I have often come across certain bloodlines in modern day working line German Shepherds which tend to weigh on either side of the scale of whether they are a Breeder’s dog or a Trainer’s dog. Before we delve deeper into the discussion I would like to make clear the terms. A “Breeder’s dog” is a dog bred by an established breeder of a carefully identified breeding program with a strong philosophy and goal behind it and then subsequently trained as part of that breeding program. A “Trainer’s Dog” is a dog which is bred by a trainer and a person who staunchly contends in trials and has a training philosophy; such a dog is bred and raised and then subsequently trained for service or sports within that training program.

Now this may come as an outright surprise to many breed lovers. Come On! We already have enough splits in the German Shepherd breed. Here we thought we had only show lines and the working lines. But now we have a further split based on the genetics, the training and partly on the psyche transferred from the person at the end of the leash handling the dog. At the onset as part of the introduction of this article, I would like to mention some of the points I’m going to be touching upon.

1)      One is the inherent difference between a breeder dog and a trainer dog.

2)      Secondly I would like to elaborate on the fact that because we have a further split based on the 3 main aspects namely genetics, the training and the psyche of the handler handling that particular dog, we cannot have a breeding whether it is line breeding or in-breeding based on a concoction of impressively titled dogs in the bloodlines; more about this later in the essay.

3)      Another point I want to highlight is that there may be strong proponents of the Golden Middle or the Universal GSD and Universal Training methodologies, who may state that if the dog is balanced or bred for the so called 360 degrees holistic plan then he or she should be able to perform multiple task. However this is far from truth because as we see in the modern day working dog breeding, a dog has to be bred for a particular goal in mind and from this stems my last point which I want to touch upon and maybe I will write a complete separate article on this topic which is the importance of having strong definitive goals for your breeding programs.

So Wherein Lies the Difference between a Breeder’s dog and a Trainer’s dog?

Well, to put is simply a trainer’s dog would be biddable and easily trainable while a breeder’s dog would be the one whose traces would be seen in the generations to come in the bloodline in which that dog is bred in. A breeder’s dog would be inclined more towards having strong phenotype, which is, the genotype plus the interaction between the environment and the organism. A trainer’s dog would not necessarily be a great producer, but given the modern day workings of the dog sport dynamics; a trainer would concentrate on a dog which suits the training style of that particular trainer. The puppy is raised at some other site where the basic imprinting and foundation work is done and when the dog is about 12 to 18 months then the breeder takes in the dog into his training program for the sport. A trainer’s dog, hence, would be more malleable in its temperament and may not have the strong genetic makeup to pass on its traits in its off springs. However such a dog may excel in the trials. On the other hand a breeder’s dog would be the pillar of the founding of a new bloodline or a string of genetic traits to be passed on to its progeny. This is not to say that a breeder’s dog would or could not excel in sports but it is often seen that such instances are rare. I want to point out two things here. What you need to pay attention to is that a a part of the psyche of the breeder which in turn is the foundation of the goals of the breeding program and philosophy of the breeder gets passed on to his dogs in the breeding program. Some breeders breed for genetic grips in the dogs. Some breed for strong dominance. Others may breed for herding. Yet others may breed for strong, dominant temperaments. Breeding for strong prey or defense drives and social aggression are other aspects of some breeding program or the goal. A breeder may take a bouquet of these traits and make then as part of the goals of his or her breeding program.

Cases of breeding impressively titled dogs in a “Concoction” Type Breeding

A lot of novice breeders and even self-proclaimed experts make the common mistake of breeding what I call an “Impressively titled concoction of dogs’. By this I mean that it just simply does not make sense that if the dog is titled, one breeds the dog into his or her breeding program and plan. A KNPV titled dog is very different from a Schutzhund titled dog which in turn is very different from an Agility dog, a herding titled dog and more so from a street police or service dog. All these categories of dogs require very specific phenotypes in dogs and hence, mixing all these variously titled dogs into a common breeding plan is a very irresponsible and myopic thought out plan for a breeding. This is simply like rolling a dice. Even a 12 year old can tell you that if you breed a very strong KNPV dog with a Schutzhund 3 dog you will obviously get a litter of puppies with reasonable amount of above mediocre traits with higher probability. But this clearly displays a lack of breeding philosophy and a clearly defined breeding goal for a breeder doing this. You need to ask yourself these questions before doing such breeding; what is my goal with the future of the litter with this particular breeding? Are these puppies going to working homes? If yes, then, whether these puppies are going to be trained for street service work? Or will these puppies go for Sports or Schutzhund or any other sports?

