After seeing this vid I now want a German Shepard - Page 2

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - After seeing this vid I now want a German Shepard (Page 2 of 2)

Posted: 7/7/2014 4:03:20 AM EDT

[#1]

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I want a dog for protection and for recreation and running. I'm very active. I always wanted a GSD or a Dutch. I don't know enough about the Mal breed and it seems if they are the Ferrari of dogs I may not need that much dog if you know what I mean. I want a dog who wants to chase down balls and listens and reacts to my commands on a dime.

I also have two young kids. I have an average size house and yard....nothing overly impressive but not an apartment. I own a truck which I think will help with transporting the dog.

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Again, I have to agree with Akodo.

Why don't you tell us what you're looking for in a dog, and we can suggest some breeds that fit you and your lifestyle? Finding something that fits you as you are is much better than trying to either fit your lifestyle to a breed, or force a dog of a given breed to accommodate your lifestyle.

I want a dog for protection and for recreation and running. I'm very active. I always wanted a GSD or a Dutch. I don't know enough about the Mal breed and it seems if they are the Ferrari of dogs I may not need that much dog if you know what I mean. I want a dog who wants to chase down balls and listens and reacts to my commands on a dime.

I also have two young kids. I have an average size house and yard....nothing overly impressive but not an apartment. I own a truck which I think will help with transporting the dog.

90% of the time I find that poodles fit the request of most people's dog desires.

If only they could get over the "ZOMG Poodle Wargbrl" and look into a standard poodle or standard poodle mix.
Your case I'd swing towards a Labradoodle.

Posted: 7/7/2014 5:02:43 AM EDT

[#2]

Maybe you should look into dobes, I have had the pleasure and honor of owning dobes for 18 years and always in multiples. I've had reds, blues, blacks and 3 fawns. From my experience and observation the blacks and blues were all business, our current chocolate red has to be one of the most self centered crybaby of a dog I've ever owned, at the first sign that trouble may be around she high tails it out of there, but we still love her and she has a grat temperament as she puts up with the torture of our two year old. Now the fawns are the real kicker, even though they are often looked down upon due to being just a touch smaller and almost always have some degree of alopecia, they are very special,very sensitive but extremely smart and a loyalty I can't explain in words, they are the absolute joker of the dobe world. The best friend I ever had and will probably ever have was my boy Bill a fawn male dobe, I saved his life and in return he gave me 16 years of absolute love, devotion and loyalty. He loved to go out and actually smell all the flowers in the garden and he would even play basketball with us.

Posted: 7/7/2014 7:57:07 PM EDT

[#3]

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As far as GSD breed being ruined..? Don't buy a dog from just any old breeder or without known registered lineage. (eta- and you can avoid that, not that all the others are going to be bad)

Get one from working / Schutzhund lines. (eta- they generally do not have that show slope bred into them, GSD was never meant for show, its meant to work)

If your not looking for a high energy high demand dog though, dont get any working breed.

eta- they require lots of training, mental and physical stimulus and lots of time their entire life.

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for any breed, you need to look at what the breeder is doing, understand his vision, and agree with him. A hunter who buys a show line irish setter is going to be just as disappointed as someone who wants to get into showing dogs who buys a field line irish setter. Thousands of different breeds and 'purposes' can be substituted into this.

German shepherds are the 2nd most registered dog breed by the AKC, it accounts for 4.6% of all registered breeds by the AKC. The AKC registers right at 1 million dogs per year. This means not counting backyard breeders and imports, 46,000 GSDs are registered every year. (The one year I could find numbers for was 2004, with 46,084 GSDs registered)

What percentage of those GSDs are from a litter where 1 parent has a Schutz 3 title? (Aside from the fact that Schz 3 means a lot less now than it used to. Many dogs are earning it because of pressure on judges to grade softly, and many GSDs are coming at it from a 'play' perspective not a true 'protect' perspective)

Yes, there are good GSDs out there, but they are a very very very small slice of the pie. When 90% of the individuals that make up a breed are ruined, it's fair to call the breed ruined.

Posted: 7/7/2014 8:41:33 PM EDT

[#4]

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I'm going to be brutally honest with you here, Beast. You might be able to be a decent Dutchie owner. Maybe.

But you're not the only one in the situation here. You also have a wife and children. You need to consider your entire family when getting a dog, not just what you are willing to do. A single person is unlikely to completely change their lifestyle to accommodate the needs of a dog, an entire family even less so. What will most likely happen is that either your wife will end up resenting the dog and you, or you will collectively decide that it is way more dog than you expected or can handle. There's also the distinct possibility that someone will get bitten along the way. Maybe your kids, or a neighbor, or one of your kids' friends. No telling.

