# first working puppy! Guilmon - Endeavor Vom Blutfeuer



## LancerandRara (Oct 22, 2015)

LONG (HAPPY) RAMBLE AHEAD LOL

I've waited 5 years for a proper stable sport dog, and 2 years for a "working shepherd". And I guess it's finally come true.

I've had this small, cute creature for over a month now, but figured I should finally post her here since I will likely be keeping her! This is "Guilmon", pronounced Gi-yo-mon! She was born 7/4/17, so she is currently 13 weeks old. Her sire is Ivon von der Staatsmacht. Dark sable, but currently looking like a sable. This girl is EXTREMELY social (kinda _too_ social LOL), so stable, SUPER nerves, nice fight drive, quite independent, and I think might turn out to be quite a hard dog. Nothing fazes her- she's just a 100% tumbling bundle of forever joy. No anxiety or fear, doesn't give a crap, constant happiness and confidence. :grin2: Might give me a difficult time later on, but we're rollin.

It's been a strange experience owning her. She came to me with basically zero food drive for two weeks (spat out raw steak, would barely take cooked steak... among a variety of other foods I tried back then), low hunt drive, and low prey drive, though still happy and energetic. Without writing too much info... after being thoroughly disappointed, something seemed to just click in her head after 2 weeks. Within 2-3 days, her food drive popped up! Hooray! We've been doing scent pads and heeling nearly every day since then, and her hunt drive is now hilariously impressive. She kind of just drops everything she was hyper and distracted about the moment I drop her on the scent pad, and she gets all serious and down to business... total tunnel vision for the scent pad/track. Very deliberate too. It's super cute!

We're training for IPO first and foremost, found a very impressive and knowledgeable teacher/mentor here (or rather, she found me by coincidence), but will be trying ALL other sports in the future! Mainly excited about starting agility and dock diving once she's a year old or so... looks like fun! And of course, I'll be doing nose work with Guilmon like where I left off with my Aussie. We got a NW1 title a couple months back, and got 1st place overall out of 45 dogs! He placed 1st~3rd in all searches.

She's honestly a really easy puppy, though she was apparently the "wildest" puppy in her litter. This is my first working shepherd/first sport dog, and I was expecting much more craziness and general "hard to handle". But Guilmon is comparable to my Aussie, except for being more vocal and persistent about wanting things. :wub: And enjoying biting things. And that I've actually never seen her sleep, except for the first day she was home. LOL! But otherwise, very easy! Y'all lied to me! 

She learns VERY fast too! She picks up some new things in only a couple repetitions.

I was really disappointed initially, but her drives and focus have only been improving by the day. I'd still like to see much more prey drive when we're outside, and will be working with building it, but we get what we get. We've been doing a TON of engagement due to her desire to explore and general independence, and it has also definitely helped. She may also have just needed an extra long adjustment period. Who knows really!

Okay, LONG INFO RAMBLE OVER, here are some pics! She's quite small, at 19 lbs. Her coat is kind of meh right now... We've been feeding Sport Dog Food, but she has been doing absolutely horrendous on it lol. 5-7 giant piles of poop a day. It's been a poo party.

I also have an instagram for her where we mainly post our training videos (and a ton of crappy iphone pics LOL). So if you want to see some of our heeling, tracking, and other random stuff- here ya go! https://www.instagram.com/guilmon.sportgsd/














































We wake up at 5am to go train with people 1+ hour away.



















and here are pics the day after I got her from her breeder at 9 weeks old: 




























I have to say, I already want another one. Give me a 2nd sport shepherd! (kidding... but maybe in less than 5 years)


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## tim_s_adams (Aug 9, 2017)

She's adorable! Definitely has a totally focused, mischievous look in her eye! Oh, and on that comment about how easy she's been, I look forward to an update at 4-5 months?

Congratulations!


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## Steve Strom (Oct 26, 2013)

She's cute. I've seen video of he sire, but I've never heard of vom Blutfeuer. How did you find her?


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## Evohog (Jul 18, 2017)

LancerandRara said:


>


Beautiful


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## LancerandRara (Oct 22, 2015)

tim_s_adams said:


> She's adorable! Definitely has a totally focused, mischievous look in her eye! Oh, and on that comment about how easy she's been, I look forward to an update at 4-5 months?
> 
> Congratulations!


Haha so I've heard! I'm waiting for the day, but I'll be ready.  thanks!