Factors which Influence the criteria of diversity in dogs

The three main aspects which impact this diversity of dogs when inclusion into a breeding goal or a plan is the following

1)      Genetics

2)      Training & in turn the environment in which the dog is raised

3)      The kind of handler which the dog is bonded with

I will talk extensively now about the above three factors. Firstly, genetic traits play a vital role in the kind of work that the dog is going to be used in. A dog which is being used for street service work or KNPV sport is more inclined with high prey drive and strong bite grips. These dogs have to be genetically very strong temperamentally. On the other hand, a dog which is being bred for a sport like Schutzhund has to have high levels of social aggression and also a higher tendency towards prey drive compared to defense vis-à-vis a perfect balance of drives. There has to be biddable and flashiness in the execution of the exercises of the sport of Schutzhund. Hence the dog has to have more towards being point dog versus a rather civil drive for Street work or even ring sport or KNPV. Now consider a dog which is being trained for agility. By virtue of the foundation of his or her training there will be inevitably more emphasis on obedience and hence such a dog would have to be a more watered down in terms of defense and prey drives. This dog would not be suitable for a more prey drive oriented sport like KNPV or Schutzhund. Even if the dog is trained for multiple sports it definitely creates a level of confusion in the mind of the dog. Now the counter argument proposed by many supporters of the Golden Middle German Shepherd or the Universal dog is that a dog which conforms to the Universal standard should effortlessly be able to rise to the training needs of each of the different sports training regimes based on its genetic makeup; coupled with Universal norms of training. However, I strongly beg to differ that given the current trends in the Global Working dog breedings and the total absence of a general consensus on what the breed standard the dogs should adhere to,  the Golden Middle or the Universal breed standard is like a holy grail. More so, the Golden Middle dog may not be everyone’s cup of tea speaking metaphorically. One size simply does not fit all; simply put. Hence we see the myriad diversity in the breeding programs within the single most popular breed which is the German Shepherd dog today.

Lastly coming to the third point which is actually has a close semblance to the second point being unequivocal in the sense that the trainer who is at the end of the dog’s leash and his training style merge to have an impact on the dog being trained for a particular sport or work. This point is more from a philosophical point of view since the dog eventually in spirit is the extension of his or her handler’s psyche and imbibes to a large extent the nuances of his or her training styles. Thus a dog which has to go through multiple rigors of different sports and training would have to have immaculate genetics, phenotypes and arduous painful hours of laying the Universal training foundations right from puppyhood.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to mention that our main topic of this essay was to clarify the differences between a breeder’s dog and a trainer’s dog. As we now try to pinpoint, the breeder’s dog leaves his mark over the generations of bloodline creation and careful in- breeding the most strong genetic traits which are useful as instincts in the training program of the breeder or another trainer to whose training style the dog fits in.

Tags: breeding, German Shepherds, line breeding, working dogs

The Choice of In Breeding and Linebreeding in Dogs

In-breeding and line breeding are close terms used more often when two related dogs or more are in common ancestry of a puppy. Line breeding is just a milder version of in-breeding. Many people have vague ideas or wrong notions about the term that a dog is ‘highly bred’. In-breeding is in wide circles of breeders regarded as the root of all evils in outcomes of genetic traits of litters. However they should know better. In-breeding if done properly and with firm knowledge in the pedigree or the bloodlines of the parents is a very powerful mechanism to produce highly stable and strong healthy litters.

Is Inbreeding the Necessary Evil?

In-breeding by itself produces nothing. It just accentuates or concentrates the traits which are already there in the bloodline of the dog. If a half brother and sister are mated and produces aggressive pups it is not because the brother and the sister were mated but because the common ancestry in the pedigree of the dog had the traits of aggression in either the grandparents or the great-grandparents or carried the gene of high aggression in the common bloodline. That particular trait has got amplifies due the mating of close bloodlines. Now, these puppies being in-bred would have a higher probability of transmitting the high aggression trait in their off springs. But had the common grandparents of the puppies had excellent health condition , strong nerves and bold, firm temperament, then these qualities would have descended in these puppies too, and the same thing would have happened in reverse..

Outcomes of In-breeding

Temperament can be improved by in-breeding just as it can be ruined, although in show dogs the latter has happened more often than the former. This is due to the fact that most breeders in their clamour to produce Champions, in-breed for certain physical qualities, at the same time in-breeding for bad temperament. For instance if a Champion show dog has a sloping back then all the breeders from all over the place will send their bitches to be mated to him. It is probable that many of the puppies so produced will have sloping backs more than their dams and it is equally probable that many bitch puppies will be mated back to their sires when grown up. The progeny of these matings will show marked improvements in sloping backs so far as the sloping backs are concerned.

Conclusion

Whether this improvement is real or imaginary really does not matter. What matters is that if the Champion Sloping back is mentally deficient he will produce a great many children and even more grandchildren that excel in the sloping back, but which are also mentally deficient probably to a greater extent than their grandsire.

Tags: breeding, InBreeding in German Shepherds, LineBreeding. German Shepherds, Showline versus Working Lines

IBreeder Designer

The pedigree hierarchy shown in the diagram below is the essence of the Designer module of IBreeder. The algorithm which arrives at the outcome of the workability traits of the litter is the sum total of the weighted average of the different genetic traits stretching up to 5^th Generation in the pedigree. The total of vertical and horizontal traversal across the bloodlines has to be 100%. The designer is the tool where the user is through a set of drop down lists able to select each genetic trait in the dog within that particular pedigree and select the corresponding percentage contribution of that trait.

