New guard dog!

D

Dry Rot

Well-Known Member
Joined
31 May 2010
Messages
5,847
Location
Scotland
Visit site
You may remember I posted this picture of my new "guard dog", Max, a few months ago. I live alone and in a remote location and used to get unwanted visitors (read ethnic minorities of the mobile kind!). For some reason, they have stopped coming! Could the video below explain why?

945742_493086954109900_997816333_n_zpsf95f4034.jpg


And now at age 9 months: By the way , these dogs are not pets. Don't be tempted to get one unless you are confident you can instil implicit obedience.

[youtube]EV4JPZ_9G-U[/youtube]


.
 
I got to 2 minutes 36 seconds and couldn't watch anymore - I find him utterly terrifying. The thought of having to control all that raw animal power scares me witless and I fully understand why you don't have unwelcome visitors. He is a credit to you and I admire his implicit obedience to you, I just couldn't cope with anything that required that level of training.

And he is going to be a very big dog, given he must have quite a lot of filling out to do.
 
He is growing into a cracking looking dog DR. I have to admit its not quite how I am used to seeing sleeve work taught but I imagine there aren't many clubs in your area.
jemima, dogs are taught sleeve work by play, he won't see it as attacking someone, just playing with his toy. If you watch videos of the top working dogs they will look as if they want to kill the helper (the person wearing the sleeve) but switch off as soon as the sleeve is removed.
 
Dry Rot said:
You may remember I posted this picture of my new "guard dog", Max, a few months ago. I live alone and in a remote location and used to get unwanted visitors (read ethnic minorities of the mobile kind!). For some reason, they have stopped coming! Could the video below explain why?

945742_493086954109900_997816333_n_zpsf95f4034.jpg


And now at age 9 months: By the way , these dogs are not pets. Don't be tempted to get one unless you are confident you can instil implicit obedience.

[youtube]EV4JPZ_9G-U[/youtube]


.
Click to expand...


Love the baby picture and the video, since we lost George I am missing a dog around here but until we come back from Cyprus its unfair to get another only to leave him or her 2 weeks.

Love GSD and NI dogs we will get one or the other.


Must admit I do like this and will use it in future, what a great description of the unsavoury group "ethnic minorities of the mobile kind"
 
What an interesting spectrum of reactions and comments!

I also have a 7yo female and the two play together all the time. Both dogs love visitors and are great favourites with everyone. Yes, I suppose there is a danger that someone might get licked to death!:D They are either under my immediate supervision at all times or in the kennel. There is no point in having dogs like these unless they are under control and are easily handled. Thankfully they are easily trained and highly intelligent. They do have a low threshold of suspicion and warn me of anything unusual, but they don't bite unless told to do so. It might be a different matter if some stupid person were to attack me (and I have been threatened in the past).

The older bitch, Foxy, is like the old fashioned farm-dog type of German shepherd which was apparently used in Germany for centuries to guard the crops of small farmers from marauding livestock before the invention of wire fences. She is trained to drive the free range chickens out of the barn but leave them in peace when they are outside. She also ignores any trespassing hens with chicks. If I want to go through a gateway with the tractor and trailer, she guards the open gate and won't allow livestock to escape. If young children ask for a biscuit, they are told that they are Foxy's biscuits and they must ask her if they want one. When they do this, the dog barks her assent as she is trained to lip read my command to "speak". There's a lot more. Both dogs will bark at the door if they want to go out. Foxy is the best fox deterrent I have ever had. I used to lose 30 chickens every winter to foxes but not now. Mostly, they are my eyes and ears as I am getting old! I suppose when you have been training a lot of dogs for over sixty years, handling dogs like these becomes second nature.
 
Gorgeous boy :)

Any hope you can train some obedience into my gsd cross rescue who's 6?!

I can get a Velcro heel, but only if I have a tube of primula at my hip! :D
 
HGA-12 said:
Love the baby picture and the video, since we lost George I am missing a dog around here but until we come back from Cyprus its unfair to get another only to leave him or her 2 weeks.

Love GSD and NI dogs we will get one or the other.


"
Click to expand...


Be careful in Cyprus .. I volunteered for dog waking at a shelter when I was there and I ended up gaining a dog! ;)
 
stencilface said:
Gorgeous boy :)

Any hope you can train some obedience into my gsd cross rescue who's 6?!

