This is not raising my opinion of Kraftwerk, of whom I am sure many of you are aware as a big-shot kennel.
GERMAN SHEPHERD PING LIST
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Posted on 10/21/2011 3:06:09 AM PDT by KantianBurke
On Oct. 4, Jason Dubin drove to La Guardia Airport to pick up the newest member of his household. Six days after that first happy meeting, Mr. Dubin returned to La Guardia with that same member, a German shepherd named Emmi, and sent her on a Continental Airlines flight to Seattle with a one-way ticket.
“I just couldn’t control her anymore; it was just time to part ways,” said Mr. Dubin, who made the drive from his Port Jefferson home on Long Island as Emmi, who is 5, fidgeted and barked in the back seat.
Mr. Dubin had bought the 80-pound dog over the Internet for $7,500 from Kraftwerk K9, a company in Rochester, Wash., that breeds, trains and sells German shepherds.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Great folks here in Kennesaw (Atlanta). We got our dogs from them.
http://www.mostlymutts.org/animals
though, I know a guy who has a German shepherd — very well trained and the guy takes a real interest in his dog. He told me he once had a rottwieler who was devoted to his wife and daughter but would attack HIM!
This is not raising my opinion of Kraftwerk, of whom I am sure many of you are aware as a big-shot kennel.
GERMAN SHEPHERD PING LIST
This is a low-volume list………so don’t worry!
(Please Freep-mail me if you’d like to be on or off the list.)
I hated that book/movie (no, I never bothered - I don’t need to to know what it’s about the way people went on about it) too - because it glorified bad behavior.
I am so sick of bratty dogs being made out as “cute” and “lovable” in public such as pop culture. We’ve had less destructive dogs than that and wouldn’t put up with it, much less just sigh, toss up the hands and say, “awww, isn’t dat kwute”. It isn’t funny or sweet.
Backyard breeders? Kraftwerk is hardly what they themselves would dismissively describe as “BYBs”: https://kraftwerkk9.com/
They are well known in the Euro/Schutzhund world.
7K for an older dog is not unusual, especially if that dog was highly bred and trained.
That said, I am not happy about Kraftwerk’s behavior - nor about most “reputable” breeders. Not that the customer was perfect - I don’t know the whole story either way. But most people will willingly go get the dog who’s left in a precarious situation just because they don’t want it “abandoned”, regardless of the BS “agreement” (paper or word?).
These “reputable” people have gotten too big for their britches in the last 20 years, and personally I think next time I will be going back to the local newspapers and “BYBs” like we did before I knew about dog shows. As long as *I* think it’s a pure GS and a good temperament and health, who really cares?
Oh come on.
No more pure breds for us.
Through my life I’ve had mutts and registered dogs and noticed no differences in any when it came to their intelligence and mannerisms. I also got them when they were just taken from their mother. That makes a huge difference.
By the way, I’ve got a super-cute mini-dachshund and she is the love of my life!
Your opinion.
As DH said, it is better to wisely pick out and mold a puppy. Purebred better because it’s more predictable.
The best dog I ever knew of - ever, including 2nd-hand stories from others both private and public - I had the privilege to personally own and she was a purebred from a famous show handler we got at 7 wks. We’d had older mutts from the pound before. I’ve had a few other puppy purebreds (or claimed) from different type breeders. The best was easily the handler’s puppy, so far. Granted there were other issues involved - our expertise and seriousness, etc - but my experience: the best was from a breeder.
It’s not “vanity” - it’s wanting something somewhat predictable including personal history. Living animals that can kill you are not something to toy with.
People often approach me (from a safe distance) when I’m out walking my 3 shepherds. “Your dogs are so beautiful, I think it would be COOL to have a German Shepherd”.
Can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to tell folks - it’s not COOL, it’s WORK (very rewarding work, but it’s a major responsibility ). These dogs require daily training and exercise, and most people just don’t have the time or patience to be good GSD owners, and often don’t realize what they’re getting into when they acquire one. Training never stops.
Mine are all rescues and came with alot of “baggage”. Older GSDs can have trouble adjusting to new environments - each time we brought one home, it took several weeks for them just to get used to being in our “pack” - the guy who bought Emmi didn’t give her time and probably had unrealistic expectations.
>Boycott this breeder.<
Anyone with the smallest clue already does.
>Certain breeds of dogs have certain inbred temperaments.<
Why yes, they do. Dog breeds have evolved because throughout history human beings have molded Man’s Best Friend to do different jobs and to play different roles. As a rule these traits are not interchangeable. For example you cannot take a Komondor, a breed bred to guard livestock, and easily hunt ducks with it.
As AnAmericanMother noted upthread, a Labrador can either be a great pet and family companion, or a “Marley” type canine wrecking crew. In knowledgeable hands, the competition field bred dog can and does make one heck of a dog. In a typical, “I just want a pet” home, the dog will be a nightmare for its people.
For so many people, dogs only have one role; that of the placid pet who enjoys a stroll around the block, then who plops down by the fireplace with the family.