The typical report which the algorithm generates looks like this

OUTPUT OF THE EXECUTOR

1. High Social Aggression
2. High Defence Drive
3. High Prey Drive
4. Color: Sable (probability 70%)
5. Full Grips
6. Strong Nerves
7. Potential for good producer
8. Very Hard Dog
9. Will need experienced handler
10. Will display handler aggression
11. Excellent Hips
12. Excellent Elbows
13. Free from Dysplasia

Tags: Designer, IBreeder

Protection Training and Training in Defense Drive

Defense Training

One of the basis of starting you dog in defense training or protection training is when the dog already knows how to bite. Typically, the dog already has some foundation in prey biting and knows to bite the helper on the sleeve. The idea of defense training is to teach the dog to induce avoidance in the helper through the dog putting up a fight to the threats from the helper. A dog which has not yet learnt to bite should never be put directly into defense training. It’s only after laying down the foundation of prey work that a dog should graduate to defense training.

What are Prey Biting and Defense Biting?

The key difference between prey biting and defense biting is that in prey biting the dog is in no stress and enjoys the bite work. The word prey as it suggests, stems out of the natural instinct of the dog to chase a prey like a rabbit or a small animal in the wild and then bite it. This is very enjoyable for the dog and builds up the drives in the dog. Defense biting on the other hand is when the dog is put under stress and made to realize that the helper behind the sleeve is not just a motor which activates or animates the sleeve but brings in threats and stresses into the life of the dog. The dog now starts to see the helper as a fighting partner and the fight drive arises in the dog Fight instinct put in technical terms is Prey Drive plus the Defense drive plus the genetics and the experience of the dog.

A dog learns to bite in defense when it has to bring avoidance behaviour in the helper. This is different from the Prey biting where the dog is chasing the prey and biting it in sheer enjoyment. Hence as noticed in sport, a prey bite is with full mouth whereas a defense bit is shallow and often mouthy. A dog which is locked in prey can be a difficult dog to bring in defense and his or her training program has to be re-thought out and planned to bring in a level of fear and stress in the mind of the dog. Hence most of the sport dogs are not really good candidates for street police work since most of the biting is very dramatic and for the sport it is purely in defense since scoring points in the competition is of more importance that the correct drive for the dog to be in.

What is the right age of defense training?

It is very hard to give a fixed age and time to commence defense bite training for every dog. Some bloodlines mature very late and some dogs have high or imbalanced prey drive, in such cases the defense training needs to commence earlier in age of the dog since if the dog becomes locked in prey biting, it can be a herculean task to bring the dog into defense training and many a dog can be ruined in the process since there has to be a very delicate balance in the training program of these dogs. The dogs which are from slow to mature bloodlines need to learn defense biting a little later in life since they have to be both physically and mentally ready to take the stresses of defense training.

Civil Agitation, What is it?

I will talk briefly about civil agitation here since it is a logical step forward in the defense training of any working dog. Civil agitation means the dog learns to be aggressive at the helper without him or her wearing any protective equipment like bite sleeves or suits. The triggering factor like the sleeve is absent and the dog looks at the helper not as a fighting buddy with a sleeve on his arm but as an actual threat in real life. The civil training involves making the dog have one bad experience with the helper so that the proverbial bulb in the mind of the dog lights up and he starts seeing the helper in a different light as a real threat. The civil agitation training is never done a familiar area and always never on the training field. The area has to be unfamiliar to the dog so that the dog starts learning to fight or bite the helper under unknown circumstances and situations. If the civil agitation is done in familiar grounds the dog will always show aggression and this will not be what we want.

Tags: civil agitation, defense training in working dogs

“Time can never mend the careless whispers of a good friend….”  So the song by the 80′s famous band Wham! goes. Well, if your whispers to a friend are not careless, then they can be of immense imprtance in personalization of the social media which is apart of Web 2.0. Till now in the development of Web 2.0 we have seen the broadcast of the micro-texts may it be the twitters , the bulk emails, the SMS messages on the mobile platform. Our tweets are for everyone to follow and act upon. You are essentially tweeting to tell you social group where you are right now and what are you upto. Well there are some part of the data we generate on the social media which may not be of interest to a large audience which is following us on the social graph, but certain “Whispers”, as I choose to call them, may be important to just one or two people in our network.

By the way here is the video of the famous 80′s song “Careless Whispers” by the then famous group called WHAM!!

How do Whispers get personalized

And these micro-texts are the basis of personalization of our tweets or blogs or sms messages. So for example on one of the paths on the social graph I may pose a query ” if my stock portfolio value falls below a $10,000 then sell 100 stocks of MSFT company…” This is a NL query and if my stock broker is in my social graph he or she may listen to this “whisper” of mine and take necessary action on due time. Although the context server at the back end of the social media server may look at this rule and the request on the social graph may be executed by and agent too.I want to mention here very importantly that, the glue which binds the tweets and the sms messages and the blogs on the social graph is the meta -data. Metadata is the data about data and make dead information or data intelligent. Currently we are seeing a lot of met data being generated by tags and the like and dislike links being created in the Facebook like social media platforms.  In future we may see the advent and emergence of other forms of metadata as numerous artifacts become part of our web experience. The metadata adds the feedback loop into the dead data and brings it alive so to speak by giving it meaning.

