Dutch Shepherd Forum

I resently adopted a 13 month old Dutch Shepherd from the original owner. I must say he is truly an amazing animal, and a welcomed addition to our family. I live in Newberg, OR and am interested in as much breed and training info as possible. The woman who had Remington had started working with him but she was not able to give him enough time and attention. She had started basic obedience but it was limited. Luckily for me he is super smart and it is going well so far. Oh and when I say just adopted I mean I picked him up yesterday. So here is where he is at. He is kennel trained which seems to let him feel safe but eventually I would prefer he did not use one, but I also don't want to wake up to my couch being eaten. He has not been leash trained so we start the basic adult 1 class next week. The original owner would just take him out without a leash and said that he would just stay with her. He is very treat motivated and you can get him to do almost anything for one. Remington is very agile and fast and he loves to run and play fetch with the Chuckit!

A little more about us we have 3 kids between my girlfriend and I and a 13 year old black lab/pit mix (Ruby), a 3 year old cat (Pixie) and a 6 year old ball python (Samiel). The day I was picking up Remington my girlfriend received a call from our vet telling us that Ruby has cancer and needs surgery right away. The surgery is set for next Tuesday and they are going to remove the tumor and run some more tests to see if the cancer has spread. This is very tough for us as Ruby is such a great dog and my girlfriend has had Ruby since she was 5 weeks old.

Any info or books that I should read about this amazing fellow would be greatly appreciated.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash ... 2699_n.jpg
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn ... 4177_n.jpg

Welcome to the group. I love the name Remington. My thoughts are with you for Ruby; it's never easy to deal with tumors in older dogs, hopefully it'll just be the one spot.

Welcome!
My heart goes out to you re Ruby. I have a 14 year old black Lab (since puppy).

Welcome, and good luck with the surgery/testing.

Welcome to the forum!!

If you could please take a moment and add your name (and perhaps your girlfriend's) to your signature it would be greatly appreciated. Then we know who Remington's family is

I'm so sorry for the news of needed surgery for Ruby. I know how scary that can be. I hope that she comes through it with flying colors.

Congrats on the addition of your new Dutch Shepherd. You'll find tons of info and advice about the breed on this forum. There isn't very much literature written in English on the breed. But there are a great many written resources for good behavior modification and training. I am sure everyone will chime in with their favorites.

Per the crate - I would let Remington tell you when/if he's ready to be out and free. Some dogs settle right in and never need it again. Others (my 11 year old for instance) is quite suicidal and is still crated when I'm not home. In a hectic household, with children and other pets, many dogs appreciate having a crate as an escape option from stress. Providing that "flight" option helps prevent stressed dogs from exhibiting aggression.

Looking forward to hearing more....and of course seeing some pictures!!!

Thanks for all the welcomes and comments about Ruby.

Remington has definately bonded with me already and this morning when I was petting Ruby he growled at her. I made it clear that that behavior is not allowed so we will see if it comes back. The problem I have with the kennel is If my kids leave for school at 7:30 and return at 2:30 that is 7 hours of being locked up without water. That seems like a much too long of a time so for the time being I will take the 20 minute each way trip on my lunch to let him out to drink some water and use the bathroom. This is not ideal for me but needs to happen for the time being. The other thing I noticed was when I put him in last night he was fine for about an hour and then started whinning. I went downstairs and let him out to see if maybe he needed to use the bathroom but that was not the issue. I went ahead and slept on the couch and when I told him to go lay down he went to his kennel and slept there the rest of the night with the door open. When my first child was born his mother and I would have to hold him to go to sleep and then a doctor told us that we needed to break him of that habit by putting him to bed and letting him cry for 5 minutes then go and reassure him and then leave and wait 10 minutes after he starts crying and to keep increasing the time by 5 minutes each time until he goes to sleep. Now I do not have any experience kennel training and I know that Remington is probably confused and misses his owner, so should I try something like this to stop the whinning or is there a better way of handeling it?

I will start scowering the board for more tips on training. I also signed Remington and I up for some basic adult obedience classes to help with the transition to our house. I feel like it will help him to recognise me as his new trainer. He is very treat motivated and I was able to get him to do some tricks with them last night. I also got him some toys to chew on and play with so hopefully he will feel more comfortable. He is really scared of our cat and when I was sitting and petting her and he came up she wanted to meet him and rub on him but he was affraid and jerked back. I'm hoping this will change over time. He does like to chase cats but it appears it is just for fun and I think by her not running it is weirding him out.

