What a cracking looking dog, and it's a shame that his career has been prematurely ended - but perhaps his retirement would have come up before too long anyway.

Are you saying that the cutbacks mean that dogs are not being trained up at the moment? That's terrible and so short sighted surely...........the dogs do such sterling work out there, and I would have thought that savings could be made in areas that would not have such impact.

I hope that your boy's op goes well, and that he enjoys all the attention and fuss during his recuperation.

thats basically, whats happening, we have a few dogs which should be getting replaced at the moment, but arent.

the way it should be run ,or has been run in the past is when a dog reaches a certain age a pup is obtained then when the pup reached roughly 18 months old it is licenced and takes over from the old dog, without any gaps. this isnt happening now, with the result being , when a dog does retire you either get lucky and find a good gift dog or you have to pay a fortune for a full grown dog bred for purpose.
Whether its a gift or bought dog you still have a gap when the dog is in training, therefore the public lose out.

yeh the herders never really took off, dont know if he still breeds Mals, the mother of my dog was sold to the Met police

He is a stunner, I really hope the operation and his recovery go well. It's brilliant that he is staying with you for his retirement.

Do working dogs retire well? You know how some people love retirement and some people find it very dull, I just wondered how a dog that has been physically and mentally hardworking makes the transition to retirement (sorry if that is a crazy question )

I am sure 5dog will be along to reply to you about his dogs soon, but in my experience (with sheepdogs and police dogs) I have found some dogs do really well and love their slower pace of life and retirement and other dogs go stir crazy and really don't enjoy being the one left at home when a younger dog is taken out to work instead Really sad when that happens.

Thank you Kirsty It seems much like humans then in that it is quite variable. I know some people who love to relax now and others that become quite depressed almost. Having only ever had pet dogs, I've no experience or even thought about how working dogs would react when they no longer have the job to do that they once loved I imagine it might be harder for a dog to suddenly retire as a result of injury, as in this thread, than a dog that is gradually slowing down as it is getting older?

I followed Pepper's pregnancy with this litter. When she was 'nesting' there were quite a few waiting with baited breath. Only met Pepper the once, but she was a beauty. She went on to the Met for their breeding programme.

I met Pepper once at Ian's too, and with this litter, when I went down to collect the bitch pup for Lancashire Police She was a really awesome bitch, full of presence and power.

Had some lively debates with Ian over the years, but might have been a bit less lively had I known that he was built like man mountain

Yeah, tiny he most definitely isn't!