Other people fall in love with a given breed of dog for the combination of traits that make superb performance dogs. These folks compete in a wide range of sports such as field trials, schutzhund, agility, flyball, obedience and countless others. They cherish the traits that would drive average suburban pet owners crazy, but in doing so they commit to working these dogs constantly to burn off energy and by perfecting the human/dog bond so that both species understand the other brilliantly.
For so many people, a mixed breed dog fits their needs perfectly. Some folks want a certain breed because they grew up with it. For these folks, especially if they wish to give a homeless pooch a 2nd chance, adoption is the perfect route. For the individual who chooses to compete with his canine friend, or who needs a certain set of breed traits for a job (like livestock protection, for example), a carefully bred purebred from a responsible, careful breeder will fit the bill.
Do you have experience with them? That’s where I got my GSD as a puppy - he’s almost 9. Has a good temperament and high prey drive - I thought I might do Schutzhund training with him but he has thunder anxiety and would never pass the firearms portion, LOL.
He does have a small hump on his mid-spine which would have eliminated him from ever being shown, which he came with and I was not told about.
I have a 6 year old German bred GSD. Her pedigree is mostly dogs who have sheep tending titles as opposed to schutzhund. While she loves to learn and loves training, she’s nowhere near as driven or as intense as the dog in this story. She’s very good at picking up on a behavior quickly, and she is fast and accurate. She would not do well at all with harsh corrections. She passed her ATTS temperament test of course, although one of the testers who has a long career with working GSD’s told me afterward she was far too soft for him. It’s ok, she lives with me and I think she’s a great dog. I didn’t buy her to breed, btw.
I respect folks that train working GSD’s, but my interest is more in obedience, tracking and rally.
Add me to the list of folks who hated that movie — Marley and Me. In fact, I thought the whole screenplay was just an excuse to have a lot of bikini clad women stroll across the screen.
I was suckered into taking my daughter, son in law, and 3 of my grandchildren to see it in NY at Christmas a couple of years ago. Cost me a bundle, and we all hated it. We especially thought it was inappropriate for children (and out oldest “child” that day was 15.)
Add me to the list of folks who hated that movie — Marley and Me. In fact, I thought the whole screenplay was just an excuse to have a lot of bikini clad women stroll across the screen.
I was suckered into taking my daughter, son in law, and 3 of my grandchildren to see it in NY at Christmas a couple of years ago. Cost me a bundle, and we all hated it. We especially thought it was inappropriate for children (and out oldest “child” that day was 15.)
Add me to the list of folks who hated that movie — Marley and Me. In fact, I thought the whole screenplay was just an excuse to have a lot of bikini clad women stroll across the screen.
I was suckered into taking my daughter, son in law, and 3 of my grandchildren to see it in NY at Christmas a couple of years ago. Cost me a bundle, and we all hated it. We especially thought it was inappropriate for children (and out oldest “child” that day was 15.)
You two are nuts, imho..
I don’t hunt and both are from show lines rather than hunting lines. Neither have the drive to be a great hunting dog or for that matter a great obedience/protection dog, but they make great family dogs which is what I wanted. The Airedale is a great trail dog. He stays close and if ahead of me and we come to a fork in the trail I can point to the trail I want to go on and he automatically takes it. While he doesn’t have a really high drive like your Psycho Ruby if the right prey presents itself he will go after it. Last time it was a bobcat. That was scary but he treed it and lost interest. (as I said his prey drive isn’t that high). I was lucky even though he’s 90 pounds I’d have put my money on the bobcat even though he looked to weigh about 25-30 pounds. I’d have had to pack the wounded dog out of the mountains to a vet and that wouldn’t have been fun. My first Airedale had much higher drive. While she wasn’t out of control or anything you she could be a handful and required you to be the leader at all times. If you weren’t she’d step in and try to take leadership (nothing really overtly aggressive but if you recognize dog behavior you knew what she was doing.)
If I were a hunter I’d have gotten my Airedale from one of the breeders who specialize in hunting Airedales. The ones I know who selling Airedales bred for hunting won’t even sell you a puppy unless they are satisfied you can handle what you’re getting and can work the dog.
I live in Southern California and just found a neat place to take the dogs which as a hunter you’d love. The Prado Dam Dog Park in Chino. It’s 538 acres of upland hunting fields and about 30 duck ponds. All maintained for the purposes of training your hunting dogs. They even sell live birds for your dogs to point at (had quail last time I was there)and you can use weapons to train the dogs for the sound of firearms (mostly use blanks except under very controlled conditions.). The Airedale and Cairn had a ball. Only problem I had is the Airedale who has long fur right now came home covered in clover burrs and some smaller stickers. Nothing stuck to the Cairn who had just been stripped. With a lab the only place you’d have a problem is between the pads, but where ever you are you have to deal with that as well.
I recommend two books to people who are getting a new dog or seem to have some problems in handling their dogs. The first is: The Other End of the Leash by Patricia McConnell. The other is On Talking Terms with Dogs:Calming Signals by Turid Rugaas. Both are reading by any dog owner but they really help new owners or people who just don’t understand their dogs. Turid’s website btw: http://www.canis.no/rugaas/ The Q&A section is worth looking at.
The really nice thing about mixed breeds is that their negative behaviours of their lineage is often minimized.
I am wondering if the buyer ever had German Shepherds before. They are not for a first time dog owner.
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