Steve Strom said:


> She's cute. I've seen video of he sire, but I've never heard of vom Blutfeuer. How did you find her?


Really random, I was just browsing breeders who do IPO on facebook who is mutual friends with existing breeders I'm friends with.



Evohog said:


> Beautiful


Thanks!


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## Castlemaid (Jun 29, 2006)

Congrats!! What a beautiful little pup. Let the big adventure begin!


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## konathegsd (Dec 3, 2016)

tim_s_adams said:


> She's adorable! Definitely has a totally focused, mischievous look in her eye! Oh, and on that comment about how easy she's been, I look forward to an update at 4-5 months?
> 
> Congratulations!


A always found 2-5 months MUCH harder than 5-on haha


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## Steve Strom (Oct 26, 2013)

I guess I miss a lot not being on Facebook, Lol. Have fun with her.


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## Bramble (Oct 23, 2011)

She is adorable! Congrats!

Haha, I found my boy surprisingly easy as well. I was all set for some sort of adorable demon bent of destroying everything and that wasn't the case. I mean he was more intense than say a shih tzu, but not nearly as difficult as I had expected.


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## cloudpump (Oct 20, 2015)

Congrats. I will never own a non working gsd. And I was going to wait longer. But temptation is too great


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## bkernan (May 17, 2009)

That dog is absolutely adorable - congrats! She sounds like she will only exceed your expectations!


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## LancerandRara (Oct 22, 2015)

Castlemaid said:


> Congrats!! What a beautiful little pup. Let the big adventure begin!


Thank you!



Bramble said:


> She is adorable! Congrats!
> 
> Haha, I found my boy surprisingly easy as well. I was all set for some sort of adorable demon bent of destroying everything and that wasn't the case. I mean he was more intense than say a shih tzu, but not nearly as difficult as I had expected.


Right? That's what I was expecting too. My pup is a bit loonier than my aussie was, but honestly not by much, especially with nice management and schedule. People definitely overhype working shepherd pups as these wild demons that "only pros can handle". Especially now I've met more malinois pups who also have great IPO potential, and they really seem like normal puppies who just enjoy tug and food more. I'd say if someone jumped straight into an intense adult dog from never having one, that's what would be more difficult. But starting from puppies and "adjusting" is quite straightforward.



bkernan said:


> That dog is absolutely adorable - congrats! She sounds like she will only exceed your expectations!


Thanks! It can only go up from where we started!


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## wolfstraum (May 2, 2003)

Glad you waited a bit.....some pups can take a while to start showing drives.....


Very cute, she will get darker again

Lee


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## Bramble (Oct 23, 2011)

LancerandRara said:


> Right? That's what I was expecting too. My pup is a bit loonier than my aussie was, but honestly not by much, especially with nice management and schedule. People definitely overhype working shepherd pups as these wild demons that "only pros can handle". Especially now I've met more malinois pups who also have great IPO potential, and they really seem like normal puppies who just enjoy tug and food more. I'd say if someone jumped straight into an intense adult dog from never having one, that's what would be more difficult. But starting from puppies and "adjusting" is quite straightforward.



My previous puppy was lab x australian cattle dog, my GSD had a much better off switch, lol. Yes I think there is some exaggeration about them being overly dominant and that owners have to be super strict of else they will have a dog that just walks all over them unless they slap a prong collar on a 3 month and start show them "whose boss". It took me maybe a week to realize he was just a puppy, not out to try to become the "Alpha" dog, lol. It was funny to see how my family reacted to him though. He went through the customary landshark phase and they were all like "Oh wow he's super dominant you'd better do something about that." I gave up telling them it was a phase. I love how intelligent and mischievous they are, they love to interact with people in a way I hadn't seen in my previous puppies.


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## Tennessee (Apr 13, 2017)

Sounds a whole lot like my pup when I first brought her home. Food meant nothing to her, she'd spit out 4 different kinds of training treats, steak was meh, so was chicken. Her drives were mediocre, she just wanted to play some tug and hang out with us. 

As she's aged, everything changed. She's a whirling dervish that'll pounce on anything dropped in the kitchen, with intense hunt & prey drives. She was born to track, I can lay a track harder than IPO1 and she'll cruise through it no problems. 

I think you've got a whole lotta fun and quite a few bite wounds in your future (LOL) with that BEAUTIFUL girl of yours!


