HELLWIGG SHEPHERDS

"striving to be the best we can be"

 

What is a show dog?

"A show dog is more then just bred "

Written by Wendy Haddrall, Hellwigg Shepherds

 

A good dog starts with a nice clean healthy bloodline, it is years of planning, knowledge, research and some luck on the breeders part rolled all in one. It starts with a well bred, well started puppy who shows "promise" in it's attitude, structure and movement. It takes an experienced well seasoned eye with knowledge of that particular bloodline that can spot these show puppers. It is definitely not an exact science!

It is hoped that from that young baby stage the puppy will grow to have the "basic necessities". This is what I look for when I am watching a litter of youngsters at 5 weeks and 8 weeks.

a strong minded curious eager puppy

plush coat preferred

dark eye

good bite

tight feet and pasterns

a well placed shoulder and long upper arm

nice porportioned body length and loin length

a well angled rear for their age

high wither

a big easy movement

good strong heart, both testicles if they are a male, no eating problems

It is these puppies that I "keep my eye on" in hopes that they consistently demonstrate these qualities!

When the puppy passes the 9 week mark quite often they will change during the growth stages and there may be times that we look and wonder "what did we see in this baby hehehehehehe". My experience has been though, that many of the initial qualities that we originally looked for do not change, like their shoulder placement and bone porportions

My experience has been that what they were at 5 & 8 weeks they will be again between 4 and 5 months so it is at this age that we assess the puppy again.

Now to the hard part is what else makes a show dog. The other part we can do nothing about if we do not own the puppy and it is a huge component. They need to be raised right! Taught to be brave, strong willed but eager to please, full of enthusiasm, love showing, enjoy their time on leash and in a crate, enjoy strangers handling them, show their bite, look beyond the handler and judge, enjoy being stacked and show themselves off.

How do we do that?

Make a crate and run a good place to be by ensuring that the time in those places are fun, relaxing and non threatening

Our good show dogs are not house dogs, yes they spend quality time in the house but for the most part they spend their days in runs

Become one of a bunch of canine family that they enjoy time with and learn from

We do all we can to ensure that they have no life threatening scary experiences

Are handled a lot by us, stacking them, teaching them to enjoy their bath and blow drying time, having their feet handled and placed, looking at their teeth, pulling on the end of the leash trying to get to one of us or a canine friend

Walks around town, in parks, enjoying see other critters, dogs, people, strange obsticles. This is their true quality times when they are encouraged to be brave and curious. We take them out often, ensuring that each experience is different and always a fun outing with mom or dad.

Numerous road trips, always travelling in a crate but always kept comfortable and happy

Encouraging them to be their own self, expecting them to behave but not be too mechanical like with heeling, sitting, laying at our side. We allow them to pull a little especially when showing enthusiasm for the environment.

We cut their nails often to help keep the feet and pasterns as tight and strong as possible

We ensure that they are on footing that helps facilitate tight feet and pasterns. Pea gravel, shavings, grass, dirt. Our puppies do not spend a ton of time on slippery floors or concrete.

We ensure that their diet is a good well proven (to us) diet that facilitates good speed of growth and keeps the coat and bones healthy. We do switch the babe onto adult food at the 4-6 month mark.

Wake up their drive! Play ball, frisbee, play fetch with sticks, kongs .... anything that they will learn to enjoy chasing

Teach them to catch their treats :-)

Now they are at the 6 month mark. Do they have all their teeth? How does the bite look? Are the ears up, well placed and strong? How are the pasterns and feet? How is their character? What does the croup and tail set look like (the croup and tail set does not develop til well past the 4 month mark). We note things to watch for but rarely do we eliminate a puppy at this stage but we do watch things we are not happy with more carefully. We also take the puppy for one fun showing experience! We decide at this time if the babe is "together enough" to compete in a few shows in the puppy classes. Does the puppy need some more fun experiences in the show ring? Do they need the show ring and handler experience to learn more? Are they competetive in the puppy classes?

When we show a dog, we like to put a good, experienced, seasoned, soft handed professional german shepherd handler on our dog. It is our hope that this handler will be the handler that will be there for the career of the dog if possible. We encourage our handler to give us feedback about what they think but ultimately we make the call about if, when, how often we want our babe shown (as a rule we never show our dogs every weekend, we want our dogs to continue to enjoy their time in the ring and do not want them bored with the experience)

At the one year mark (no longer a baby) we reassess. Are the things that we were watching for improving? Is there other things we need to watch for?

We ask ourselves at this time .... is the dog mature enough to compete against the adults? Usually the answer is no! We enter a couple of times in small, fun shows to keep the "learning curve" strong and to continue to ensure that the dog is enjoying these special days.

Now comes the hard part......from 18 months to 2 years.

Does the dog pass hip and elbow xrays? OVC is 18 months + and OFA is 2 years +

Is the dog what we expected them to be? A super star? A star? A good finishable show dog? Have the qualities I want to use in a breeding program (you already know that the pedigree is what you want because that is what you had to begin with)?

Is the movement good enough? Can I live with the faults he/she may have?

Now what about conditioning? It is at this time you want to ask yourself what kind of conditioning you want to have. Does the back need tightening? Muscling needed in the rear? Muscling and building needed in the chest? There are many ways to condition, strengthen and build endurance in a dog. That would be a whole different page :-) Your handler can help you with those questions!

So if your dog has not already finished now is the time to bring them out and show them off.

After the championship!!!!! You may want to 'special" the dog but also........

So what to do now? Your dog needs to use their mind and it is at this time you need to be thinking about performance activities. What do you like? A shepherd is a very versatile breed and is very capable of doing many things. Obedience? Herding? Tracking? Rally-O? Flyball? Agility? Go to a few of these events and get a feel of the sport. Do you like the people? Do you enjoy the excitement? Do you have a good training facility in your area?

Are you going to have a litter of puppies if your dog is a female? Talk to your breeder!!!!! Not every bloodline/pedigree can combine with every dog. Have an understanding of what you want those puppies to look like. You may have fallen in love with a dog you saw often or has been winning huge but........if you breed your bitch to him will they give you what you are looking for?

You need to have thought out what you are going to do if that puppy does not grow into what we were hoping for. Will you keep him/her anyway? Will you return? If your thought is that you will not keep then you will need to do preliminary xrays of hips and elbows around the 8 month mark. You need to also be having that conversation with us when you pick your puppy.

My hopes in writing this is that you will understand that just buying a pretty puppy does not a good show dog make!! It is very dependent on how that puppy is raised, handled, trained, conditioned and promoted. You need to be committed to doing what is necessary to ensure that your "show" puppy/dog is given every opportunity to be "the best he/she can be"

Stay tuned for "Your dream is to be a breeder" and "Conditioning your show dog" and " Can I make money breeding dogs?"