[ SHOWGSD-L ] HUNTER'S MONDAY
- From: "Kathaleen Strong" <inflight2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <caggra@xxxxxxx>, <showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:22:22 -0800
_____
From: caggra@xxxxxxx [mailto:caggra@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 12:18 PM
To: inflight2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ SHOWGSD-L ] Re: HUNTER'S MONDAY
The longer I am in dogs and especially handle, the less patience I have for
bad temperment. I have no use for it. However, that being said I can tell
you that I do not necessarily equate being sound sensitive to having bad
temperment or being a "spook".
Here are two examples why:
First - I showed a dog at a previous national that I have shown a lot and
been around a lot. He has great temperment, loves kids, toys, people, even
judges (VBG)....but a previous National was sound sensitive in the big arena
with all the announcements on the microphone etc. Not to the point where he
was on the ground hovering, wanting to die. But definitely very affected by
the sound and wouldn't stand or stay still for nothing. Before that day, if
I were an outsider seeing him act like that I probably would have thought he
was a trained spook or something. But I can tell you that in any other
setting the dog is 100% normal with good temperment. Just a situation to
think about when considering a gun test at the National. I do not think it
is contradictory to say that there are some very sound GSD's that are just
sound sensitive.
Second - I own a dog that also has exceptional temperment. When I take him
anywhere (parks, dog shows, pet expos, vacation, whatever) he is a true
ambassador for our great breed. He is confident, playful, and adores any
person in the world that will pay attention to him. In fact, I call him
"needy" because he craves attention at all times to the point he generally
starts to annoy people after he meets them. However, a few years ago when
we entered him into the GSDCA Temperment Test at a specialty he completely
lost it when they started shooting the gun for other testers. Fortunately
we were last and by then he was numb to the point he wouldn't even look at
me. When it was his turn and the gun went off, he didn't do anything, which
was enough to pass. But the 30 minutes before our turn you would have
thought he was the biggest spook in the country. It was embarrassing.
However, again I tell you in any other situation this dog is as sound as
sound can be. Many of you know who I am talking about and know this to be
fact.
I can see why many think having a gun test at the National is a good thing.
But I feel that because of my experiences with the above dogs, that you
would not necessarily be weeding out bad tempermented dogs. You would just
be weeding out sound sensitive dogs.
JMO,
Jeff Pyle
Okay Jeff:
From the GSD Standard: Lack of confidence under any surroundings is not
typical of good character. Any of the above deficiencies of character which
indicate shyness must be penalized as very serious faults, and any dog
exhibiting pronounced indications of these must be excused from the ring. .
The ideal dog is a working animal with an incorruptible character combined
with body and gait suitable for the arduous work that constitutes its
primary purpose.
You further bring up 2 anecdotes that indicates there maybe be an issue with
sound within our breed that is not being addressed in a some manner.
Possibly dog number one just has a sound sensitivity due to never being in
that situation before - unless EVERY time the dog hears it he/she is
uncontrollable. Dog 2 - Possibly could be the same as dog one, however, the
numbness reaction tells me that there might be more to investigate.
Regardless, if they were my dogs, I would be putting them into other
situations where they are faced with loud noise. If they react the same
each time - Might be a problem that should be thought about before offering
the dog at stud (ie disclose the dog has sound sensitivity), and especially
before deciding on breeding partners. Notice I'm not saying that these
animals shouldn't be bred what I'm saying is this issue needs to be brought
out of hiding so that people are more aware of it PRIOR to making breeding
decisions. I think at the National is the perfect place for it - since a
lot of breeding decisions are made by viewing dogs at the national and/or on
the national tapes.
When its all said and done, we are supposed to be caretakers of the breed -
if we are, then we have to remember that these dogs are also supposed to
serve a purpose outside of being kennel decorations in our back yard. As
breeders, I think we need as much information. Imagine the following:
1) Farmer Jones and King are out gathering the flock in because there
is expected to be a severe storm. To make matters worse, it's close to
lambing season and some of the ewes are still out in the pasture. Farmer
Jones is relying on King to help him gather up the flock to hopefully avoid
loss. Unexpectedly a rogue cloud comes up sooner than expected and - "CRACK
BOOM BANG" - King turns around, eyeballs rolling, looks at farmer Jones and
makes tracks as fast as he can for anywhere but there - running just as bad
as the sheep are. Sheep scatter and he loses some ewes to damage from
running, some lose their lambs, regardless, Farmer Jones is stuck having to
go back and get old Gus his other breed herding dog because that damn german
shepherd is useless. OR
2) Farmer Jones has another gsd, Spike out working as a living fence
keeping the flock on his newly harvested land to do clean up work - and keep
them off his just about ripe cash crop that they love to eat. Rogue cloud
comes up, CRACK BOOM BANG, Spike says. See Ya later Farmer Jones --- and
heads for the hills. Flock enters the cash crop - destroys it, eats too
much and half of them get sick, some die.
3) Serviceman in the field with his dog. Sends the dog out on a
retrieve/message sending/track (whatever work he's doing).
Cannon/Missile/Gun fire starts up. After wigging out the dog goes numb but
stands there totally oblivious to anyone, commands or anything - Serviceman
needs to retreat cause things are getting more dangerous, is stuck trying to
haul the oblivious dog towards safety and he gets hit in the leg.
4) Policeman and K-9 are out doing crowd control at an important
football game. The PA system goes off, "Crackle crackle". Police dog wigs
out - now instead of controlling the crowd, the police officer is trying to
control an out of control dog who is not able to do his job. Police officer
has to go off duty to take the dog out of service, and there's no one else
to take up the spot where he was - and someone gets hurt.
5) A blind person and their guide dog are walking on the street - Out
of the blue, car backfires - guide dog goes berserk and here is the sight of
this poor blind person being pulled willie-nillie down the sidewalk at
break-neck speed.
Of course, it's not too likely that some of these are going to happen,
because yes, most dogs before being pressed into service are proofed and
Tested over and over to insure that they can indeed perform the work. How
many of the above imaginary dogs would make it into service - probably not
many - but we are also looking at another issue. How many of the
traditional work avenues for German Shepherds are being taken over by other
breeds because there is a lack of suitable GSDs being bred to fulfill the
jobs?
Some will argue that if a gun test was instituted at the National - that
this would mean that people would just proof their dogs and therefore it
won't do any good. there is where I disagree - because, like the dog that
Zoe described in the post that started this thread - no matter how much
proofing and training you do - a dog that is very sound sensitive is not
going to be "bomb-proof". Who in their right mind is going to spend
thousands of $$$$ showing dogs, that "MIGHT" not be able to stand up to the
pressure of a simple gun test at home, never mind one at the National in
front of the fancy attending. Furthermore, even if the people do "proof"
their dogs - everyone will know it - because IMO a non-reaction is not a
normal response either (regardless of the dogs who people love to pose their
anecdotes of their animals living close to firing ranges).
Well that's just some thoughts. It's just dialog at this point because
until enough people get on the band wagon, that's where it will stay.
Sincerely,
Kathaleen
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Kathaleen Strong - Inflight Kennels Reg'd - Breeders of:
1995 US GV, AOE-1996 US GVx, Jubilee ROM
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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