Black GSD

The best way to do it is to NEVER just "put her out" alone and expect her to go. I NEVER let my puppies in until they have "gone" outside. I don't care if they have to walk around out there for 30 minutes, they HAVE to go before they come back in the house. I too use a command, mine is "hurry up". Now, with my adult dogs, I can take them out, say "Hurry up" and they all go immediately. Dont get me wrong, I am NOT saying not to let the pup out with the other dogs to play and get some exercise, I am just saying don't let her back in until you have "seen" her do her buisness. And watch her like a hawk when she is in the house. If you watch her closely you should be able to tell when she has to go. She will probably start sniffing around looking for a spot. When she does this, she should be taken out IMMEDIATELY. Good luck, she will figure it out eventually. :)

So I guess there was no point to this whole thread? In the first post you asked "Does someome know where I can find an excellent GSD in Australia". And now you say 'I already know where to find really excellent GSD".

That is a nice story. :) Glad it had a happy ending. I know a woman(she was in her early 20s) that went into a river to "save" her dog that she thought was going to drown. The dog survived, She didn't. She drowned trying to save her dog.

That is the problem. If you just go out and get a any GSD you happen to find, without doing a LOT of research on breeders and bloodlines and don't do a LOT of training and socialization, you may very well get a dog that will try to kill everyone. OR you will end up with a dog that is so fearfull that is will hide in the corner and pee when a stranger comes to the door.

Kiwi, Does your guarantee last for the life of the dog? Or is there a time limit for a refund?

If you do decide to call AC. Hopefully they will be better than the one is my old hometown. Our neighbors had a dog that they would always let run loose. Even though they had a HUGE fenced yard. This dog attacked my GSD once, (My dog was on a leash AND was accross the street from their house). Luckily my dog was a long coat and had a HUGE, thick coat. SO the dog didn't get any skin, just a mouthful of hair. This dog also would go after people. Calling AC got the owners a warning. So then they would just turn her out at night. As if THAT was OK. Finally she ended up being killed by a car. As bad as it sounds, we were GLAD. Though I wish it had been the owner instead. By the way she WAS a Pit. But I don't blame the breed, just the crappy owner.

Alicat, That is the problem, I am no longer in the Portland area, I am 350 miles away now.

Do a search for "weight pulling harnesses". It brings up several sites. The training is VERY easy. You just need a dog that likes to pull. Afterall you CANNOT make them do it if they don't want to. The best way to get them to pull is with an awesome recall. Some people stand behind the dog and just tell them to "pull" or "mush" or whatever command you choose. But standing in front of the dog (on the other side of the finish line) is the easiest and most common way. The dog also HAS to be abe to "stay" while you walk away to the finish line. Pulling a tire is what we started with. We started with an Airplane tire and moved up in sive from there.

Carol, Very well put! I totally agree. What about all those people that feed their dogs "grocery store"brand dog food. And they have dogs that live to be 17yo? Like I said, I have been feeding Nutro for 20 years. I have never had any trouble. I have had dogs live to be in their mid teens. Right now we have an ACD that is 14yo. She still acts like a pup.. Running around like an idiot, just like my 3yo.

Is that $25.99 a bag for just shipping? For crap sakes. I think NOT!!! I also just love the places that say "free shipping" that is all well and fine, BUT, they charge 5 or 10 (or more) dollars a bag extra in the first place.) So is the shipping REALLY free? NO!

I guess ordering online would be an option. I will have to check into it. I don't have a credit card either. But I do have a check card (you know, works like a credit card but comes out of your checking acct.) As long as they use a shipper that comes to "no mans land" We only have UPS that comes here. Seems to me though that shipping could be a real "killer". Especially with 4 (soon to be 5) dogs to feed. This is one of the few bad things about living in the "middle of nowhere". Especially when I come from the Portland, OR. area where they have "real" stores. Actually, I think this is the ONLY bad thing about living "in the middle of nowhere".

Which is better, Nutro, Science Diet (Personally can't stand the stuff), Pro Plan, Iams, Eukanuba? I live in a "town" of 500. I have to drive 40 miles one way to a town of 15,000 to buy dogfood (unless I want to feed the "grocery store" brands), and the above are about the only choices. I have a hard time imagining driving 200 miles round trip(especially in a foot of snow) to go to a bigger town to buy dog food. Especially when I have been feeding Nutro for 20 years.

Newfiemom> Whats wrong with Nutro?

I have a question. If a breeder sells a puppy with your basic, "Buyer will not sell the said puppy/dog to a third party without notifying the breeder and getting their approval, blah, blah blah, contract, and later finds out that the buyer has sold said dog, does the breeder have and LEGAL steps they can take against the buyer? Sure, you could try to sue them for breech(sp) of contract, but would you win? Or would you just be spending a ton of money on a lawyer for nothing? I am NOT looking for peoples opinions, I am looking for LEGAL facts. The reason I ask this is that I have had this discussion with horse breeders (Like myself) in the past. Ideally, all puppy buyers would be honest people with the dogs best interest at heart, but that is not always the case as we all know. There are tons of folks out there that buy a puppy for say $1000, decide it isn't working out (usualy the OWNERS fault, not the dogs) and then want to get rid of the dog. Do they want to GIVE it back to the breeder like they said they would? NO, they want their money back. So they sell it off to someone else. Because, afterall to THIS person, the money is far more inportant than the well being of the dog. To me, having a contract that tells a buyer what they can and cannot do with a dog (horse, cat, whatever) is like selling a car with a contract that says you canot sell, paint or do any major mechanical work on it. If someone BUYS something from you, whether it is a dog, horse, car or whatever, they are BUYING it, this means that it is THEIRS to do with what they see fit. I don't see how the seller can LEGALLY tell someone that they can and cannot do with something they SOLD. My feeling is that if you wanted to have so much controll, you should NOT have sold said item. I am NOT talking about neglect or abuse, this is a WHOLE different can of worms. Nor am I talking about co-ownerships. Keep in mind here folks, I am NOT saying I think dogs are just property like car, I am a "dog fanatic", mine are members of my family and I keep them no matter what. I am also NOT a breeder, I have had GSDs since 1979 and have never had a litter. I am just a curious person that wonders if a contract is REALLY worth the paper it is written on.

