Best producing DDR studs - Page 11

GSDguy08,

The biggest problem with most of the DDR lines being bred in the US currently, is that they are owned by people who don't title their own dogs and don't sell to people who title/work their dogs. There are, of course, notable exceptions to this ;) but you typically don't see them advertised as much as the "DDR puppies, huge bone, black sable, substance, blocky, blah blah, can do SAR" racket.

This is not to say that the lines being bred by these people CAN'T work, there's just tends to be no definite proof to their working ability and as a result they tend to get sold to pet homes. A great example would be me and my dog... :-/ I bought him before I realized how the game was played...he comes from untitled parents and I am at best a working dog newbie. However, he does have very high prey drive, high biddability and it definitely is genetic (in relation to Jenni's post above ;-) ) as he had not been worked at all for the first two years of his life, had had no "drive-building", no obedience, no bitework. Clean slate. Third day of ownership and he was knocking me down to get the ball, fighting me so hard for the tug that he punched me in the face with his paw (his favorite trick-it works so well!). When we practice OB he performs fast fast fast and flashy, focused, and happy. I'm pretty sure that the quality of his OB is mostly his talent and not mine Recently, he stopped a carjacking (Greensboro, NC is the armpit of America)... When my summer has calmed down after this crazy wedding, we're going to start up some more advanced training. Maybe Schutzhund, maybe something else, I'll let a more qualified person evaluate him.

Go through the ddrlegends.com archives, make friends with the few people who work their DDR breeding stock and sell to working homes, and you'll find out which lines are stable, which lines have prey drive, which lines can work , which have high civil aggression. Just because a few people have taken the pretty dogs and bred more pretty puppies, doesn't mean the rest of the dogs can't do work or sport.

~Amanda

He did not have a lot of prey drive as a pup, plain and simple. We worked at bringing it up and out, and we worked hard at it. The end result of that is he became very equipment focused, which we worked to change and we have. All dogs are born with the same drives to a certain degree, some have more than others, and it is up to the owner to bring those drives out. All the dogs you see on the podium did not come out that way, they were develpoed, trained and conditioned. I think at times we tend to over look the puppy that is not quite as "crazy" as the next, but puppies can and do change and they change a lot, and what you see at  3 weeks isn't always what you see at 5 weeks.

As for him being aloof, he can be given the situation and circumstance.

I think in reality most dogs are conditioned to give a certain response. The conditioned response comes through training.

theresa

I liked the looks of most of the Puck stuff I have seen. He made some of the darkest sables going. I just never saw or heard of any with decent drive or that could excel in bite work. Handsome dogs but not really working dogs. When I speak to guys who had DDr dogs in the early 90's and mid 90's they talk and show videos of big strong young dogs that excelled like no others in bitework and as real dogs. I wonder why all of that has been lost in todays DDR lines or what is left of that blood.
I looked at some videos of Jim  Ballenger and his DDr dogs at my friends a few weeks ago and they where some serious dogs but good looking as well, and Howell (I forget his first name) was also on the video he had a few DDR dogs and he and the Delaware State Police where on the video together with DDR dogs . They where monsters in the bite work and appeared to have as much drive as any dogs you see today of any lines. Are these dogs not to be found any more???

I respectfully disagree about puppies changing that much, unless someone is not looking at the right things. To judge a 3 week old or even a 5 week old is premature at best, but I stand by my opinion that you have a pretty damn good idea what a pup is like by 6-8weeks and I have yet to see one change in the areas I look at when they're that age. If you can't read their temperament correctly at that age, how can you possibly place them correctly??

I did a few experiments with a few dogs to prove how much temperament/drive is genetic...sometime when I'm bored I will post them. They're kind of interesting. The very short version is a dog I never  played ball with and intentionally never allowed to interact with any other people is an extremely social dog with insane prey drive and was purchased from me at almost 3 years old (COMPLETELY GREEN in terms of bitework- never seen a tug or sleeve) for a dual purpose K9. They especially liked that he was stable enough to do the job and be on SWAT and live with the handler's toddlers. THAT is genetics- I did everything "wrong" to prove a point.

Sure, you can condition, but then say it was hard work and be proud of it, but you have to remember the clean slate you started with and keep in mind that's who the dog really is in terms of drives, if we must continue to pigeon hole every dog behavior into one drive or another.

Now that I'm done irritating people who won't agree w/my opinion (which is absolutely fine- just pointing out another side to the coin!), I have to finish letting my dogs out. ;-)