and poor breeding. I'd like to find a trainer who doesn't hate all East lines; I feel like they think my dog sucks before they even meet him half the time! I would just really appreciate an honest evaluation by someone without bias. I'm no expert, but I do live with him, and I'm seeing changes in him everyday that indicate the development of drive. Please help!

Nobody can give you an evaluation on the internet.

Many people also use 'not-yet-mature' as an excuse for lack of drive/working ability. I don't care if it IS a German Sleeper, not showing much by the age of 2, if it was mine, it would have to go LOL <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I also don't buy the 'not enough prey'. Some dogs work exclusively in prey and are beasts. I think many people confuse prey with play (just my opinion). For example when a dog is in true prey and chasing a cat/rabbit/whatever, do you think that when it catches it that it is going to give it kisses and hugs? Heck no, it is going to tear it to bits!!

My advice would be to find another trainer in your area, maybe even a couple of different ones and take the dog to get looked at. Most GSDs will have a certain amount of natural 'protective' instinct anyways, so if you keep the dog it will likely alert you of someone at the door or on your property regardless of whether it will do bitework or not.

This is my one of my dogs who is a prey monster. Granted, as he has got older he is VERY civil and once on the bite the prey fast turns to fight. But he starts off in prey and has been worked exclusively in prey from day one.

http://www.odinhaus.com/vids/crash55.wmv
http://www.odinhaus.com/vids/crash66.wmv
http://www.odinhaus.com/vids/crash77.wmv

Good luck!

Ok, so I can't edit..

I guess I read your post wrong sorry.. I *thought* it said that there was no defense comapared to prey..

Geeez, I need to not post SO early in the AM!

Ohhh I dunno LOL

Dude it seems your website doesn't work so well....

 Quote:

Dude it seems your website doesn't work so well....

Vids loaded fine for me <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Oh, me <----- dudeETTE <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Video worked fine for me. Maybe they only work for dudette's? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I could get the videos to work but your website wouldn't come up using Mozilla Firefox it work fine with Explorer.

Hi Jenni - have you had the dog since he was a puppy? Have you done drive building exercises with him?

I have a almost 14 month old dog that has some DDR lines too. Like yours, my dog seems to be maturing very slowly although I have been trying to stimulate his drives since he was 10 weeks old. His prey drive is good and he seems to have plenty of defense but he just seems to be developing very slowly; so I'm curious too if this is just a common characteristic of these lines...

Sammy - those video clips were awesome!!! Thanks!
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Hi Jenni, since I'm new to working dog lines would you please explain what DDR lines are. I have a boy from all Czech lines and he is developing extremely quickly 12 weeks old and 31 lbs , slim, he looks like a 5 month old pup. Then I have a German line boy whose extremely slow to develope he is same age 12 weeks but weighs 20 lbs and you can tell his maturity isn't were my other boy's is.

Hi Jenni!
I am a lover of the DDR/Czech lines as well and have heard and seen a lot of the same things and opinions. Ultimatly it seems to me that any dog has some drive the trick is figuring out what for.Meaning what their motivation to work is. That is where finding an open minded trainer comes in. Not always easy. I have very little use for a 1-2-3 type trainer that wants to use the cookiecutter methods. To me the dog has to ulitmatly got to be able to get some sort of satifaction in his work - your job is to find out how to put him in situations where he can find it.
However like before mentioned no one can give you an evaluation over the net and having said that you need to also try not to fool yourself over how much your god might be able to do. My main dog will never excell at sportwork since her bite is so/so and she has very low preydrive. That does not mean I am not trying to work at it and as long as she is having fun and I am learning....
I just had a litter of straight DDR pups and can assure you that there is no lack of drive. Of course their sire is a SchH3, IP3 dog and the dam even though untitled had plenty of drive.