What is the difference utonagan & northeren iunit Questions

Wow she is the spitting image of my Ute Maia




Of NI's I made the absolutely appalling mistake of asking some sibe owners (who's dogs were stunning I hasten to add) if they were NI's you can imagine my embarassment when i was told they were sibes and my hasty retreat thereafter.

Ute's are more identifiable for me, I get Sibe's and NI's mixed up all the time

How on earth do you manage that? You probably get NI's and badly bred Sibes mixed up all the time

Well that is probably more than likely

Would be great to see the pics TW

Ref the GSD used in the Utonagan, why and when? Do you mean years and years ago, or more recently? Pup pic would be great too, would be interesting to see his pic xxxx

mmm, not sure if I would be able to put the piccie up to be honest, I didn't take it to be honest and it was sent to me, so not sure of the legalities of it all. It wasn't all that long ago that a gsd was used in the Utonagan, the piccie I have of one of the progeny is dated 2005.

TW - how about just asking permission of the owner of the photo then? There shouldn't be a problem with posting a photo of this dog, eh?

Therein lies the problem, the owner of the dog is not contactable anymore and hasn't been for a few years now. I am not sure of the legalities of posting such a photo which was passed onto me by someone else. I am quite happy to post piccies I have taken or have the permission of the owners to post the piccie, but you can understand why I am hesitant about this picture.

Yep, I'd do the same, i.e. not post without permission. I was less than impressed when someone used a picture of my dog's tail without asking - especially as they used it to say it was too bushy for the breed they re-named from Utes , the cheek of it!

The penny just dropped then was trying to work out who you meant.
Loki has a lovely tail, in fact all of him is lovely

Thanks. He's got an eye infection at the moment but he's being really good about having his eye drops, bless him.

You know they can be little saints one minute and you feel sorry for every time you have cursed them, next minute they have eaten the remote control or something. Big hugs whilst he is being good

I am more attracted to Utes than NI's, although there are great examples of NIs which I really like too e.g. Werewolf's Shunka and Kaliska. But Ute's just seem more uniform to me.

One aspect of the NI/Ute difference which hasn't been explored on this thread is whether any character/temprement differences have evolved since the split. Someone mentioned that the GSD ancestry is coming out more in Utes, the sibe in NIs - is that reflected in temprement as well as looks I wonder?

Is there any difference in biddability, trainability, affection shown, guarding ability (I know that they are not guard dogs, but there are exceptions), recall reliability etc...

For example, I know of at least one Ute for example which is very keen on toys and will retrieve them, and then there is Loki who seems to be mad for toys as there are lots of pics posted of her with one in her mouth. I haven't seen any NI's playing (i.e. retrieving) with toys . . . but perhaps some do??

I would be really interested to know if there are temprement differences evident now.

One of mine is obsessed with balls.. and will happily retrieve all day.. the other is only interested if he see`s it as an opportunity to nick something off of my girl.

Neither the Norties nor my old Tawney have been interested in retrieving things or toys as such. Cariad is fascinated by her babble ball, despite the fact that the babble was killed some time ago (she also then buried and drowned a babble ball Kachinas left behind as well) and she will run after that and sometimes bring it to me. Lona is only interested in balls that bounce high, so she can catch them on the first bounce, if they don't bounce high she isn't interested, she will sometimes chase a ball, but very rarely pick it up, if she does she wanders off with it and leaves it, not at all interested in bringing it back to me. They have loads of rope toys which they hardly bother with. If they have a squeaky toy they will destroy the squeak, then lose interest in the toy itself. I have tried them with a frisbee but they ignore it totally and look at me like I have run mad. If they are with a few other dogs they will sometimes play with toys with the other dogs, I think that is more of a case of the other dogs have the toys and they want them, but they would far rather play chase with other dogs. Both of mine love to learn new things, but you have to keep them interested all the time as they get bored of doing the same thing very quickly. I know some Utonagans do play with toys obviously, but I have never had one that is toy orientated to the point you can use it is a training aid, if anything they are very food orientated. When I see dogs being trained to do something with the reward being a tennis ball, I laugh to myself, mine wouldn't think it 'worth' it
Mine are very good natured with people and adore children, but have a high prey drive which is something I have to be aware of at all times, anything small and furry is fair game to them. Again, I do know of Utonagans that live quite happily with cats and other small furries, I think they have been brought up with them so in their eyes they are part of the family, don't know what they are like with 'outside' furries and cats though.

Thanks for that tawneywolf - really interesting insight into your two's characters.

I often wonder which dog is more intelligent - the one who is easily trained and would do anything for a ball, or the one who doesn't think it worth it and would rather chase real wabbits! lol

Ela loves toys and will bring a toy back and drop it in your lap. You can also get her to leave and then fetch it on command. She has also figured out Cassie's tennis ball obsession and uses this against her, she will steal the ball just to get Cassie to chase and play with her.

Not owned a GSD but in her temperment she is much more bidable then my Husky ever was so maybe she leans towards that way?

My Loki (Ute) LOVES to play fetch and catch, search, tug, etc. etc.

He is extremely friendly with people and with children and is quite happy to be handled when eating a bone, for instance, so there's no food guarding etc. He has a sense of humour and will appear with a sock or something and try to bait you into chasing him. He is big and bouncy so we are careful he doesn't knock children flying. He doesn't like other dogs and has a high prey drive - he will chase and hunt furries. He's great to train and is very food orientated although he does have a hierarchy of what he sees as high value and if he sees something to chase, for instance, training is momentarily ignored. He is very stubborn so responds better to gentle training and working together.

He loves exercise and needs to run. He is full of fun and interested in everthing so walks can be a bit of an excited, enthusiastc rush to see/do it all . He is happiest when with the family and loves to travel in the car.

He's very affectionate indeed and although I've trained him not to jump up at me, he really wants to put his nose to your face. He's very sensitive to moods and not one to be ignored. He seems to spend his day expecting the next exciting development so is kind of on alert until bed time.

He will chew things if I go out and leave something out. Not furniture but selected belongings or post.

Maia is very sensitive, and this comes out in noise sensitivity and SA, she loves carrying things around in her mouth and will bring things to you and to visitors when they arrive.

Maia also is very protective and will is on alert constantly, she is a great dog to have around on these dark evenings when we are out walking.

She does enjoy meeting people now, although it has to be on her terms and can be stand offish with some people.

As far as prey drive, she likes to chase rabbits if they run out in front of her, but she lives happily with 3 cats, although again, if they run she will chase, but she has never tried to kill anything and her recall is good.

My Ni x Ute is one of those She'll run after a ball but that's it. Expect her to retrieve it for you and you can think again

Take her into the field to hunt rabbits and it's a different matter altogether ;-)

Thanks TW, will pm you xxxx

Here is an add with GSD x Utonagan, I am sure it isn't the litter you have mentioned TW but if anyone is interested in viewing the add scroll down the link, there is one photo: