# itty bitty brag...



## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Couldn't find a better place for this. An old breeder once said, it is not what you do with your dogs, but what others are able to do with your dogs. And so, here goes. 

I have a friend who has a bunch of my dogs. Yes, 4 is a bunch. She had five of them, but let one go to a friend with a small kid. Two of them are not really mine, as she bred the two she got from me, and they are two of them. But it still seems like a bunch of my dogs. And she has found sent me many friends and customers and acquaintances for dogs. 

She works, owns, does a lot with people with physical and mental challenges. She has often told me how she is working with an autistic client and QT (the pup she let go to her friend). And she sent me a photo of Gus (the boy she got from me) in the midst of about 45 young clients. 

The other day, I was talking to her, and she and her trainer and one of the folks who works for her or with her, who has another of my dogs, are using my dogs to teach the people that they work with how to approach dogs, and how to walk dogs. These people really can be a problem for dogs, because they do not understand that they should not run right up to them or put their arms around them, etc. And, some have motions and stuff that can make dogs a little nervous as they are odd to dogs. 

I guess it is cool to hear how QT, Nova, and Gus have been used to help people with challenges. A good dog is a good dog. Our dogs do not all have to be willing to sink their teeth into a helper to show proper temperament, and have the kind of solid nerves that make them capable of being trusted around people that may not be predictable all the time.


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## Pirates Lair (Aug 9, 2011)

selzer said:


> Couldn't find a better place for this. An old breeder once said, it is not what you do with your dogs, but what others are able to do with your dogs. And so, here goes.
> 
> I have a friend who has a bunch of my dogs. Yes, 4 is a bunch. She had five of them, but let one go to a friend with a small kid. Two of them are not really mine, as she bred the two she got from me, and they are two of them. But it still seems like a bunch of my dogs. And she has found sent me many friends and customers and acquaintances for dogs.
> 
> ...





100% , Congratulations!!



Kim


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## tim_s_adams (Aug 9, 2017)

That's a great point, solid nerves is the key really for all types of work. Congratulations!


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## Quinnsmom (Dec 27, 2008)

selzer said:


> I guess it is cool to hear how QT, Nova, and Gus have been used to help people with challenges. A good dog is a good dog. Our dogs do not all have to be willing to sink their teeth into a helper to show proper temperament, and have the kind of solid nerves that make them capable of being trusted around people that may not be predictable all the time.


 
Excellent point - I'm always delighted to hear how versatile our GSDs can be. I volunteered with St. John Ambulance Therapy Dogs for many years and we had a couple of standout GSDs on the roster. They were very engaged with the elderly in long term care facilities and calm around wheelchairs, medical equipment and unusual behaviours. Many folks we visited were rural people, and our GSDs reminded them of farm dogs they had grown up with and loved.
Congrats to QT, Nova and Gus for their special talents and training!


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## ksotto333 (Aug 3, 2011)

It's nice to hear good things about stable dogs with good temperaments. Go Browns, but most of all Roll on Tribe, this is a fun season!


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## car2ner (Apr 9, 2014)

I love your stories. My big boy does well with people, too. He doesn't seek out attention but accepts it graciously...and if he gets bored he might get a bit impish and try to get a smile out of someone. My mom is recovering from leg surgery and we were able to bring him into the rehab center. That means it will take a good 20 minutes to get down the hall with all the "Is he friendly?" and " may I touch him?" and such. He did so well with the busy staff and the wheel chairs and laying down to wait while we chatted before even getting to see "grandma". 

We don't necessarily want to our beloved GSDs to be "pointy nosed Labradors" but having one with good people skills is wonderful!


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

ksotto333 said:


> It's nice to hear good things about stable dogs with good temperaments. Go Browns, but most of all Roll on Tribe, this is a fun season!


:grin2: Yep, I am smiling ear to ear, 101 wins and counting. Having the Indians is perhaps a recompense for what we will have to endure until December wears away, and we can look at draft picks and hope, yet again for next year. But the Indians, what a ride this year has been. I want a that meme of Chief Wahoo, tastefully done, nude, with the words, We're Streaking! on a T-shirt. Would I wear it to work on a scruffy Friday, that is the question.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

car2ner said:


> I love your stories. My big boy does well with people, too. He doesn't seek out attention but accepts it graciously...and if he gets bored he might get a bit impish and try to get a smile out of someone. My mom is recovering from leg surgery and we were able to bring him into the rehab center. That means it will take a good 20 minutes to get down the hall with all the "Is he friendly?" and " may I touch him?" and such. He did so well with the busy staff and the wheel chairs and laying down to wait while we chatted before even getting to see "grandma".
> 
> We don't necessarily want to our beloved GSDs to be "pointy nosed Labradors" but having one with good people skills is wonderful!



