Of course it depends on the line, but often working line dogs won't develop
defensive drives until older. Prey drive, yes, but that is only part of the
story. My two Czech dogs were bred to have what we call an on/off switch. They
are able to live in the house, go to the dog food store etc without being nuts.
The big difference is that they are smart and like to work and can handle the
pressure of IPO training. I would be of the opinion that an 18 month old dog
just doesn't have it all together yet to be considered fully ready for duty.
Trained, yes, but probably lacking discernment skills that come with maturity.
It is possible to burn a dog out that has too much pressure at a young age.
Cynthia
Sent from my iPad
On Aug 7, 2015, at 7:03 PM, Carolyn Martello <marhaven@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
IMO one of the problems with this Breed is that they can appear to be all
grown up
at 18 months and easily finish their Championship, etc....and people expect a
lot out
of them because they LOOK like adults. But... putting them on the Street as
a working
protection/police dog sounds... 'not right'.
As Ed said....especially males at 18 mos....they are still a bit of a 'dufus'
and definitely not
totally 'street reliable'. Takes more than 18 mos. of actual training
anyway I would think.
Possibly the announcement was written wrong and he has been obtained, and is
'on the street' as part of his training...........?
Carolyn marhaven@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.marhaven.com
On Behalf Of Evan Ginsburg (Redacted sender "elg440@xxxxxxx" for DMARC)
Subject: Police Dog on the street at 18 months?
-----Original Message-----
From: edwinx <edwinx@xxxxxxxxxxx>Subject: [ SHOWGSD-L ] Police Dog on the
street at 18 months?
My city, Brentwood California just announced today that it has its first
Police dog, an 18 month old German Shepherd Dog imported from Czechoslovakia
.... Haven't been involved actively with protection/police dogs for over 20
years now, but from my memory and experience 18 month old dogs are generally
not street reliable , for those of you who still do IPO/Protection work ,have
things changed? 18 month old males are usually still goofs! Ed
Destiny, Dragon Slayer and Dakota were all finished by 18 months old. Of
course, those were American lines.
Evan