Tags: Social Media, Wham, Whispers

Transition from Outsourcing to CrowdSourcing

A decade ago we saw the onslaught of job or work outsourcing. Hundreds of jobs and employment opportunities migrated with companies from the West to Asian and BRIC nations where the labour was cheap. There was a nameless entity attached to the goods we were consuming. Somebody in China in an unknown factory was making the clothes we were wearing. Some unknown person was designing the latest software being sold in stores in America. Outsourcing has now given way to crowdsourcing which is the equivalent of the hive mentality. This is all due to the massive expanses in the Internet and Web Technologies. Amazon has come up with their latest platform of these micro tasks in their platform called Mechanical Turk. Mechanical Turk is the commoditization of digital labour and a perfect example of crowdsourcing using the new media.

What is the Mechanical Turk Platform?

Mechanical Turk is the Agent Framework at the back end of the Amazon Web Services network which allows companies and vendors to break up their mundane routine jobs into smaller micro tasks which can then be put up for people to take up and complete. In return the monetary reward is of micro size as appropriate for the task completed. So, for example, I may put up a task such as go to a mall and write a 500 word article on what you see happening in the mall. This in turn may be part of a larger task, which the company needs to get done. What the Mechanical Turk platform allows is through its set of API to programmatically plug in Human Intelligence into the Web Agent Framework. This is important because some of the tasks cannot be done efficiently by machines.

The World Is Flat Again!!!

A very interesting phenomenon which the Mechanical Turk platform introduces is that we see even American labour competing for these microtasks and micropayments. Hence, cheap labour has shifted from the Asian countries to even America. This is a good example of better utilization of time and earning some money in the process. Vendors have access to a global workforce 24X7 and people can avoid wasting their time just whiling away watching some useless TV program or making a window shopping trip to the nearest mall.

Social aggression is almost non-existent in most modern day working dogs. If it did exist, the dogs would not be good for dogsport or competition. Most people involved with dogs today would have never in their entire life, seen a dog with social aggression as it is defined by people like Konrad Lorenz and Ferdinand Brunner.

The recent trend in breeding has been to breed dogs that do not have social aggression. And that may be what many people want. A socially aggressive dog is not tolerated in modern society. The point I would like to make is that social aggression is nothing that should be made out to be something evil. It is a valuable trait in dogs that are in the right hands. Such dogs do demand a high degree of responsibility and vigilance on the part of the handler. Socially aggressive dogs that are also dominant are difficult to handle and to train and should be in the hands of experts.
Both Armin Winkler and Helmut Raiser don’t even believe in an independent, natural fighting drive, as according to them, if a dog does fight, it is composed of a package of traits. And even then,
most dogs have one or two traits in the package –

• Prey drive,
• defense drive ,
• active defense reaction ,
• Passive defense reaction,
• Frustration aggression,
• Social aggression,
• Dominance behaviour and
• Rage.

Out of all the above traits, most dogs only possess one or two. If a dog has all these that’s a dog one cannot easily forget.

What Characterises Social Aggression in dogs?

Social aggression is too intense a quality to be useful in dogsport and competition as these dogs have inborn motivations to aggression. They do not need any particular trigger stimulus for aggression. They can be trained to tolerate strangers, but they would never accept a stranger, unless of course, the stranger is perceived as integrated into the dog’s pack or the stranger subdues the dog by force. This is not so say that they are unpredictable or unstable. Socially aggressive dogs are solid dogs with strong nerves. A socially aggressive dog is extremely hard and some extremely socially aggressive dogs have taken their handlers to hospitals. Social aggression is a purely pack phenomenon. It’s very much needed for the pack to survive.

In the face of a threat socially aggressive dogs do not accept strangers even after the threat is neutralised. They may tolerate strangers but never accept their friendly overtures. They only accept strangers, when the stranger is integrated as a pack-member or when the stranger subdues them by force. Socially aggressive dogs have inborn motivations to aggression and do not need any particular trigger stimulus.

Here is the video of a dog doing protection work for his Schutzhund title. The dog’s name is Fero vom Zeuterner Himmelreich. Fero is considered to be the pillar for the modern day working dogs. As seen in the video, one can see the tremendous fight which the dog brings to the helper. The head shaking while biting the sleeve on the helper’s arm is the sure sign of enormous fight drive in the dog and as discussed above, one of the components of the fight drives is social aggression.

