When I first started dog training it was all chokers & force & tug & pull & push way back in the 1950's

I've been involved with the BAGSD(BAA as it originally was BTW) & for the past 10 years plus they have been against the use of chokers at their branches. They do not exist just for obedience training clubs, but for conformation, better breeding & better understanding of the breed not only by the GP but also the owners. They have been at the forefront of good training methods for a long time. I'm currently Show Secretary of one of their Area Obedience shows

As for using harnesses for"training"you have little or no control of a dogs head using a harness & doesn't "cure"pulling at all. A harness on a GSD other than for tracking or GDBA dogs is a potentially dangerous thing(seen it happen)

As for GSD rescue, using the "old"methods never worked on "damaged"dogs, doG knows I retrained & rehabilitated enough of them in conjunction with a GSD rescue & have seen first hand the results of the"old"school of training including the use of smacking & "tapping"on young dogs & puppies

As for other dogs affecting a non aggressive dog & making it become aggressive-sorry there must have been an underlying weakness in the dogs character. I had a GSD male(that I bred)he was a very dark dog(almost a bi colour)& all his life he had dogs attack him for no reason other than the other dogs were dog aggressive. I used him as a "stooge"dog & no matter what any other dog did to him he never ever retaliated or even growled, this included him being attacked in Obedience show stays on more than one occasion(once whilst he was sleeping in the C down stays)

Well we've got no idea if she is 14, 15 or older...I have no problems with the questions people have asked her like Patch mentions or else people can't help with advice, it's just the calling someone a troll and getting at them for 'i' instead of I before they have had time to get a real feel for the place.

He is allowed to have insight of breeds he has virtually no experience of because he`s your guru but Wys and presumably no one else can ? Double standards GSDLover...


With respect, I know her a lot better than you do. For her, `walking one` is not about just having a dog on the end of a lead, she observes more about each individual dog on one walk than most dog owners learn about their own dog in years.


Its called debate. People offer their own experiences - do you ask everyone to give you documented proof signed by witnesses of every experience a posters talks about ? Do you offer that yourself to back up your opinions ?
Now, I for one, find your blogs interesting but I don`t ask you for links or written witness statements to back up your thoughts and opinions

Your clear and often stated dislike and lack of understanding of what you think of as soft methods speaks for itself.
As for assumption, when it comes to your trainer who built a picture of himself and his methods for all to see, having seen for myself the results of his `training` on one dog, and what you say yourself in blogs about working with Blondi, I think I have a basis on which to come to my `opinions`


Please give a brief outline of clicker training, its aims and application as per your own specific experience. If you have tried it you will be able to answer easily.
Please also explain three of Blondi`s most used calming signals, what they are and what they indicate or what you perceive them to indicate.

I ask those in terms of giving you the opportunity to back up your experience of the ethos [ positive training is not just one method which you would know if you have indeed tried a range of positive techniques...].
Just giving you the opportunity to answer in the same way you complain of Wys having opinions you don`t think she has the experience to have

This is a discussion forum, we can`t all give encyclopaedic depths all encompassing insights, we have to generalise - its the differing opinions which give the broader picture of a breed, a training method, nutrition, whatever, and people take from those combined what they want, need, or consider applicable to their individual dog.

That is not whats been suggested at all, you really are reading things in to comments which are simply not there.

Not one person has said `all GSD owners are the same`, if they did I would be jumping on it myself as a past Alsatian owner plus the experience I have of living with my fathers working Alsatians, and the countless other Alsatians I have had the pleasure of knowing from friends dogs to behavioural to teaching Agility to teaching basic Obedience over the last goodness knows how many years.
Believe me if I thought I was being lumped in I would be getting very loud about it but all that has been said is that there is a prevalent training ethos within the breed, not that everyone in it rigidly uses that `style`.

You have, I fear, completely lost me on the logic of that answer. Sorry, who is my guru? In fact, who is my trainer? Do you mean Rob Alleyne? If so, sorry but your point is beyond even laughable, but I'll be sure to pass your thoughts on to him, being as we share a similar humour.

If I lowered myself to state, "GSDs dont often get back at their owners - they just take it." in an already heated topic, where there was more than one GSD owner partaking, you bet your life, I would have hard fact to support it first!

Not clearly enough, obviously. I don't actually resent them per se, and I repeat, I even use some of them. What I strongly resent is the one-sided blanket view that exists and is growing in the dog training arena. That being that the new 'soft' methods are the only way, or the best way. All other methods are now simply rubbished as being out-of-date and cruel. Absolutely ludicrous in my view.

lol I can see why you want to go down this route. I'm not going to defend Rob against you. I know he wouldn't feel the inclination to do so and so I'm sure I won't waste my time doing so.

You're going from the sublime to the ridiculous now. I'm on trial? No, wait, my dog is on trial? No hang on a second, my dog and I and 'our trainer' are on trial? Methinks you have an over-inflated view of your own importance, at least your importance to me.

If I sat here and made a blanket statement like, I don't know, my GSD is the best all-round trained GSD out of all those I've ever seen, based on those I've walked, seen at shows and trained, I'd expect to have to defend myself. But I realise that even if that were true, the limited context of walking a dog and seeing a dog at shows will never show you a full realm of behaviour traits. Indeed I would expect you to find it as bizarre as I find Wys's blanket statement already outlined above.

Please, I hate to be flippant, but you're killing me now. Mind your ankle as you step down from that great height. Tell me you don't really think you are so important that I have to answer that to you. Do you? Or is it one of those "hah, you see, he can't answer it" type things that arrogant people such as myself commonly become victim to?

Which is great, until 'we' start to garnish it to make it appear like fact. It is NOT fact that "GSDs dont often get back at their owners - they just take it", it is NOT fact that choke collars are cruel. It is NOT fact that tapping yer dog on the backside is cruel either. If it were not so frequently dressed up as such, then I doubt that you and I would have half the collisions that we do have.

Hi Guys - can you point me to the post where she says she is 14? We don't allow registration to under 18s (although I think I changed it to 17 a while ago).

Hi Azz, I've not seen a post where she says she is 14, I was just putting two and two together, she said in another thread that her best friend died in a fire, I remember this story on the TV and the girl that died was only 14, along with her name Hannah92, my thinking was this was her year of birth, I'm sorry if my assumptions have caused any anguish or annoyance to anyone, I was just putting two and two together.
Christine

I think people have just assumed 14 or 15 because of the '92 in Hannah's screen name.

Azz it doesn't say that in the FAQ.

Go into FAQ, and use the search sysytem to look for 'age' or 'register'. Right at the bottom of the results read what it says under 'Why should I register?'.
It says under 13 ok with consent.
That needs changing I think.

I've just been through every single post she's made (and you know how much I hate doing that! ) and I see no mention of her saying her age at all.

One thing I did find was:

I don't know many 14 year olds who go to collect the puppy from the breeder, and who have friends and relatives that do the same. I think a LOT of assumptions have been made to be honest. Possibly by the lack of 'netiquette'.

There's only one sure way to find out. Each of us state how much pocket money we get a week.

I don't know many professional breeders that do all the appropriate health tests and only register the dogs with DLR !