[ SHOWGSD-L ] Re: Temperament
- From: Elsyd1@xxxxxxx
- To: showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2007 00:44:16 EDT
My experience at the Sieger show was the same as Suzanne's below. Total and
complete confidence, and as far as the dogs are concerned, you are as nothing
to them. They tolerate and ignore. They are glorious. Syd
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In a message dated 9/5/2007 6:58:49 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
tsaligsds@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
Personally I think we still have a long way to go. Having just returned
from Germany and the Seiger Show it is difficult to describe the differences
from here to Europe.
You have to understand the difference in the National and the Seiger show to
get an inkling of the differences in the dogs. There are THOUSANDS of
people squeezed into a stadium, all of them shopping at about the same time
during
breaks. There are dogs everywhere, of all ages, milling in the crowd.
People are CROWDED in like cattle at times.
The dogs are used to those kind of crowds. Step on one, or bump up against
one, and they just look at you and move. Talk to them and they look at you.
In their eyes you do not see aggression. You do not see fear. You just see
an intelligent animal looking AT you; making eye contact. It is almost
disconcerting. You almost feel as if you are in a zoo - and YOU are the one
behind the bars. I did not see one single 'golden retriever' temperament
there.
Even the puppies, while friendly, were aloof to some extent. You might get
a tail wag but that was about it. The adult dogs are approachable - even
when the owners are distracted. Talk to them and walk up and put hands on.
They just stand there. No reaction AT ALL - no waggy tails, no aggression, no
indication that you are even there. Approachable but making NO overtures
[sound familiar - as in the standard?!] Even when the little kids want to
faun
over them they just let it happen but don't really respond. None of
the ow
ners appear to be 'guarding' their dogs as we see a lot at AKC shows.
[Before you explode, I'm just as guilty as anyone else because thats what I
saw
coming up in GSDs - a programmed response.]
If you truly want to see what the temperament of this breed is supposed to
be you have to see it in Germany. Lest you turn this into a German/American
thing I would say that PART of it could be the socialization and owner
expectation. Our dogs, for the most part, do not receive that type of
socialization
because they have restricted public access. Additionally, these dogs are
constantly exposed to people and distractions during training. However, it
can't all be socialization.
My personal opinion is this ......... you cannot JUDGE a thing if you have
no point of comparison. Unless you have been exposed to both European and
American lines, you have no point of comparison other than other AKC breeds.
We
have GREAT temperaments compared to other AKC breeds...............
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