Tags: Fero vom Zeuterner Himmelreich, Fight Drive, Schutzhund, social aggression in German Shepherds

A Sip of Nirvana in the Company of Man’s Best Friend

Nestled in the foothills of Himalayas about 6 hours drive from New Delhi is Naukuchiyatal, a small hilly town with all its lazy atmosphere and nuances. The drive from Delhi takes one through the Jim Corbett country and you can easily catch a glimpse of the beautiful and serene flora and fauna as you drive through the beautiful, comfortable road to Naukuchiyatal. A welcoming peaceful hideaway conveniently nested in the green lush Himalayan foothills welcomes visitors to its supreme serene and beautiful atmosphere. The sweet chirping of the birds and their birdsongs along the way are unavoidable and one can catch the full richness of the beautiful species of birds as one travels on the journey towards Naukuchiyatal. The drive to Naukuchiyatal is very peaceful, smooth and comfortable and is an excellent weekend getaway from the hustle bustle of the Metropolitan Delhi and surrounding cities.

Naukuchiyatal lies at the foothills of the central Himalayan (Kumaon) region. Nainital the queen of Kumaon is about 1 hour journey by road and is much cooler place climatically. Jim Corbett the famous Tiger reserve is also close by. Guests can indulge themselves in activities like Skydiving, hot air balloon rides, kayaking and also take the pleasure of excellent bicycle rides in the meandering wooded hills. The word “Naukuchiyatal” literally means nine cornered lake. Local folklore has it that whoever sees all the nine corners of the Naukuchiyatal lake from a single point of view attains Nirvana.

The best part about the place is that a lot of hotels and small family run inns welcome pets like dogs, and cats with the guests in the hotel room. The staff at these hotels is very courteous and helpful and the mountain hospitality offered by the local folks makes city dwellers learn to revere them in humility and sheer respect. Although there are a number of good hotels and staying options with a variety of accommodation types along with world cuisines appealing to the taste buds of majority of visitors, my favourite is the Lake View Resort which is a multi-acre property situated right around the Naukuchiyatal lake. The staff at Lake View Resort is very helpful and courteous and the best part is that your pets are welcome along with you in the hotel. Mr. Varma who is the owner of the Lake view Resort is a very dear friend of mine and due to my repeated visits to Naukuchiyatal I have developed a close friendship with Mr Varma more so, due to our common love for dogs.

My pet Labrador call name Sainik has been visiting Lake View Resort regularly for the last 5 years without fail. We have great fun taking long hikes with our dog around the lake and also in the surrounding wooded areas of the property. Mr Varma himself is a great dog lover and owns half a dozen Bhutias which are an offshoot breed of Tibetan Mastiffs.

The Orchid Cafe restaurant at Lake View Resort offers Mughlai, Chinese & Continental Cuisines. There is a Gymnasium & Sauna along with Pool Table to just chill out. Conference Halls are also available for corporate getogethers and offsite. One can easily spend the weekend in the lap of luxury and serenity by doing Boating & Angling in the Lake. Other activities include horse rides for children and adults! Paragliding Trekking are some of the other options one can indulge in there. The surrounding area around Lake View Resort and especially the lake is excellent for bird watchers with a multitude of species of birds making the area as their home.

Tags: Lake View Resort, Naukuchiyatal, Pet Holidays

There are several training methods in the dogsport. Especially the Schutzhund program has a rich influence of many ideas, national and international. Because of these influences from everywhere there is no other dogsport which is as good organized and where the training is at such a high level.It doesn’t matter what kind of training you are practicing with your dog, because it’s only the end result who counts. The final result is the exam or trial.

In this article I will try to give a synopsis of each different art, off course there will be more methods or mish-mash of different methods in practice but we will have to make a selection. There are four big groups of training arts; I will start from the old to the younger methods.

1. Correction method.

This training style is the oldest one, it is based on giving corrections when the dog does something what’s not required. The corrections are repeated till the exercise is good enough. For example : the dogs learns to follow on leash. The command “Fuss” is given and if the dog doesn’t follow correctly he will be corrected by pulling the leash. The pulling stops when the dog follows close enough. So we can say the dog is ignored when he does it correct. Every exercise is forced, which cause a lot of stress in the dog’s brain. The dogs that are trained by this method are working correct, but are never happy. They obey out of fear for the correction.

2.   Correction & Reward method.

After the Correction method the Correction & Reward art became popular. Now we are speaking begin-halfway the 80’s. Still everything was learned by force and giving corrections as long the dog didn’t show the right behavior, but the training stopped when the stress became too high for a play with the dog’s toy. The toy was kept visible in the hand to motivate the dog. This was used for letting the steam (stress) flow away. The good thing about this type of new training was that the stress didn’t come so high anymore as with previous method. However after practicing this technique for a longer time, the dog became “trial smart”. The actual training always happened with the ball in the hand, visible for the dog. The dog was attracted to the ball constantly and when the ball was not there (on trials), the attention (or contact) between dog and handler were gone.

