“What started out as a conversation and then developed into a plan, has culminated in the arrival of Juno, the GSD from the Czech Republic. Ever since we became involved with training and supplying sniffer dogs for the Police and Prison Service we are constantly asked if we can find or supply GSDs.”
The problem in the UK is the shortage of healthy GSDs from strong working lines, with the confidence, stamina and temperament to make good working service dogs. For many years now both services have relied heavily on gift dogs, and only relatively recently started breeding their own. Unfortunately this has not always proved successful as some of the foundation stock was flawed, but one or two forces are breeding some very good dogs, although sadly not enough to go round and so most are still looking.
It just so happened that my daughter recently married a man from the Czech Republic and my new son-in-law Lubi comes from a family that have for years trained and worked GSDs. When he heard of the difficulty we had in finding the right sort of dog here he suggested we take a look at those in Czech, and when we did we were very impressed. It seems that in the Eastern European countries the GSD is still seen first and foremost as a working dog, and by means of very strict breeding rules and selection the drive and health of these dogs seems to have been maintained.
All this happened at the beginning of 2011 and we spent several weeks trawling the internet and finding out more about these Czech dogs. However, when it came to finding one to buy the path was fraught with danger, as we were by no means the first to recognise the potential of these dogs, and in the face of this new interest from abroad several unscrupulous dealers had sprung up determined to make serious money out of these deals, and none too fussy about the quality of the dogs. We did make some tentative enquiries on line but we were amazed at the prices that were being demanded by these dealers and so this is where Lubi’s help proved invaluable. Using the internet but with a Czech identification and language he was able to find us a site that advertised dogs in Czech rather than an international site, and with the aid of Google Translate we found a litter being advertised that ticked all our boxes. The parents were both IPO3 qualified and the breeder was a member of the Czech WUSV team so definitely a working line.
Initially we used Lubi to make contact and instigate initial enquiries, but I soon became far too impatient for this method and so started using Google translate and learning a little bit of Czech myself. However, this resulted in a weird and wonderful exchange of e-mails as the breeders also used this method, but apparently the two languages do not translate easily and we were sending some very strange messages to each other.
We soon decided the only thing to do was to go out and see them, and so last Easter when the pups were five weeks old we made the trip to Czech to meet the breeders and see the pups.
Like most dog people we do not do a lot of overseas travel as holidays for us consist of spending a bit longer at a trial. Nevertheless we made the effort and the trip itself is worthy of another article as there were so many funny stories connected with our visit but for now I will just say we arrived, saw the pups and made our choice, a lovely little sable bitch who just appealed to me although I couldn’t say why. As this was the breeder’s ‘J’ litter we had already decided on the name Juno to fit in with our stars and planets theme, and they had agreed to keep her for the 9 months or so that it took to get all the necessary vaccinations and paperwork in place for the Pet Passport scheme. As most of you probably know this all changed in 2012 and had I waited to pick a pup until the end of last year I could have brought it home in January without the wait, and started with a small pup rather than an 11 month old bitch. However I did not know that then, and so after picking Juno and making arrangements for her keep and passport expenses I had to say goodbye to her and start the long wait to see her again.
Communication with the breeders proved sporadic over the next few months, and there were times when I wondered if I would ever actually get the dog after long periods of silence where my e-mails were ignored and my phone calls unanswered, but I was assured by Lubi that this is not unusual with Czech people and so I kept waiting and hoping every thing would be o.k. Sometimes they surprised me and sent videos of Juno in training and my spirits were lifted, but them they would revert to ignoring me and I became very frustrated. Looking back I may have been a little too keen to receive news and probably drove them mad, but by September after a long period of silence we decided to pay another visit. This time I arranged with a Czech dog club in the breeder’s locality to introduce us to a doggy person who could speak English and this lovely lady agreed to come with us to the breeder and translate. This proved invaluable, and for the first time since we had met the breeder we were able to really talk to her and ask all the question that had been so difficult before. By this time Juno was seven months and we were delighted with her both in looks and temperament so we went home from this visit feeling much more positive.
It was another long wait with even less communication until the day came when Juno could actually come home and Lubi very kindly agreed to collect her for us as he and my daughter could stay with his family and make a mini holiday of the trip. What we didn’t bargain for was the snow, not just in Czech but also in England and what should have been a ten hour journey turned into a 14 hour ordeal and they finally arrived with a rather bewildered Juno at around 2.30 in the morning.
Despite all the difficulties Juno has turned out to be worth the wait, and we are absolutely delighted with her. She has been with us for just a month and already understands the language. She has mixed with all our dogs with no difficulty is gentle and patient with the pups and even tolerates the cats as long as they don’t run!. Although it is very early days she is very quick to learn and is already starting to track, will retrieve a dumbbell and is just starting to speak, and all of this in a completely new language, so we are very impressed with her. In addition to this she is very loving and affectionate and very much part of the family and in this short time we have both fallen in love with her.
The next milestone will be the hip and elbow x-rays which will decide whether the gamble was worthwhile. If these are not good enough to breed we have just bought ourselves a very expensive pet, but whatever the outcome we would not be without her. We feel privileged to own such a lovely well bred and driven dog who may even turn out to be a successful trials dog, but that is a long way off and for now we are just enjoying her.