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## Jenny720 (Nov 21, 2014)

She is a pretty thing! Have fun with her!!! Love the gsd pounce!


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## jasonmj58 (Apr 18, 2017)

I would love information about scent work and IPO work for puppies! We have a 10 week old and he has really high drives and I would love to cultivate them.

Do you have books or training materials you suggest?


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## Tennessee (Apr 13, 2017)

jasonmj58 said:


> I would love information about scent work and IPO work for puppies! We have a 10 week old and he has really high drives and I would love to cultivate them.
> 
> Do you have books or training materials you suggest?


 Tracking Dog: Theory & Methods by Glen R. Johnson.

Schuthund village free articles

Both of those will explore a ton of concepts and practices for truly establishing a dog that understands how to real world track.

However, if you're interested in just doing IPO I think it's important to simply train for the competition, at least most of the time, and some of the above is unnecessary to a degree. IPO is a specific sport with specific testing criteria, which don't 100% translate to real world tracking like police/military/SAR. The detail of which are below, but it also doesn't really teach any "bad" habits. So if I wanted to retrain my dog for SAR, I'm comfortable I could go back to the basics with a new command and train some different accepted practices. I'm looking to train my dog in personal protection if she's up for it and a building search would be quite different so we'll see how it goes. 

*Skip over this if it's rehashing old info*
The thing to keep in mind for IPO is that it was the original breed test for the GSD and a dog needed to pass it in order to be bred, to insure the proper working traits of the breed continued on in each generation. (Moving away from this is why we have the show lines and pet quality dogs, which I personally find distasteful but that's another story.) So part of each test is not only showing the ability to perform the skill itself but also perform it in a certain way that in theory prove the dog has the desired traits, as the GSD was always intended to be a perfect balancing act between traits. In protection work for example part of this is the calm/full bite on the sleeve, which shows the dog is aggressive enough to attack if commanded or defend himself but also confident and clear headed enough to not go into full rage/hulk smash mode to do so chewing on the grip/ letting go and reattacking etc. 

In tracking this comes out in how the dog tracks, calm, steady, methodical, nose deep to the ground, never straying from the footsteps. This shows the dog to both clear headed and a steady worker (hunt drive), is working in conjunction with his handler (pack drive) and also proves his "nose" in that he's followed the scent by smell of the ground alone not air scenting or sight. 

Basically it's very ritualized as it's testing 2 things as once (skills AND temperament), unlike real world pursuits where most of the time results matter more than methods. I.e. was the person found? yes, then who cares if the dog was slow and had a "deep nose". Or was the bad guy caught and subdued until the police officer arrived? yes, then who cares if the dog had a "calm full grip".

*If you skipped start reading here again*

Which is my trainer (literally world class btw, by that I mean she's placed & won national competitions and her and her dog represented the US in the Schutzhund World Championships). Started from day one with the following exercise. (do this on medium length grass, like a cut baseball or soccer field for best results. Too high and the dog will get trace scent from the grass brushing against your leg or pants and it will pull the dogs head up, too low and the dog can simply see the treats and it defeats the purpose again)

(secure the dog in place, either tie him to something or have some one hold him while you lay the track. Personally I prefer to do it alone with the dog tied up as it allows her time totally alone with no input to calm herself and think about tracking. She knows what I'm doing now)

Place two leashes on the dog, both attached to the dead ring on the fur saver, and run them behind the front shoulders so that one is on each side. These will be how you control and help steer the dog.

Take a couple steps 3-5 leading up to the "scent pad" ( a scent pad is a fancy term for the smell the dog will be tracking) leaving a small treat in each footstep. I prefer freeze dried liver (as opposed to cheese, hot dogs, or smelly training treats) as it doesn't rot, attract ants, or have a powerful smell that overrides your scent. But anything your dog is excited about eating and thus working to find more of will work.

When you make the scent pad,first place a marker (the little bright orange flags on a thin piece of metal can be bought at Lowes for less than $5 for a lifetime supply) then take your feet and kick down the grass into a triangle and place a small pile of treats at the top of it pointing towards the track.