3.   Positive Reinforcement method (Clicker method)

Begin-halfway of the 90’s a brand new training technique was demonstrated. The Clicker method. It was invented by American dolphin trainers and came true the US Obedience program in to the English Obedience and finally in to the Belgian IPO. The man behind this pioneer work was Mr. Geert De Bolster. In the beginning he was not taken seriously at all, IPO people said it was a joke. Slowly they began to see that this technique was not so bad at all, a club named OC Vlaendren (in Ghent) where the Belgian Top was training, became very popular with their members winning most championships. The clicker method became hot in a few months, however I must say only in the all breed clubs. The Belgian SV is still training the Correction & Reward method at this moment, this with a few exceptions off course.

4.   Belgian Mutated Positive Reinforcement method.

Recently developed after the millennium, the Clicker method is based on ignore the dog when he does something wrong (or not desired) and click and reward him when he does something right. This works very good, but is a bit slow in progress. As inventive as the Belgians are, they started to look for alternatives or better methods. These were found in correcting the dog when he does something wrong and reward him when he does something right, a mix of Correction & Clicker system. The corrections given are very light, this to avoid stress. Some people use Electric Collar on very; very light power, so that the dog only gets a unpleasant feeling when showing undesired behaviour. Instead of clicking, the mouth is used to make a certain personal noise. This can be used in trials as the clicker is not useful there. This method works faster as previous method, is more efficient and can be used unnoticed on exams or trials.