I know labs are very popular. More litters and pups registered than any other breed by leaps and bounds, for what 10 years? 15? 20? I find a connection with shepherds, even brief ships passing in the night, something about the expression of intelligent emotion that maybe I don't see in other dogs, because other dogs rarely interest me at all. Goldens have it. The labs I have seen just don't. They will shove their soggy ball in your lap a hundred times in a row, and I suppose some might find appeal in that. I like a shepherd who has to decide whether you are worth a sniff and a polite tail wag, whether you deserve to pet their sleek but hairy coat, and if they should ask you to scratch their butt. 

Yes, they are not pointy-nosed/ear'd labs. A good shepherd is not a bull in a china shop around old people or the very young. They do understand stuff, or they read us extremely well. Moreso than other breeds. I have seen hyper young shepherds change in a moment into the perfect nurse or nanny around a frail person or a baby/small child. And even young dogs, untrained, that were not raised with children, can just know to be careful with the small ones. When I remember the not yet 2 year old Cujo walking carefully with a little girl, just learning to walk, hand on his butt, following him through the house -- there is something there, something alive and working in the noggin of a German Shepherd. 

When I was a kid, long before I had any purebred GSDs, my mom brought home a stray bitch-pup that her aunt had been feeding. The dog was a shepherd-hound mix. She was a great dog. Bit the Dominos guy who ran up onto the porch to deliver a flier, and startled my brother and the dog who were sleeping on the porch. But she had those soulful eyes of a shepherd. That expression that said she understood stuff. The water lady had to read the meter, and so she went on the porch to ask my mother to bring the dog in. My mom sent my six year old sister, who was always small and sickly, out to bring the dog in, while the lady hit behind the car. Princess. Could have dragged Lisa down the street after the lady, but she didn't. I was a teenager when we got Princess. I would take her out rambling in the woods, or down the streets of the village at night. She would run up on people's porches and eat their cat food. And when we got down to Lawson's she would wait outside for me and get a day-old chocolate donut for waiting. One day a small child was walking her mother, and asked me, "May I pet your dog." I could not say no, so I said yes, a little nervous as to how Princess would behave. She was perfect, very quiet, very careful, accepted the girl's pets politely. I dunno. Some people really don't want the crazy ball-dog.


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## car2ner (Apr 9, 2014)

amen Selzer


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## ksotto333 (Aug 3, 2011)

selzer said:


> :grin2: Yep, I am smiling ear to ear, 101 wins and counting. Having the Indians is perhaps a recompense for what we will have to endure until December wears away, and we can look at draft picks and hope, yet again for next year. But the Indians, what a ride this year has been. I want a that meme of Chief Wahoo, tastefully done, nude, with the words, We're Streaking! on a T-shirt. Would I wear it to work on a scruffy Friday, that is the question.


Wear it! No one will frown. Can't wait for October games to start. 
On the other subject my lovely 6 year old will sit in front of anyone with her ball in her mouth or under her paw for hours. Nothing makes her happier than the thrill of the chase, worse than either of the Labs I had. Della loves fetch but only when we want to do it. So different from each other.


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## Nigel (Jul 10, 2012)

Good job on your pups! I do agree, they can demonstrate solid character in many ways.

My dad really disliked German shepherds. I didn't find this out until after getting my two girls. My older siblings tell me we had one when I was very young and when dad returned from Vietnam the introduction didn't go so well. There was the incident where I was bitten by my uncles GSD while visiting their dairy farm in Wisconsin, I was about 4-5 at the time. Zoey didn't help matters either with her air snapping excitement at the slightest hint of a game. He didn't understand this behavoir and thought she was nuts.

Fast forward a number of years my dad was diagnosed with cancer and his treatment would side line him from working on his "ranch". I came out to help often and dad was always agreeable to me bringing my gsds along despite his impression of them. He did his thing and they ignored him. 

A fire swept through part of his property and left a number of dead trees that needed to come down. The DNR did an assessment and also recommend he remove a few more from near his house to create a better fire barrier.

I came out to do the work and this was when his impression changed. As I set up to drop each tree, I placed Zoey in a down in a safe position about 20' or so from where I was cutting. The trees came crashing down and Zoey didn't react in the slightest, dad was impressed. When it was time to skid the logs He asked how'd she react to his tractor as its loud and his dogs didn't like it, but again Zoey had no issues with it, she was nonchalant about everything going on.