Then take small measured footsteps preferably close together, placing a couple treats in each footstep. Most people recommend the front of the foot as it gives the dog time to smell through the footstep (back to front) then gets a treat, if your dog is rushing from footstep to footstep or pulling up. Some people say you should mix in placing a treat in the middle of the foot and another at the end. so it goes, smell step, find treat, start to go to the next one then "ooh look at that there's another treat here, better check the full footstep next time"

Some people will also start off sliding their feet or turn around and moon walk placing a treat left -right - left-right like they were walking to really drill home that footstep = treat.

only go a short distance 20-30 steps and place an article, you can look up the exact composition and size of the required articles (wood, carpet and leather cut into exact dimension squares). But a credit card or keys also works. And place a small pile of treats ON TOP of the article as a reward for finding it. 

Important random note, jump away from the track at 90 degrees and walk back to him without crossing the track, you want there to be a distinct break - no more footsteps to follow- when he's done.

To actually 'run' the track you collect your dog, get your leashes in place, choke up a bit so you're kinda close and keep the leashes semi taught so you have control over the dog to steer him (but not to the point you're pulling him back) and start him walking towards the track.

You say nothing other than a calm 'good boy' when he finds the first treats then say your 'track!' command when he gets to the scentpad. Keep him restrained and slow as he works, and try to make sure he finds both left and right treats by pulling on the respective leashes. But don't drag him backwards to find any he might have missed. You should also give very light leash pops left & right as he finds the treats. This trains him not to get distracted if you accidentally pull on the leash during a track, and also allows a non verbal non distracting command to dig his nose deeper and search harder as there might be a treat there! 

When he gets to the end calmly tell him good boy and extricate the leashes and walk away from the track, away from the direction you walked in and never let him track backwards to find more treats. 

Once he's reliably doing that, you can add in turns and more footsteps, Once he's starting to really get this down, start training the lay down when he find the article and reward with cheese or hotdogs when he's calmly staring down at the article.

If any of that didn't make sense or you want more clarification, feel free to send me a PM.

I hesitate to post this but I figure a picture is worth a thousand words... this is aa youtube video of my pup tracking here WARNING TO WATCH ON SILENT IF AROUND KIDS OR WORK as I do curse 1 time in the middle as I got confused and messed her up & I do pull her off the track plenty as I was trying to control both leashes with one hand, not our best work but you'll see all the basics of what I talked about above.


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## jasonmj58 (Apr 18, 2017)

Tennessee said:


> If any of that didn't make sense or you want more clarification, feel free to send me a PM.


I wanted to thank you! I will start right away with some training and see how it goes! This puppy is showing a lot of drive to work and already is fetching at just 10 weeks. I cant wait to see what he is capable of. I got his pedigree and was entering it and found that he is related to Kanto von der Montforthalle on his paternal side. I would love to see if he has any of these qualities in him.


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## Tennessee (Apr 13, 2017)

jasonmj58 said:


> I wanted to thank you! I will start right away with some training and see how it goes! This puppy is showing a lot of drive to work and already is fetching at just 10 weeks. I cant wait to see what he is capable of. I got his pedigree and was entering it and found that he is related to Kanto von der Montforthalle on his paternal side. I would love to see if he has any of these qualities in him.


You're very welcome! I'm always excited about helping a new person get into the dog sport world, the relationship you'll build & the joy you'll get from watching him learn and grow is worth every second of time and penny of money you'll spend.

I'd recommend you get with an experienced dog sport trainer, I did my best to share some knowledge, basic theory/routine, and some "pro tricks" I learned from my trainer. But nothing beats hands on trouble shooting and advice from someone who's there watching *you and your dog*.

I'd also recommend the following book for Schuthund Schutzhund Obedience: Training in Drive by Sheila Booth. It's a great book that focuses on developing then harnessing your pups drives to make training fun & motivational to really bond with your dog.

If you're more of a visual person Ivan Balabanov & Michael Ellis videos are great. They're both equally good. But I've found Ivan to be more here's what I'm doing, the short and sweet of why, now you try it. Apprentice style. While Michael is some of the same but also delves into scientific theory & underlying/connected principles. Feels like you're auditing a Princeton class on dog training LOL. They're pricey but you can get a membership to Bowwowflix for like $12 a month and it works like the original Netflix but with dog training videos.

Good luck & let us know how it goes!!!


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## Steve Strom (Oct 26, 2013)

If you're interested in dog sport and like video, just based on success at the highest levels, I'd go with Ivan's, but also along with what Tennessee said, I'm not big on lectures. Video is good to give you an example, and an idea of how things look, but its no help when something doesn't work or you need to fix problems. That's where you need someone.


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