My adopted daughter

And this is me...

See, my best side..... nicely preportioned.... (a Dobie should be square under the legs),

back nice and straight (no saddle or hump back),  angle of the head and the nose the same, good stout legs that'll take my weight, and a beautiful sissor bite Front top & bottom teeth meet (not over or under shot)

Then checkout my chest....nice-n-wide tussen die voor beene... And check out them super-digger paws.......

Anyhow, this week she is off to a top breeder to view for conformance...... Then back to the doggie-doctor for first innoculation booster & second de-worm......

Thought I'd mention this here for all you good folk who also have daughter's (human ones as well)

I'm off this weekend to try & get a GPS dog tracker, cost around R600.

Aparantly, you can set it so that if your daughter goes more than whatever distance you set from a pinned location, it screams on your phone.....

Think about that for a moment....

Pin the location of your lounge, and set the distance just inside the front gate.....

Wife / daughter / even know when your mother-in-law's left to come for a visit.....

All for R600 bucks............ Seems like a hell of a bargain to me

So: - DOG SECURITY

1) First line defence, and prime defence.... Already been taught not to go out the boundry gates

2) Identification collar with just the street number & name on a brass plate pop-rivited to the collar. Yo don't want to give anymore information than that....

3) Micro-chipped... Got the activation notification on Monday.....

4) GPS tracker... on the way...

DOG HERATAGE / PEDAGREE

As you all know, her sire & dam are not registered but on viewing them when I adopted her, I was happy with what I saw, but still, it was a gamble...

There's plenty to be concerned about... wobbler's disease / Hip displaysia  / Von Willebrand's disease, are the most common.

So.... Why then take from unregistered dogs?

Well, firstly the difference is R1500 to between R6000 & R10 000, and trust me, the risks are no less.....

So I just called on my rheumy right eye and 20 odd years experience, liked what I saw, and took the plunge...

Most significant + factors where Dam = only 3 years old and there where only 4 pups in the litter, meaning that, at least while they where suckling, they all had good feeding....

Most significant negative factors was at 8 weeks the pups had not yet been innoculated and de-wormed, raising warning bells that possibly the breeder was cutting cost corners and brought into question the nutritional intake of the pups, post weaning....

So I've been bolstering her meals with Lan 3 baby formulae / meat saw-dust / puppy Bob-Martin vitiman suppliments & cod-liver oil capsules twice daily, and bones....

there is a temprement test one can do, called the Volhard test, but again, on viewing I guaged her temprement to be calm settled & happily inquisitive... not skittish / cowed / snappy / tail down or cowering....

So........... Long story short, it's all looking good so far, Saturday will tell, I've arranged to have her viewed for breed conformance by a well respected breeder.....

Holding thumbs.....

Oh goodness.... yet another long post....... Hope you did not fall asleep....

Hi Johann

As I understand it, you “pin” the GPS location of say your lounge.....

Then you set a distance (empirically from the exact location of the GPS location that you “pinned”)

Then, if the GPS tracker (attached to the wife’s neck of course) goes further than the distance you set, it sends you a notification.....

So now you trot off to your girlfriend and if the missus comes looking for you...........

Apparently, it is accurate to within 3m or so

This is more like what I'm aiming for

Hi J

Works like vehicle tracking, and uses satellite tracking to position where the transmitter is in relation to where you ‘pinned”

You put the transmitter on (in this case) the dog’s collar, it has 2 slide through plastic moulded loops through which an ordinary dog collar fits, and it transmits a signal.

When the distance between the transmitter & the pinned co-ordinates is exceeded, it automatically sends you a notification on your cell.

For example you could be sitting at Mabalingwe, and if your dog / wife / daughter goes beyond the distance you pre-determined you get a notification.

If your dog get’s out and runs away, it will pin-point where your dog is within 3m, and you can trace his route

So.....

Scruffy went for self-verdinging opleiding gistraand

How didit go?

Not great....

Barked at & half lunged forward, at the decoy, but did go forward and take the bite....

So several things came out of the mud and into the light.

1) She is environmentally & target conditioned

1a) The lesson was at night, under fllood-lighting............. She has never done attack & bite exercises at night

1b) The lesson was given on a ground surface that was “mulched” for the use of horses, not short lawn - grass / cement as she is used to .............Mulched is a surface of cut and shredded dead grass/ horse droppings and wood shavings

1c) The decoy is a completely different person, so she did not see him as a real threat..

It’s blooming interesting how doing what she does quite well in the day, was a flop at night, but in the long run, it's a good thing indeed

So.......... We have to go back to the basics and start from somewhere in the early stages of protection training to get her environmentally de-sensitised, then introduce as many varied environments as we can....

Also, I was a decoy for a large GSD... (German Sheppard dog), and, although he bit the arm guard, it was not a good solid bite, and he let go..........

Not the first time I’ve trained by being the decoy, however that was a long time back....

Kinda........... As the dog’s charging at you (me) at full speed  with teeth bared nogal with permission to bite...............Ooooooooooooo hell.... what the hell did I get myself into..... Quite scary......

But lekker fun....