Too many times, people pull a Veruca Salt when getting a dog, screaming "But Daddy, I want an Oompa Loompa NOW!!!" They get fixated on a particular breed because of something they saw, or read, or heard, or whatever. They don't really stop to consider if it's the right breed for them, or if they're the right owners for it. They want their Oompa Loompa, and they want it NOW!!! So they charge full steam ahead. If they do stop to think, it's only that they will be different than all those other owners out there that realize they can't handle the dog and give up. But in the end, they are no different, and another dog ends up bouncing from home to home to home.

Choose a breed for the life you have, not the life you think you'll have after you get the dog.

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I agree.

To be blunt, do you know what you sound like? A guy who has never owned a gun before who comes on this board and wants to get a M-24 Sniper Rifle because he heard they were THE BEST and he likes using them in Call of Duty, and he's just going to practice until he can shoot 1/2 MOA groups at 1000 yards because he doesn't want his equipment to be his limiter. Or a guy who for his first handgun wants a $5,000 custom built 1911 race gun.

Here's the other thing. Nothing is stopping you from investing similar amounts of time and effort into any of the other suggested breeds. For dogs, you get into them what you put into them, and it is an exponential thing. Put in just the bare minimum and you get back just the bare minimum. Put in a lot and you will get back a TON. You want to get out more and have a dog you can point to and say 'look what I have accomplished'. That's a fine goal, but it is no you. There is no need to get a hard headed land shark on crack to accomplish that goal. Have a NORMAL dog that obeys you 100% of the time, is obedient, heels perfectly, etc, etc, that's darn impressive. Add on to that a dog that can get top marks in obedience or agility (to say nothing of flyball, Search-and-Rescue training or any of the other demanding dog events where hundreds of different breeds compete) and honestly, while the top 1% of dogs in the Schutz world are Dutch or Mal, and GSD+Dutch+Mal make up probably 90% of the participants, MANY other breeds compete. So there is absolutely no reason if you want to get out of the house and train a schutz dog you can't do it with any breed.

Just like a guy who wants to get into handgun shooting can go really far with a stock Glock 19, you can go really far with an 'average' dog.

Thing is, if your plans don't pan out, you can toss that $5000 Les Baer in a drawer, or put it on gunbroker. What are you going to do with a balls-to-the-wall-cracked-out-sleeve-chaser dog if life gets in the way of your dog, or your wife puts her foot down, or one of your kids wants to do X and you have to put in extra overtime every week to make it possible, or or or a million things? Abandon the dog? Try and sell it on Craigslist? Because a real top level competition Mal or Dutch is not going to make a nice pet for a suburban soccer mom 9-5 minivan family.

Boxer Schtzhund

Bouvier de Flanders (type of sheepdog) Schutzhund

Australian Cattle Dog Schutzhund

Giant Schnauzer Schutzhund

Yellow Lab Schutzhund

Poodle Schutzhund

Posted: 7/8/2014 1:57:40 PM EDT

[#5]

HO LE FUK ^^^^

Ok ok I won't get one...damn! I think I have what it takes but I don't want to piss off the hardcore dog lovers/trainers out there. I'll go find a rescue dog and be done with it.

Posted: 7/8/2014 9:26:17 PM EDT

[#6]

I just want to say that this is one of the best "I want the perfect protection/killer/family/perfect/Norman Rockwell/it-would-be-so-cool-if dog" threads, ever, and it deserves a sticky. A lot of thought went into these responses and it would be a shame to have them evaporate into the archive and ultimately the sands of time.

Posted: 7/9/2014 12:18:17 PM EDT

[#7]

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I just want to say that this is one of the best "I want the perfect protection/killer/family/perfect/Norman Rockwell/it-would-be-so-cool-if dog" threads, ever, and it deserves a sticky. A lot of thought went into these responses and it would be a shame to have them evaporate into the archive and ultimately the sands of time.

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I agree. Seems like I was put in my place thats for sure

The thing is I'm humble enough to realize when I'm wrong and I won't buy anything based on just impulse. I would have done extensive research but like you said it was pretty much done for me in this thread.

Buying a dog will be on the back burner for awhile.

Posted: 7/9/2014 7:21:02 PM EDT

[#8]

I am glad you were able to set your ego aside and listen to what we were saying. Unfortunately the internets takes us away from those social cues and nuances of spoken language, so sometimes you have to be brutal to get an important point across.

Posted: 7/9/2014 9:56:03 PM EDT

[#9]

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I am glad you were able to set your ego aside and listen to what we were saying. Unfortunately the internets takes us away from those social cues and nuances of spoken language, so sometimes you have to be brutal to get an important point across.

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Yes, thank you for taking it in the spirit it was meant, Beast.

Posted: 7/10/2014 6:53:15 AM EDT

[#10]

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Yes, thank you for taking it in the spirit it was meant, Beast.

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I am glad you were able to set your ego aside and listen to what we were saying. Unfortunately the internets takes us away from those social cues and nuances of spoken language, so sometimes you have to be brutal to get an important point across.

Yes, thank you for taking it in the spirit it was meant, Beast.

Nope you guys were right and I appreciate it.