After us the “Great Flood”
Sport organizations and clubs which respect themselves have to aim for continuity and development in accordance with their statutes. Because it is about the fact that we wish that our sport and hobby can be continued by our successors. In our case this means in the broadest sense of the word the leisure time activity with the German Shepherd Dog and his world wide reputed versatile traits.
Now we have to demand a clear understanding of the subject matter from the representatives in the organizations from the very top all the way to the very bottom. They have to show the willingness and readiness to make important decisions when necessary to the benefit and the existence of our breed.
The founder of our breed did make this statement for nothing:
“Make sure my shepherd dog remains a working dog for I have struggled all my life for that aim!”
Many developments are naturally subject to social changes, but the principle has to be maintained or better said, the goal has to remain the same. And that has to be thought about carefully.
Why this prelude you may ask?
Friday evening, after the courage test at the “Hauptzuchtschau” in Ulm was over I got an alarmed phone call from a sport friend who was there and told me that many of the SchH 2 and even more of the SchH 3 dogs did not pass protection.
Sunday evening I calculated that 63 males and 49 females failed. Furthermore, we are talking about exclusively KKL 1 dogs here who had received the rating of “TSB pronounced” in their ZtP/Körung.
I doubt that the number of failures had ever been that high. My information showed that protection may have been judged marginally harder but not significantly harder than in years past. I was even told that had the helper work been consistent for all the dogs there would have been even more failures.
There were glaring differences between dogs from performance lines and those from show lines. OK, that may not be such a big deal, but it clearly accentuates how big the differences are.
Only a few years ago I myself was a witness to the way protection was handled at the “Hauptzuchtschau”. I came to the conclusion that some assessments were at the very bottom of the rating “pronounced”, some even below.
Dogs who came off the sleeve during the attack on handler still got a rating high enough to remain in the competition. In individual cases apparently the manner in which the dogs prevented the attack (energetic gripping is desired) was of secondary importance. Obviously some things had improved somewhat, but it has to be said.
It appears as if the top people in the SV, who got there due to political circumstance, chose this result, and everyone seems OK with that. One would think based on that that the general public is also satisfied with the result! Keep going that way.
In my opinion, this can never be the right solution. The movement in this direction already became apparent years ago. But it is exactly like judging one’s own affairs, it is rejected in society and politically and no significant improvement can be brought about.
That brings me back to my opening, the preservation of the breed. So, if we analyze what has been developing, and I would like to do that in the broadest sense of the word, one does not have to be a college graduate to come to the following conclusions.
The goals set in the bylaws and the trial regulations as well as the breed suitability regulations are all very clear in their statements. Nobody can argue that. Where things are lacking significantly in my opinion is the putting the written standards into practice and their interpretations.
The Chain
The people who are the main links in the chain of responsibility for the preservation of the German Shepherd Dog should be the first place we look.
• Board members of the Netherlands like the commissionaires for cynology and training
• Breeders
• Performance judges
• Körmeister (breed survey judges)
Naturally, there are secondary links in the chain as well (trainers for example and others). But I want to limit myself to the main group. I am convinced that the leadership is lacking in matters of breed preservation.
The Leadership/Board
In the bylaws and regulations the goals of breeding just like the breed characteristics are clearly defined.
Over the different decades certain individual aspects were pushed aside, but the principles were not altered. On paper everything stayed the same; from time to time some regulations were changed and even improved a bit.
Almost automatically my thoughts wander back to the time when the Martin brothers used their influence as SV-members/SV-board members/SV Körmeister to create their “own” German Shepherd Dog. In my opinion that was a German Shepherd who deviated significantly from the breed standard. It goes without saying that they could not accomplish this on their own and by themselves. But considering their considerable influence at that time not much happened without them and their input. Their influence on the leadership level was unmistakable.
The influence of a Canto von Arminius (W. Martin), a dog with bad temperament and character, and of a Quanto v.d. Wienerau (H. Martin) was praised to high heaven in the creation of a, pardon the expression, artificially constructed (read: modern) German Shepherd Dog.
Working abilities were hardly if at all talked about. The Kennels in Viernheim were sometimes jokingly referred to as the breeding factories of beauty. Some even dared to say that they (Martin brothers) did great damage to the breed. You can read Walter Hoffmann’s original report on the topic. I agree with that entirely.
It was a very single minded direction for which the German Shepherd they created was set as a standard. Ego, prestige, and profit dominated, especially when the Asian countries became part of the picture. That the working traits and abilities were reduced to a minimum seemed to be acceptable. During that time I watched trials in Germany where dogs got their Schutzhund trial “stamp” (for breeding) in ways that I would prefer to forget quickly. But at the time it was a reality.
That was a dangerous development, because the chances that one “breaks through the thin ice one skates on” become very real (as we have seen since then). But the whole world followed the SV (read: Arminius and Wienerau) because their rules had to be followed if one did not want to be thrown overboard.
Even the boards of foreign clubs (Holland, Belgium, etc.) followed suit along with many breeders. If one wants to see a silver lining in this cloud, one could say that for some breed fanciers this movement was a wakeup call (at least in Germany) to breed better working dogs.
It was a necessary evil if one wanted to preserve the working abilities. Police, military, and customs could not find a sufficient numbers of suitable German Shepherd Dogs. People were fed up, and I was around to witness this development first hand.
Alfred Hahn, from the kennel “vom Busecker Schloss, was very clear. He told me: “Koos, if you want to improve the German Shepherd Dog, and I know that is your goal, then consider this for the future. One can improve the anatomy of the German Shepherd in only a few generations. But to improve, temperament, character, and the necessary working abilities take much much longer. Good males will always be around, so focus on the quality of your brood bitches!” In my opinion, the pure truth, spoken by a very experienced breeder and Körmeister.
Another one of his favorite sayings was: “During the hold and bark in the blind you can see and hear the soul of the dog!! But as a judge one has to be ABLE to see it.”
His two males Greif zum Lahntal and his son Sagus as well as many others gave the performance world definite boosts (read: working abilities).
In reference to improvement or at least preservation, the results of an American study are also very interesting. It was stated that the traits that determine “beauty” appear to be on the same gene as the traits responsible for temperament and character. If that is in fact the case, then we certainly have an additional problem.
One has to talk about these lines and their existence very openly, but on a factual basis. Then their discussion has value.
But at this time the leadership is still more show and beauty oriented and for the benefit of the breed things have to change, and soon.
Indecisive board members, maybe for selfish reasons, holding endless discussions driven by emotions and not fact are not helpful and should be eliminated.
The times when trees grow to heaven and everybody is nice to one another are over. The time has come for serious changes, not only in regards to how things are structured but also in regards to decision making.
