[ SHOWGSD-L ] brag...almost (long)
- From: CODAGSD@xxxxxx
- To: showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 09:02:41 EST
CH EJ'S CALAMITY JANE OF CODA OFA(H&E), TC, CGC ("CJ")
Sire: GV CH HICKORYHILL'S BULL DURHAM
Dam: TARA-AIRWAY'S DEMI (Taylor Made dau)
Last August we invited the county K9 police officer to our home to take a
look at our CJ. We had made the hard decision to spay her earlier in the year
(she was 5, soon to be 6 years old) because, despite many attempts to breed
her,
she was never able to have puppies (except the one single stillborn guy the
first time we bred her). We had tests, we went to Dr. Hutchinson, we tried
different procedures...nothing. This remains a great disappointment to us...if
you
knew our CJ, you'd understand.
She is smart and ball-crazy, so it has been easy and fun to do some obedience
with her - not for competition, but because she has an incredibly active mind
and needs something to do. Thinking along those lines after she was spayed,
we contacted the County Sheriff and arranged the meeting last summer. They have
a mandatory retirement age for all K9s of 9 years old, so we didn't think
they would use CJ due to her age... and who knows, maybe she just didn't have
what it takes.
Two officers came and I put CJ through her paces - standard obedience
commands through CDX level (minus the jumps), once with voice only, once with
hand
signals only. They were obviously impressed, but when I answered their FIRST
question (is she American or German lines?..She's American), they wanted to
know
if she had any prey drive. Ha! That question was answered immediately when the
tennis ball came out!! After watching her with the ball for a bit, they asked
if she would search for it if she didn't see where I had thrown it. Believe
me, CJ does that naturally, but I teach all my dogs the "Find It" command -
hiding biscuits and toys in the house when they're on a stay and can't see.
(You
should see their eyes light up when I say "Do you want to play Find It?)
So we turned her around and I threw it when she couldn't see. The officers
watched as she circled the driveway once, came back to a spot at the edge of
the
pavement (where it had bounced once - "She's got where it bounced!!", they
said) and then immediately went in a straight line from that point to the
middle
of the thick fern patch where the ball was. Well, they accepted her on the
spot as a drug detection dog, but one of them wanted to know if she could do
patrol (protection) work as well (generally, their dogs do either, but not
both).
I said she had never been taught (or even seen!) the sleeve, but I again
demonstrated her prey drive by having her sit/stay while I teased her a bit
with
the ball ("Do you want it, do you want it?). She stayed, but literally BIT the
air as she snapped her jaws together and barked wildly. They allowed as how,
yes, she absolutely could be taught protection, but they were short on drug
detectors for the county jail and schools. These dogs also do community
education
and outreach in the schools with kids...something CJ would love. So they
accepted CJ as a Police K9 and she would begin training in November or December.
So...our brag is that CJ was accepted at age 5 (she turned 6 in October) as a
Police K9. The "almost" part is that when they hired a new officer in charge
of training the K9s in late September, one requirement the county has is that
he train from scratch 2 dogs as drug detectors and CJ was not considered
"green" enough...sigh. So as of November, they no longer had a need for drug
K9s
and she probably will be too old when one of them retires.
The good news is that she is still with us, chasing down her beloved tennis
ball every day, making up games with it that only she knows the rules to, and
teaching herself new tricks every so often to entertain both herself and us.
We were willing to give her up because we love her, we are certainly glad to
have her still with us for the same reason.
Thanks for listening.
Sharon
CODA GERMAN SHEPHERDS
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