"I'm Not looking for a showdog" - Page 3

Dear spook: Not you again. Oh well, here goes another round. I own three crates. They are like my three guns. I own them but I choose wisely when to use them. You would probably be out in the back yard shooting sparrows because they crap on your lawn. Same way you would use a crate because you are too lazy to train your dog to not chew up your furniture. There have been many dogs such as SAR, Circus Dogs, Movie Star dogs, etc, that came from shelters. You obviously are an elitist who thinks that everyone in prison is a no good, dirty criminal, or that any one who is a Muslim is evil and we should kill them all and let God sort them out. This thread started out by talking about someone who wanted a "pet", not a potential WUSV Champion. Again, you "made the leap" from my point to your point. I was discussing someone who stated they wanted to pay a cheaper price for a "pet" quality dog. You somehow, in your infinite, holier than thou, dog world wisdom, brought that around to champion dogs. I would ask you to explain how you came around that circle, but I am really not interested in how your mind works. I have read many of your previous posts and it is obvious that you are a lonely person, who has emotional and stability problems, and feels the need to start a fight every chance you get, to fulfill your life, and I don't care to participate in fulfilling your life, so, okay, you are right and I am wrong, again. You win. Bye Bye.

Do Right...we are just going to have to keep respectfully disagreeing on this one. There are some dogs that come from the pound that some lucky people have found, with whom I would agree are good dogs (I have not met ANY, but I am sure there are SOME). But I, personally, have NEVER seen a papered import dog in the pound. Perhaps in your neck of the woods, there are wishy washy millionaires, buying imported dogs and casually discarding them. I don't believe that the dogs you are talking about are easy to find in the regular pounds across the country. The best dogs I have ever had, have been carefully-bred, well-bred dogs, from dedicated breeders. I've tried the others--the ones that need a home and I tried to give them one over the years. I've picked them up off the road, cleaned them up, doctored, medicated, and then sent them on to other people whose expectations were not as high as mine. These other people were glowingly happy with a dog who had the I.Q. and inclinations of a door stop. I am not so easily pleased with a dog as that. My dad bought a GSD pup from one dog owner-breeder and breeder (BYB?) for me when I was a kid (about 35 year ago). She DID turn out to be a great dog, but if you looked at the hand written pedigree they sent along with the puppy, there in the third and fourth generation-- Titled imported German dogs galore.

Baby Eagle-- I think horses are different. You can find great horses on the cheap much easier than dogs, I think. I've gotten some great bargains on horses who also had good breeding to great breeding, from sale barns to private sellers. Often it involved breaking them to ride myself-- many people just don't want to bother with that, but (USUALLY!) it's pretty easy to do. I've seen Thoroughbreds go cheap at the Thoroughbred Breeders Sale in Little Rock, Arkansas (it's been years now, though) and they were great horses!

There have been many dogs on Petfinder that appear to be purebred GSD's and I've seen pther photos of rescued dogs that appear to be well bred. Just a few weeks ago a sable bitch that looked line a working line was on Petfinder. I wsas told that someone in Texas recently rescued a V rated GSD bitch and another I know of took a Sch III bitch out of another shelter in Texas. I have to think the same thing happens elsewhere. They aren't all junkyard dogs.

your right Blitzen.. I had the pleasure of "adopting" a mighty fine young Rottie from the East Shore Shelter... he was a hard dog and handler aggressive but he cleaned up his additude just fine. He's now serving with Russian Customs neutered and loved.

Marlene and Melanie, I did the same thing once as well but only once. I don't breed very much and not much in the last 4 years as I don't like the way the alot people in this breed are doing. Anyway, My biggest mistake was "giving" one of my pups away to one of my doctors. I've known her for a long time and she's not a rich doctor but she makes a hell of a lot meore than me. Anyway, got a call from her about 7 months later and she told me that I gave her an "ill" dog. Being concerned I went to take a look at him to make suggestions. When I arrived I witnessed a very beautiful dog in pitiful condition. She was feeding him Pedigree and used bio-spot for flea control. I told her he had to have better food and to use a product like Frontline Plus instead. Her response was he's a dog. And that was it. I laid awake at night trying to figure out how to get him out of there but I found no way to do so. The sad thing is this person clearly has enough money to feed him well and provide for his comfort but chose not to. I guess some maybe a lot of people don't consider their pets as family. Birdy...

Sorry for the bad sentence structure. I wish we could edit posts here. my bad, Birdy...

AK Veronica wrote: "The best dogs I have ever had, have been carefully-bred, well-bred dogs, from dedicated breeders." Yah, well, with the sheer number of you folks (the generic "you", not any 'you' specifically) who have jumped into the business of producing offspring from the "carefully-bred, well-bred" dogs that were purchased, it's no surprise to anyone who can do some ciphering that a good number of those offspring are ending up as 'pound puppies', whether the breeders recognize it or not. What, exactly, makes a 'pound puppy' what it is? It's breeding/background? Nope. Deny it if you like, but the majority of the dogs I was fostering and/or pulling out of shelters when I was active in rescue back East weren't 'backyard breeding' type dogs...they were the offspring of European highlines and working lines dogs as well from North American showlines dogs. Shall we talk about the contributions made to rescue and the pounds by those who purchase "carefully-bred, well-bred" young dogs and then go on to breed those dogs, despite a lack of titling & breed surveying, solely on the basis of what the parents' credentials were? I'll grant that finding a 'well bred' dog in a shelter that's located in a rural or economically depressed area is unlikely, but check into those organizations on either US coast, or near larger cities and better economic circumstances, and you'll be surprised--and depressed--by what you find there in the way of quality of GSDs.

Blitzen-- That is just it, what the dogs actually are is often not evident until you've taken the dog into your home. I just have NOT had any luck there at all myself, nor can I remember ever personally meeting anyone who has had the kind of great good fortune mentioned here--except from those persons who are, as I said before, very happy with a dog whose IQ and inclinations resemble a doorstop. Also, it has been quoted concerning all the fine dogs that are found, but you are talking about a widely flung national network of knowledgable dog people here. I still believe that these discovered good dogs do not represent what is commonly experienced with pound or rescue dogs. As for rescue dogs, I have had several people (I have lost count) who call looking for a healthy dog, who have owned rescue dogs which they found to be in poor health after they adopted them. These people have sunk great amounts of money into improving the health of a mediocre dog, and never want to do it again. I think many of you have heard many of these kinds of stories too. I am not against adopting pound dogs, rescue dogs, or picking a homeless dog up off the street. I have done that myself. Saying that you can EASILY find a dog who is just as good as what a dedicated breeder can produce is extremely unrealistic.

Hexe--how many of your foster dogs ended back up in the pound, or back in rescue? That has sometimes been an issue for rescued dogs here, and demonstrates that neither dedicated rescue workers nor dedicated breeders can control what happens to a dog after it leaves them, no matter what their best efforts are. You can only do the best that you can do. I interview buyers, and I sell my puppies microchipped, now tattoed, list myself as the backup contact for the microchip registry, email them or even send them "how's it going" letters via snail mail. I state in my contract that I will take them back if the owners are experiencing issues in life and cannot take care of their dog. Dedicated breeders do that. A generic blanket of blame cannot be spread over all breeders. I have seen a rise in responsibility on the part of breeders in the last several years. I shall have to respectfully disagree with those who believe that there are many good dogs in the pound or in rescues who can EASILY be found who are as good as what you can get from a dedicated breeder. I have not had that experience, and have not met anyone with that experience in person. I have, however, put a lot of time and money into rescued dogs who were below what I look for in a dog, to give them away to someone else in improved health.