“For the past year we have been taking in and training search dogs for the Police and Prison services and have had some very good results with dogs placed with both services, and deployed as drugs, firearms, money and explosive detection dogs in prisons, airports and other high priority locations.”
This has given us a great sense of satisfaction, and a very good working relationship with professional trainers and handlers, but the one question we are constantly asked is if we can find any good GSDs. With this in mind and determined to try to produce a line of good quality working GSDs we decided to import a young bitch from the Czech Republic and take her back for mating at a later stage and hence “Juno” is due to arrive in the UK in February 2012. In the meantime we were continuing with our sniffer dog training and looking forward to finding out about shepherds at a later stage.
All this changed when we had a telephone call from a friend who runs a pet dog club and told us about Woody, the young GSD that was proving too much of a handful for his young, single parent owner, and her 2 year old daughter. As an ex police dog handler our friend spotted the potential in this dog, and asked us if we were interested in taking him on. Apparently he had been re-homed once to a pet home but was returned just one day later as he proved too much to handle, and so his owner was getting desperate. Although not intending to get into GSDs just yet, it seemed a shame that this young dog had already had two homes, so we went to have a look at him and couldn’t leave him behind. At nine months old Woody was enormous and had no hesitation in greeting us on two legs which put him above our heads. His character was terrific, with no fear or aggression, but he also had very little in the way of manners, and virtually no training, so in an effort to contain his exuberance his owner crated him both inside and out in the garden for much of his life. She obviously loved him dearly and so did her daughter, who wrapped her little arms round his neck and just hung there, but when he jumped up at his owner and pulled her top down around her waist I could see she was definitely “over dogged” and so we agreed to take him. Woody came away with us without a backward glance, and while his owners wiped away tears he was off on a new adventure and did not appear to give them a second thought.
Woody proved to be a typical teenager and tried to get his own way by pushing and shoving, but he was generally a happy and biddable dog, albeit a bit like a baby elephant.
Over the next few weeks we worked hard with him and the more we trained him the more potential he showed, so when one of the prisons showed an interest in him we were happy to let him go. Unfortunately they expected a bit too much too soon and brought him back for not showing sufficient defence behaviour but, as I explained to them, Woody wasn’t defensive because nothing scared him! We continued to work with him and found him to be a very bright pupil who soon learned to speak on command and was starting to track, and the more he learned the more we thought he would make a very good police dog. Eventually we had the trainer from the Metropolitan Police come and assess him and he was very impressed, so we agreed to let him go for further assessment as a potential police dog.
Once again we waved Woody goodbye and true to form he appeared not to care and jumped into the police cage ready for yet another adventure. I have never known a dog that has had so many homes remain so well balanced and normal, and when he arrived at the Metropolitan Dog School he proved himself an apt pupil, and we had nothing but good reports of him.
We were pleased for him and also relieved, as with two Labradors and a Spaniel to train in addition to our own working dogs, one extra dog was just one too many. Over the following week we learned that Woody had passed all the assessments with flying colours and at only 11months old had matched or even bettered the 18 month old dogs he was assessed with. A handler had been identified for him and all that remained was his Vet check. We were not concerned about this as we had already identified that he had the constitution of an ox and the stamina of a lion, so we had no worries about his general health, and our faith was justified as he passed his health check with no problems. All that remained was to x-ray his hips, although he was too young to score they had decided that they would do a quick x-ray just to confirm that his hips were good enough. That is where it all went wrong as Woody was found to have a suspect left hip, and although he had never been lame or showed any discomfort the Met Vet advised that he may not stand up to jumping and so he was rejected.
Back Woody came again, and although he returned to his kennel and run as if he had never been away, we were not exactly pleased to have him back. Woody had grown up while he was away and came back to us full of himself and even more confident and demanding than when he left. Because of his dodgy hip we were advised to find him a pet home but we could see that he just wasn’t pet material. I did contact GSD Rescue who were very helpful, but when we had questions about his suitability for living indoors I had to admit that he had demolished a plastic dog bed, a vet bed and the kennel door, so if he was kept as a house dog he would probably wreck the place. The more I worked with him over the next few days the more I knew he must go to a working home, so I phoned our local police and told them his history including the dodgy hip. This smaller force has a lot of trouble finding enough good dogs and told me that if the dogs were not lame they were considered sound, as they do not do x-rays unless there is suspicion, so they agreed to come and look at Woody. The handler that arrived took to Woody straight away and Woody obviously liked him and in a very short space of time he had decided to take him.
This is the best chance we can give Woody and I am assured that if for any reason he doesn’t make the grade or goes lame they will re home him in a suitable home with experienced people so our minds are at rest and we feel that Woody is in the best possible place. We are very hopeful that he will make a police dog and live a happy and fulfilled life with his handler, but it is a relief to know that if it doesn’t work out for him he will not come back to us. Much as I liked Woody I really don’t want him back, as he was beginning to be like a boomerang and this was not good for him or us and I wondered if he would ever move on. The one good thing is that Woody took all his changes in his stride, treated each new home as an adventure and when he did come back to us settled as if he had never been away. He really is a very well balanced strong dog with true working dog temperament and I hope one day we may see him on the streets doing the job he was born for.
