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 ...
The guy didn’t buy the dog for $8,000.
He bought the 30 lbs of cocaine that was inside the dog for $8,000.
He got a good deal.
bingo
This dog was misrepresented by seller. As an owner of 6 German Shepherds over the past 40 yrs or so I can tell you the behavior exhibited or described by the buyer is anything but normal for this breed.
The described behavior indicates a dog not properly socialized in the critical time period from birth to 6 months. Dogs left mostly to themselves will, over a period of time want nothing to do with anyone or any other animal.
This is sad because the animal will in all probability be euthanized barring some very patient individual assuming ownership and working long and hard to do what should have been done much earlier on in this animals life.
Cats are the same way. They imprint within the first 8 weeks.
I have one cat, because we rough-housed with it, loves being man-handled and can handle rough, for a cat.
We have another cat that we took in, but it was older than the 8 weeks. When we first got her, she didn’t like to be touched at all, instant slashing. Now, after two years, we can pet her for a couple of minutes before she let’s us know she’s had enough.
You are right.
I’ve always made it a point to buy a very young puppy as my “life’s buddy” and to bond with it closely. Once a dog is obtained later in their young life, the bond can never be made as strong as that with a young puppy.
A “bonded” dog that is loved, cared for, and played with is a life enduring experience. They a social animals and never meant to be caged alone or to live alone.
Sounds like an irresponsible breeder. 72 hours for a location on the other side of the continent? How can you even judge an animal in 72 hours?
Boycott this breeder.
Since the dog wasn’t a puppy rather a full grown dog and looking at the breeders page they are all from strong working lines not show lines and the older dogs they list shown recently are mostly SCH3. The price would lead me to believe it’s also a Shutzhund trained GSD. That’s a dog that’s NOT going to behave like a typical household pet and if the owner was not ready to own one and didn’t really understand what they were getting they were going to be very surprised.
I don’t buy the story the owner is telling especially in the way he responded and set the dog back. MY BS meter is really going off. I think the owners were very inexperienced owners and maybe this was the very first dog they’d owned and certainly the first dog of this nature (not a GSD but one who is a trained guard dog or a Shutzhund trained dog)
Any dog will try to become the leader of the pack (family) if the parent’s/owner doesn’t step up and become leader in the dogs eyes. They are still pack animals and packs need leaders. Some dogs are more dominant and assertive and take a stronger owner, That’s especially true of dogs trained as real protection dogs or Schutzhund trained dog. They have to be aggressive (not vicious), assertive, smart and have a lot of drive or they won’t be successful The owner has to recognize that and be the leader of the pack (as do all the humans in the family) and see that the dog gets work to do. If you aren’t capable of that your going to be a very unhappy owner and the dog is going to be unhappy and a wreck also.
Remember the guy who owned and wrote a book about a Lab named Marley (Marley and Me). All the problems with that dogs behavior were really the owners problems of a lack of pack leadership. When Marley passed away and the book was a runaway best seller his wife went out and bought a new Lab puppy. She wanted the best one that money could buy. So she went out and bought the puppy from a breeder who specialized in top hunting/working labs. This puppy gave them all kinds of problems including killing another of the families pets (a chicken, but I won’t hold that against the dog since both my Airedale and Cairn would do that in a heat beat). The problems were getting worse and more severe than the ones they had with Marley. They had to call in Ceaser Milan to straighten out the situation with the dog and them. Again the problem was them and their failure of leadership coupled with a dog with high drives that weren’t being met. Milan had to train the real problem in this mix and the problems went away.
The shelters are full of good dogs; my last three were rescues and that’s all I’ll ever have going forward. I can’t see breeding so many more dogs when we have an oversupply like we have but vanity being vanity, I suppose there will always be a market.
Oddly, $8k can be cheap. A good gun dog costs $600/mo to train and can take about two years to fully train. I’m going to send my next one for forced retrieve training because I might not do it right and ruin the dog.
Our little puppy is adorable -- she's got the scenthound temperament but the boxer coat (black-brown) and long legs. She's obedient and never barks in the house.
And we paid nothing for her -- but we would pay all we had to get her again. Dogs from shelters are the way -- you save a dog who really needs a home.
That describes my two cats to a tee. Although the skittish one is gradually becoming more socialized over a couple of years.
But why purchase a 5-year old dog? Doesn't it make more sense to get a puppy or even a 1-year old dog from a breeder?
I agree 100, NO 1000%!!
I think you can lump in any large breed that tends to be dominant, like rotties, pits, American Bulldogs, etc. They need to be put in their place and trained right, or they are a bad accident waiting to happen.
My wife and I have always had pure breds, but after we lost the last one, we decided to do a rescue. We found a half Jack Russell Terrorist / Half Poodle aged approx. 6 years. It only took about 3 months before “PJ” became a full member of the family and is solidly bonded with us. No more pure breds for us.
Exactly right. I have sent both my younger dogs to a pro for force fetch. I did my oldest dog myself and it didn’t “take” very well. On the other hand, she was 5 y.o. when she started retrieving, so we started late.
Pound pups are fine for a pet (although there are very real risks with temperament problems and disease). But if you are going to be working your dog, you’re better off with a well bred purebred from a reputable breeder.
Did you ever hit the nail on the head! That book made me so mad . . . and then they went and made the SAME mistake all over again. A high drive field Lab is not a suitable family pet, unless you have some experience with that type. My middle girl (aka Psycho Ruby) is Marley squared, on steroids. She is a completely awesome field dog - marks like a machine, handles like a Ferrari - but she is always on the ragged edge and is only now starting to perform up to her potential at 5. Marley’s owners would have dumped her by the side of the road.
If you can do it, try a George Hickox class. I did a 3 day private lesson with him earlier this year and a 4 day group class with him the previous year with my GSP and he is fantastic.
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