He warmed up to her considerably that day even taking a few breaks to sit next to her giving her a scratches. My wife, who had shown up in the middle of it all was shocked to see them together interacting like they were buds all along. 

I believe he saw Zoey in a different light. He saw a calm confident dog and it eased his concerns. She wasn't just a crazy dog who bites the air, but that there is a whole other side to her, as he said it while petting her, "she's not so bad".
.


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## newlie (Feb 12, 2013)

selzer said:


> I know labs are very popular. More litters and pups registered than any other breed by leaps and bounds, for what 10 years? 15? 20? I find a connection with shepherds, even brief ships passing in the night, something about the expression of intelligent emotion that maybe I don't see in other dogs, because other dogs rarely interest me at all. Goldens have it. The labs I have seen just don't. They will shove their soggy ball in your lap a hundred times in a row, and I suppose some might find appeal in that. I like a shepherd who has to decide whether you are worth a sniff and a polite tail wag, whether you deserve to pet their sleek but hairy coat, and if they should ask you to scratch their butt.
> 
> Yes, they are not pointy-nosed/ear'd labs. A good shepherd is not a bull in a china shop around old people or the very young. They do understand stuff, or they read us extremely well. Moreso than other breeds. I have seen hyper young shepherds change in a moment into the perfect nurse or nanny around a frail person or a baby/small child. And even young dogs, untrained, that were not raised with children, can just know to be careful with the small ones. When I remember the not yet 2 year old Cujo walking carefully with a little girl, just learning to walk, hand on his butt, following him through the house -- there is something there, something alive and working in the noggin of a German Shepherd.
> 
> When I was a kid, long before I had any purebred GSDs, my mom brought home a stray bitch-pup that her aunt had been feeding. The dog was a shepherd-hound mix. She was a great dog. Bit the Dominos guy who ran up onto the porch to deliver a flier, and startled my brother and the dog who were sleeping on the porch. But she had those soulful eyes of a shepherd. That expression that said she understood stuff. The water lady had to read the meter, and so she went on the porch to ask my mother to bring the dog in. My mom sent my six year old sister, who was always small and sickly, out to bring the dog in, while the lady hit behind the car. Princess. Could have dragged Lisa down the street after the lady, but she didn't. I was a teenager when we got Princess. I would take her out rambling in the woods, or down the streets of the village at night. She would run up on people's porches and eat their cat food. And when we got down to Lawson's she would wait outside for me and get a day-old chocolate donut for waiting. One day a small child was walking her mother, and asked me, "May I pet your dog." I could not say no, so I said yes, a little nervous as to how Princess would behave. She was perfect, very quiet, very careful, accepted the girl's pets politely. I dunno. Some people really don't want the crazy ball-dog.


Oh, I don't know. The majority of Labs may be as you say, but not all. This may cause collective gasps and moans, but I am always more interested in the individual dog than the breed.

My Max was a yellow Lab and he was a sweetheart, always gentle and kind. Oh, he loved balls alright, but was no where near as obsessed with them as Newlie is. I remember the first time family came over to my house after I had Max and the interaction between him and a little boy I did not know well either, he was related to one of the in-laws. The little boy was maybe 3 or so and I saw him fee Max a piece of cracker or something and I got a little nervous, you know, big teeth, little fingers. I showed the little boy how to put something on the flat of his hand and put it straight out for Max to eat, but the little boy kept forgetting and it wasn't long before I saw I had nothing to worry about. The little boy sat on Max's dog bed with him and I will never forget the picture the two of them made, the tiny child and that dog who was three times his size with a massive head. The little boy proceeded to feed Max crumbs, literally crumbs, and Max was so gentle and licked the crumbs from between the child's fingers. Not a mark on that child's hand when he left, not even accidental. Max was a good boy who was everybody's friend and it broke my heart when he died.


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## Dunkirk (May 7, 2015)

I have seen hyper young shepherds change in a moment into the perfect nurse or nanny around a frail person or a baby/small child. And even young dogs, untrained, that were not raised with children, can just know to be careful with the small ones.

My male hasn't been raised around children. One time when I was out, my son had a friend with his 6 month baby girl visit. Nitro was captivated with her, and adored the face slapping and her tiny finger inserted way up his nostril. I was horrified when I got home and found out what had happened in my absence.

A friend with a shepherd broke her foot and for a while needed a cane to hobble around. On one occasion it was quicker for her to move without bothering with her cane, her (untrained) shepherd gave her a look and brought the cane to her.


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