I can get a Velcro heel, but only if I have a tube of primula at my hip! :D
Click to expand...

Quote from George Meldrum, H M The Queen's dog handler, when asked how he got one of his charges to perform as it did, he replied: "It's all done with cruelty, ma'am".:D

I've been training dogs for over sixty years and use my own methods though I've never trained a dog for protection before. I use some of the techniques I've learnt with dogs and hawks as I've also been a falconer for just as long. No schutzund clubs around here but I'm unconventional anyway. The local police dog handler tells me it is all done with a tennis ball!

I'm still smiling at the poster who found the video frightening. I wonder if she finds perching on top of half a tonne of highly unpredictable flight animal more acceptable? Personally, I find that prospect really scary, especially when my young helper comes in to tell me she has fallen off her pony yet AGAIN!:D Both Max and Foxy are mortified if I pretend to be hurt and I get lots of licks and looks saying "sorry". I'm hoping Max's voice will break soon as he sounds like a demented Chihuahua at the moment!

Both these dogs are Czech border guard breeding, or allegedly so. So bred specifically for man work and not recommended as family pets.
 
Dry Rot, that is a CRACKING puppy. I was only wondering the other day how he's coming along. I almost sent you a PM!

Learning how to make and retain contact, in play and as a puppy, is always the better way. It gives the puppy confidence and ragging with a sleeve teaches the puppy to retain his grip. In time, with obedience instilled, he will find his feet as he matures. So often there are those who decide whilst an animal is still a puppy, to 'test' their aggression levels, and then wonder why when the dog's matured, they're struggling to put a stop on it! Breeding will always 'out'!!

A very smart puppy, indeed. He will be spectacular when he's matured. Well done.

Alec.
 
Nice young dog but in your shoes I'd get (pay for if you have to) a good training helper to come and assist you with foundation training and record the sessions and advice given if you can't make it a regular thing.

If it were me I would wear a right handed sleeve on my right arm (that plastic guard at the top should be fitting over the top of your shoulder) to give him a better chance to target the bite bar.

But you seem to be having fun together, which is the most important thing! :)
 
CorvusCorax said:
Nice young dog but in your shoes I'd get (pay for if you have to) a good training helper to come and assist you with foundation training and record the sessions and advice given if you can't make it a regular thing.

If it were me I would wear a right handed sleeve on my right arm (that plastic guard at the top should be fitting over the top of your shoulder) to give him a better chance to target the bite bar.

But you seem to be having fun together, which is the most important thing! :)
Click to expand...

Yes, the intention is to have a bit of fun with some protection and a deterrent thrown in. I have just had a long email with further instructions from his breeder who has, incidentally, just bred Max's mother again. I've no intentions of competing but would like him to be a bit more switched on to protection than Foxy. Foxy is murder on foxes and alert to anything unusual. Although she is 100% with poultry, she was very excited the other day and I thought it was sure to be a fox. But, no, it was a rook/crow in an old hen run. Foxy immediately killed it, then had no further interest. She was also very excited about a contractor who came to examine my access road for resurfacing. I think it was the way he was wandering around looking intently at the road (so looking suspicious). She was fine when she realised he was a "friend".

Max is enormous fun and has me laughing so much it must be a sin! Haven't had so much enjoyment from two dogs for a very long time. Oh, and my very tiny 18yo helper with the ponies is quite keen to give a hand with Max's training. She put the sleeve on last night but I think we'll wait until I have a harness as I don't want her to be eaten!
 
Dry Rot said:
Both these dogs are Czech border guard breeding, or allegedly so. So bred specifically for man work and not recommended as family pets.
Click to expand...

I thought so! My 2 year old GSD is a Czech bred dog, both parents are from the Pohranicni stud and your young dog looks very similar to mine. Yours is a gorgeous dog! And they're such a pleasure to work with.
 
Beautiful. Thought he looked like he was having a great time. It was fun to watch, I laughed at him running off with the sleeve as the 'I'm getting away with something' face is so similar to my younger gsd. Although he only gets to steal socks.

Mine both have very deep barks, the older one is mostly silent unless he feels something needs our attention. Little one talks all the time, I think he likes the sound of his own voice.

Seeing this makes me think 1) we could handle a Czech pup or more likely 2) my little one is being wasted by not having more of a challenge. He's just like this!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top