Included in those changes should be the sitting in important leadership positions for too long. In the long run that is bad not only for the organization, but also for the individual in the position (one becomes complacent, wants maintain the status quo, and after a while simply operates on auto-pilot). In that case new ideas and developments are threatening (to one’s own office). New enthusiasm (read: new board members) should be given a chance to implement their ideas for the preservation of the breed. In order to accomplish a goal, decision making has to encompass everything when it comes to goal setting.
Many sports friends feel the sense of injustice from the people at the top when important decisions are passed just like during the judging of their dogs. This reminded me of a slogan of an equal rights group: “Mercy for the wolf means injustice for sheep!”
Breeders
As always, breeders who follow the regulations set the standard of the German Shepherd of today. Their creativity should not be limited. The breed suitability regulations are very clear about that.
A different Aspect
In show line circles many breeders and owners send their females to Germany to be trained for SchH 1 and to get e Kör-rating ( I am sure only because of circumstances). In principle there is nothing Wong with that if there are good reasons for it, such as knowledge, skill, or time. But at times there is something wrong with the way it happens.
For me it is unbelievable that dogs who have not mastered a single exercise can achieve SchH 1 and a Körung in the time span of 2-3 months. Considering the existing trial rules almost an impossibility. To achieve that in some cases there has to be a tight chain of accomplices starting with judges, helpers, clubs etc.
In that context I have seen examples of dogs who returned to their regular clubs. But that is how things are, it happens, it is accepted, it gets paid for and then on to breeding.
I am convinced that this sort of thing certainly contributes to the high failure rate of 40%. Please don’t forget that females are the most important factors in the preservation of the breed. And to continue like that we are not doing the breed any favors.
The performance judges ad Körmeister
One expects from a judge that he is impartial due to his knowledge, that he exudes integrity, and that he judges a dog without looking at the person who is handling him. He is held to that standard by the trial rules which are in my opinion clear and unmistakable. Naturally the rules give him some discretion and that is how it should be. Günther Diegel, the training director of the SV, is very clear in his view of the SchH 1 category. IT is the cornerstone for the foundation and development of the breed. When judging dogs at large events one should set as a goal that at the top of the results list are dogs who are of such quality that they could be utilized to improve the breed. I am perfectly in agreement with that, but in reality it often looks a lot different. For example: The length of the tracks at the WUSV in Kefeld can’t contribute to such a goal. But who speaks up about it?!
But it can’t be that a dog passes a trial, gets a certificate, or gets a Körung based solely on criteria that an individual judge makes up on his even own if he does not deserve it. A judge who does that does not only shame himself, but does not really do the sports friend a favor either, and he in no way helps the breed. But what the hell, he is popular and gets to judge a lot.
Another aspect the so called training lines have to live with is the fact that through much improved training techniques (in itself a very admirable accomplishment) dogs who do not have any social aggression or the necessary hardness of a working dog anymore can still be trained excellently by experts with any number of training aides.
If this practice is elevated to an art, AND is promoted by awarding high points to dogs who are the product of this, then we have a different serious problem, namely the reliance on the innate talent of the dog. At this year’s BSP I save many examples of this. In principle I do not think this kind of training is wrong. BUT, if a judge is not able to see through all of that and still places the dogs at the top, then we will quickly end up on a slippery slope which will have negative consequences in breeding and therefore for the future!
Because I am firmly convinced that the working abilities of the German Shepherd Dog should originate in his genetics. If dogs can only perform exercises to a large part because of the help they had through technical aides, then we are truly on the wrong path. The German Shepherd is not a Malinois with different appearance. Aficionados know what I mean by that!
The wrong path applies to all three phases. More and more dogs quit on tracks when the conditions become too difficult. That has a lot to do with training too of course, but ALSO the genetic predisposition (the desire to find something). Therefore tracking is also of great importance and an important part of the whole program. A Körmeister should be able to assess the genetic talent and judge the dog on that basis. Like I mentioned earlier: The length of the tracks in Krefeld did nothing to accomplish this goal.
Here of course refer to the males and especially the females who are trained in such a manner AND who are also active in the breeding scene. Otherwise the value of working ability, or what is left of it, becomes nothing more than a big technical game. In other words: The 100 points are not passed on to the offspring. Not in tracking, not in obedience, and certainly not in protection.
It is common knowledge that after the trial certification the second hurdle on the way to breed improvement is the breed suitability test or the Körung. Or does anyone dispute that? Because people had concerns over the low working value of the dogs out of show lines the rules of the breed suitability test were tightened some years ago. The dogs had to be handled off leash, they had to out and guard, etc. That was very promising! But in praxis many Körmeisters interpreted and applied the rules much differently and according to their own standard here and abroad. In other words, they did what they had always done, and that is where things went wrong.
Rules have to be followed. Or what is the point of making them? Don’t you agree?
In these breed surveys dogs have to be examined all over again for the crucial elements of what is necessary for the preservation of the breed. It simply can’t be that at a breed suitability trial, in which I myself participated, two dogs come off the sleeve at least twice during the pressure phase and only came back on because the helper helped them still got the rating TSB “pronounced”. And that was not an isolated incident!
The Körmeister commented that the dogs in question had after all proven themselves under a performance judge. Otherwise how could they have been titled?
The helper who carefully helped these dogs on the bite was praised. Sadly, this young helper showed that he could also do different kind of work. But it is unfortunate that he gave such a performance, or maybe he had to perform in such a manner. If he hadn’t, it is probably likely that he would not be seen again anytime soon!
During this trial two very different reactions could be observed on the sidelines. For me it was crystal clear that in this case the rules were grossly breached. But whatever I may think, the result was a lot of smiling faces on the sidelines. And one got the license to breed, especially since one of the females had already been bred by a top rated V-dog.
The next step on this slippery slope is that a dog shows himself affected during the gun fire sureness test. We accept that because the dog has proven himself under a performance judge? Wrong!! Wrong, and more wrong! But who can criticize a judge or call him on the rules?
The way I see it, and I have said this often, it is wrong that board members who have held the same office for years remain in that office even longer. Any individual sports friend would not accept that for himself. But in praxis is apparently quite different and it is accepted.
When I think about all of this I come to the conclusion that many of the fact I have mentioned above have led to the decline of the German Shepherd Dog as a working dog. I am now, as I have always been, of the opinion that we have to try to improve the organizations internally, but in a democratic way and on the basis of a true majority. If that can’t be accomplished members are forced to take their own initiative like in the case of the RSV 2000. Instead of prejudging such initiative it is better to engage in dialogue and to look whether common ground can be found.
I hope for the future of the German Shepherd that people will not disengage further because of some of the things I said above, or worse give up on the German Shepherd. Right now we need every single member. But if we acknowledge that we need the individual member they also have to be listened to. Who will take this challenge?
With greetings in the sport,
Koos Hassing Riethoven

Tags: Koos Hassing Vision, Tiekerhook