Is she motivated by food? Have you thought about tracking? Not exactly a game, but some dogs really like it. It would just give her something else to do.

Nina-h-8, Actually the easiest thing for you to do is just do a search for "Australian German Shepherd Breeders. There is an Australina GSD web ring that will come up. Also keep in mind the things Mei-Mei said. Left to it's own, a GSD can and will do more damage to your house than a burgler, if not properly trained and given something to do.

Personally, there is NO way I would give $900 for a sick puppy. Even if it wasn't from a pet store. You could get 9 dogs for that price if you went to a shelter! Also there is no guarantee that K.C. is the only thing wrong with that puppy. What if you do buy it, and find out that it has all kinds of other problems? If you just want another dog, why not go to the shelter? If you are set on a puppy of a certain breed, go to a REPUTABLE breeder. At least that way you can get a guarantee. Also if you just got your first dog, I would wait to get a second dog. Give him more time to bond with you. Getting a second dog may very well cause him and the second dog to bond with each other rather than you. This will make any training a thousand times more difficult.

If you are afraid to do it you could always take her to a groomer. It really is not as hard as it may sound. (Though that is easy for me to say as I used to be a groomer). Believe me, it is a 1000 times easier to remove matts with clippers than with scissors. Also, it really is best to get any matts out BEFORE the dog is bathed. Bathing will make the matts tighter, and most likely you will not get all of the soap out if the matted areas which could make her feet matted AND wet AND ichy.

Are you looking for a show or working line dog? Let me know, I have some link for Australian kennels.

Glad to hear that he is catching on to giving up his toy so you can throw it. Are you making SURE that She is going outside before you put her in her crate? Also do you with hold water for an hour or 2 before bedtime? The reason I said are you SURE, is that I used to have a GSP (German Shorthaired Pointer)) that used to "fake it". She KNEW she had to go BEFORE she could come back in the house, so she started kinda squatting WHILE she was running back to the house. But nothing came out. If you caught her and told her to go again, she would. I'm sure Molly is too young for this yet though.

If he won't bring the toy back, put him on a leash. Get a long Flexi leash and throw the toy. When he gets it, reel him in. He CAN"T run if he is leashed. And NEVER chase him to get the toy back. Once he figures out the idea that fetch means get the toy and bring it back to you, you should be able to remove the leash. If you throw the toy and he gets it, what would happen if you then showed him another toy? Whould he come back to you then?

[quote name='TLCPETS']Yes ,GSD I think any-breed can be registered but APRI registered dogs have to have a link back to AKC stud books unlike the others.[/quote] That is all well and fine. But I would think that there are a LOT of mutts out there that have a line back to an AKC dog somewhere even if it is 20 generations or more back. Does that mean that they shold all have papers? Mixed breeds are just that MIXED. Papers on mixed breeds are just another way to screw the public into thinking they are some new special breed that is worth a ton of money. It just makes my skin crawl that there are "registries" out there that give papers to mutts. Just like there are people out there breeding mutts on purpose, then charging several hundred dollars for the pups.

If you don't want him to bark, do NOT pet him and talk nice to him when he does it. In his mind this will tell him that barking is a good thing. If you don't want him to bark at all, you should get after him immediately when he barks. With most dogs I have been around, ignoring him will not make him stop and it very well may make it worse. After all, it you are not reacting, maybe you aren't hearing him and he should continue. If you want him to bark enough to let you know someone is at the door, let him bark a couple of times, then tell him "Quiet" (or what ever word you choose) to let him know that "that is enough".

Also, to Bentley's Dad. If you are wondering about ACDs (Heelers) YES, they have been known to do it. :D

Most any breed can do Schutzhund. As long as they are big enough. By "big enough" I mean basically no "little dogs". I have personally seen 2 Pembroke Welsh Cogris that were both SchH2 titled. Usually the thing that stops the smaller dogs is the height of the jumps and the weight of the dumbell at the higher levels. I also had a friend that had a Golden Retriever that was SchH titled. Most Sch dogs are not "aggressive". To the dogs it is a GAME. Most of them would not bite a person without the sleeve. They are trained to "go for the sleeve". Meaning that if the helper (the "bad guy") isn't wearing the sleeve, the dog couldn't care less about the guy. They are worked mostly in prey drive, not defense, they don't thing of the helper as a bad preson, he is their "play buddy". This is why dogs like Border Collies and Goldens can do it. You can check out [url]www.dvgamerica.org[/url] for more info. DVG is an all breed SchH organization. USA (United Schutzhund Clubs of America) is a German Shepherd only Sch org. Their site is at [url]www.germanshepherddog.com[/url] If you want any more info, feel free to ask.