The German Shepherd Dog Discussions

That is great to hear Karen Unfortunately the piccies are too big for me to see with my slow connection :-( Glad Zelda has settled though, and her new owners will love her as she deserves.

:-D He does look quite funny doesn't he!

You have had some lovely sheps over the years Claire, thanks for sharing their photos.

Aww Casper is lovely. He looks such a teddy bear!

So, to keep this fab thread going, what do we all do with our shepherds?

I trained Flame in obedience and agility, and took part in a few local shows in both. She seemed to find obedience a bit of a bore, but absolutely adored agility! Unfortunately, at nearly 9 years of age, she is now a bit old for it, but we still do bits and bobs of the fun training she used to enjoy as a youngster

Yogi is a more driven dog than Flame, and he loves his obedience lessons. We have just started training for working trials, and are currently busy practising our basic
obedience (heelwork with about turns, double about turns etc), sit and down stays, recall etc) and our fave, tracking. Yogi seems to have a natural aptitude to use his nose (probably like most shepherds) and really seems to enjoy our tracking sessions. They also totally exhaust him - all that nose and brain power at work. I want to see how we get on with trials initially, but would also quite like a go at Schutzhund too ;-)

I will try and get some working photos next time we are training.

I would love to know what you do with your sheps, and pics too of course if you have them

Great to hear you're keeping Yogi more than occupied, which I know should give you peaceful evenings! They just love doing a bit of work these shepherds don't they

Georgie isn't doing much nowadays coz of his old age (12), so he just comes up the village green once a day for a sniff around, and he likes to meet other dogs, so he's allowed to go up to whoever he wants to and say hello coz he's quite harmless and I always warn the owners that he has a mind of his own nowadays, nothing would ever go for him, and would they mind if he just said hello!

Zena on the other hand is a different kettle of fish, being only 21 months old now. We are doing agility which she absolutely adores, she's taken to it like a duck to water, but we had to stop because of the very hot weather down here, but I told the trainer we would take it up again in ernest in September, which we will.

We now do much longer walks without Georgie, but with my new mountain bike, and I like to go to different places, with new smells, new woods and again, Zena has taken to that like a duck to water. I use the village green opportunity of doing a bit of training with her whilst Georgie is doing his pottering about up there, and she still loves to learn, or continue training with what she already knows, but I won't be taking her to any more classes, we are doing just fine on our own, without all the interruptions and the hanging about you get at training, it's not for me, especially now that she's all grown up and learned all the basics at training when she was a puppy, I much prefer to continue with her training on our own, we have plenty of open spaces with nobody about, just me and her, perfect!

We often go to the beach, like we did this morning, although the tide was in so she didn't get to swim, but it's a different kind of walk for her down on the coast, so I just do it for a change now and again no matter what the tide is doing.

I'd like to do a lot more with Zena like you are with Yogi, some working trials perhaps, but I'm too busy to do all the travelling coz my nearest is miles and miles away, and I do enough travelling down to our new holiday home once or even twice a week atm, so maybe in the future, when it's out of season, I might investigate that further. For the time being she is more than happy going out 3 times a day, and just being a happy doglet, which is what I like!!

All sounds great Helen It is so true that shepherds just love to work and use their intelligence and problem-solving brains

Yogi and I are training with a one to one trainer, who has the most fantastic shepherds you could ever meet. I will get pics at our next session. I did tell him that I am just training Yogi because I want to do something to occupy his mind and I also enjoy training him, but am not really bothered about competing (like you, I don't have the time to travel far and wide to competitions). However, he said that with Yogi's enthusiasm for work, and the bond we have between us, we should definitely try competing and just see if we like it. So, when the time comes, we will see. I may enter him into some local-ish comps and just see how we like it. With a small son though, it won't be easy

I can't wait for you to get back into agility with Zena, so we can hear all about it. It was something I considered for Yogi, as Flame had enjoyed it so much in her youth, but decided working trials was more akin to my interests (being a frustrated wannabe police dog handler ).

If only people who decide to have a shepherd in their lives would realise this is a working breed, and they need to be given jobs to do to keep them as fulfilled and happy as possible.

I find it amazing how intelligent they are...duke loves to play 'find it' and normally i use treats or a toy, i get him to sniff them and say find it and then put him another room while i hide them and he comes in and in no time he has sniffed them out. Well i tried the same with a £20 note, thinking that he woudln't be interested but was amazed when he found it and picked it up. I even tried hiding a different note that he'd not sniffed and he still found it so hes actually smelling out the money not just the note i got him to sniff.
He also looves swiming at the hrdro pool!!

They are such a clever breed It sounds to me as though you should train Duke to track ... he would love it!

I'm not doing anything special with Zephyr atm. We do quite a lot of walking together. He gets 2 or 3 walks a day - keeps us both fit - the morning walk is usually through the fields for an hour or so. Sometimes we will walk down the town and up through the street on a busy day, still working on him with socialising which he is impressing me with Some evenings we go up to a little field area (that I probably shouldn't use as school property!) where we have a really good play and mess around. I take toys with me and we play fetch and then I make him sit stay and hide his toy in te trees and ask him to 'find it'. He has an amazing nose on him, like all yours) so I am practising tracking with him more and more! I love watching him track too!

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can practice tracking with him more, I've done the hiding treats around house and garden, and trying to do it more when up the field but he can usually still see where I am so that's cheating lol!

Hi my fist gsd was Tila she was a monster but i loved her to bits, She competed in working Trials and got her CDEX UDEX and WDEX before i retired her.She has gone to the bridge now and i miss her every day
Rogan is a bit dim{HAHA} but loves people so we did trailing for lowland search and rescue, it was great fun he really enjoyed it
Tarn is a border collie he is in training for trials not sure how to add photos {sorry}

Lol at Duke sniffing out the money there!!! Hmmmm, wonder if you could benefit from this somehow????!!!

That's a brilliant idea what you do with your Zephyr STGSD, i.e. taking lots of toys to that school field, I might do that now with Zena when we go up the green for Georgie's plod, we could have a great game if I took her whole basket of toys, especially those sossidges! Lol!

Sorry to hear about your Tila Jonesy, sounds like she was a very clever girl indeed. I felt the same when I lost my last girl, and got left with Georgie who has always been a bit on the dim side compared to her, maybe it's whether or not they have the working line in them, and maybe your new boy doesn't, although he seems to be doing a great job with his search and rescue, so he can't be as dim as my George!

Thanks Kirsty, I'll be getting piccies when I start agility again. The reason I didn't was because I didn't want to interfere with Zena's progress by having a friend with me to take them, coz of course, I couldn't possibly take any pics, I'm far too busy dashing about in the agility ring!!!

Thanks she is my pride and joy.

I do OB with Zara she can do many different things, we don't stick to a certain script, i make it up as i go along. to name a few she can dog about turns, right turns, walk slow, fast running, downs, recall, sits...... all of leash with distractions.

Sadly she doesn't like shows so i'm not able to compete with her although i would love too.

The same goes for agility, their is no classes near me.

However when we go a variety of walks i do get her to do some jumps.... which she loves.

I have fun with Ella & Bear using a Kong ball and a Kong on a rope, both are pretty focused on their own toy.

I'll march around the field doing left/right about (into and away from the dog) turns, halt, change pace, Bear will follow me sideways away from him, and can stay at heel going backwards. We'll play fetch, which then becomes a bit more disciplined -they aren't allowed to go after the toy until they are looking at me and I give them the command (either individually or both together).

I'll then call them off the chase, at which point I might recall them back from the toy, do a sit/down/upsit/stand, or I might release them to go after the toy.

At the toy, I'll put them down, bring them back one at a time, stop them halfway.

I'll hide their toys and get them to seek. If I've thrown it and they've lost sight, they'll run in big fig of 8 to pick up the scent.

At the min, I'm trying to teach them go left/right so that I can direct them to the area of the toy.

Locky get's to wander and do his own thing !

hmmm i might give it a go
This thread is giving me some good ideas. GSDs just seem to love to be doing a job even if its just fetching a toy!!
I would love to have a go at schutzhund but i dont think duke has quite enough drive. moobli you should give it a go with yogi!!

It sounds as though you and Zephyr have loads of fun together Which is what it is all about. Playing with toys and hide and seek really seems to be a GSD favourite

Regarding practising tracking, are you wanting to teach your dog to track a human scent? I am having lessons to train my Yogi to do this at the moment and it really is brilliant, we both love it! I am sure there will be someone into working trials training or similar near you and they will be able to help you with this. Have a dig around on the net and see if you can find someone to help, you won't regret it I am sure.

Oh this all sounds great fun for your dogs! We are getting fantastic at our left and rights, because I'm now on the bike, my dog is a few yards upfront all the time, so whenever we come to a junction in the paths, I send her left or right and she always knows which way! I've taught her this though in our garden with her ball, she's waiting with great anticipation in front of me, so before I throw it, I always say left or right, hoping it will get instilled in her head, and it seems to have paid off coz she's very good at it when I'm on the bike!

We are always doing downs (when, I'm allowed the ball of course on a walk ), then I make her stay, I have the ball, I walk off, and I'm getting further and further away each time, I'm now up to a good 20 yards in fact, then I turn around, still holding that ball in front of me;-) , she's staring at me with such great intent, then I say ok, and I chuck it, lol, she loves this game!!! Sometimes I get it back, sometimes I don't but I'm working on that!;-)

Tila sounds like my first GSD, Sharna. She was a real handful, but I loved her to bits no matter what Tila did very well in trials considering she was a monster Was Tila your Latchets girl? What makes you think Rogan is dim? I am sure she isn't! Is there a lowland search & rescue in this area? I would enjoy something like that I think.
I remember you saying about Tarn, is he a Corriedhu?
Would love to see photos! I am sure someone will be able to explain how to do it ... it is easy when you know how

I am the same about taking pics of our tracking training. I am so focused on Yogi and on learning, that I just wouldn't have the time for pics. I am going to ask a friend (or even our trainer) to take some, once we are more confident in what we are doing

She is a gorgeous girl, and your photography is brilliant. Are you a pro?
I think it is a great idea to make up your routines as you go along, that way the dog will never get bored