One last thing for this post. His ears. All of the pictures I have seen on here show these dogs with their ears standing up, but Remingtons ears are down. The lady I got him from said they never stood up and so she tried taping them but it didn't take. So my first thought was maybe he is mixed with something but I have noticed that when he is chasing a ball or if he hears something faint he will lift one or both of them up. Has anyone had a Dutch Shepherd that purposly held his ears back and do you think he could grow out of it? I know they do not get there confidence untill after they are full grown so I wonder if it has something to do with that. It doesn't matter if they never stand up but I do like how these dogs look when they do.

As for Lisa she seems to be having a worse time with Ruby than I had even imagined and it is showing in how she is with Remington and this morning she even said that she is and always will equate his arrival with her cancer. This is horrible and I hope she can see past it.

Thanks for any help with this stuff.

Welcome fellow west coaster! Congrats on your new addition and sorry to hear about your other dog. Lots of emotions going on over there, eh?

A note about the kenneling at night; when we got Sugar (puppy) I put her in her crate in the hallway then went to bed and closed our door. She started making all kinds of sounds, unhappy of course. She had all the dogs in the area going...sounded like the scene from 101 Dalmations. Anyway, I waited til she stopped for a moment, then went out and took her crate into the living room and put it beside the couch, and I slept there that night. Seemed that she just wanted someone nearby. The next night we put the crate in our room and no probs at all. It may be that Remington may want to be closer to you?

Mine has ears that do not stand, but she is a mix so I'm not sure if that is why. Its a sweet look tho, don't you think?

Good luck with all the training etc. These are smart dogs. There are lots of experienced people on this forum that will be able to answer questions for you.

We also love pics, so feel free to post lots!

pdlucky wrote:The problem I have with the kennel is If my kids leave for school at 7:30 and return at 2:30 that is 7 hours of being locked up without water. That seems like a much too long of a time so for the time being I will take the 20 minute each way trip on my lunch to let him out to drink some water and use the bathroom.

Seven hours really isn't too long, but you can always get a small stainless steel bucket to hang in his crate to leave water with him. Unless he has had water restricted before, and therefore drinks constantly, he should be plenty old enough to be trusted with some in his cage.

pdlucky wrote:This is not ideal for me but needs to happen for the time being. The other thing I noticed was when I put him in last night he was fine for about an hour and then started whinning. I went downstairs and let him out to see if maybe he needed to use the bathroom but that was not the issue. I went ahead and slept on the couch and when I told him to go lay down he went to his kennel and slept there the rest of the night with the door open. When my first child was born his mother and I would have to hold him to go to sleep and then a doctor told us that we needed to break him of that habit by putting him to bed and letting him cry for 5 minutes then go and reassure him and then leave and wait 10 minutes after he starts crying and to keep increasing the time by 5 minutes each time until he goes to sleep. Now I do not have any experience kennel training and I know that Remington is probably confused and misses his owner, so should I try something like this to stop the whinning or is there a better way of handeling it?

I would make sure he is plenty worn out, has something extraordinary to do in the crate (a stuffed kong or special bone) and then just wait it out. There is a lot of stress and chaos going on is his life right now, but you still need to be consistent with the rules that will be needed to be successful. He is more than old enough to sleep through the night.

pdlucky wrote:I will start scowering the board for more tips on training. I also signed Remington and I up for some basic adult obedience classes to help with the transition to our house. I feel like it will help him to recognise me as his new trainer.

That's awesome! Its a great way to get the bond started. Plus you will have someone right there, seeing you and helping you each step of the way. Internet advice is only so helpful.

pdlucky wrote:One last thing for this post. His ears. All of the pictures I have seen on here show these dogs with their ears standing up, but Remingtons ears are down. The lady I got him from said they never stood up and so she tried taping them but it didn't take. So my first thought was maybe he is mixed with something but I have noticed that when he is chasing a ball or if he hears something faint he will lift one or both of them up. Has anyone had a Dutch Shepherd that purposly held his ears back and do you think he could grow out of it? I know they do not get there confidence untill after they are full grown so I wonder if it has something to do with that. It doesn't matter if they never stand up but I do like how these dogs look when they do.

Chances are, if they are still down at 13 months, they are going to stay down. Some Dutch Shepherds (I think more working lines than show) do have softer ears that don't stand. Its not common, but it doesn't mean that they are a mix.

pdlucky wrote:As for Lisa she seems to be having a worse time with Ruby than I had even imagined and it is showing in how she is with Remington and this morning she even said that she is and always will equate his arrival with her cancer. This is horrible and I hope she can see past it.

I am sure she is just hurting, and it may take a very long time for her to accept him. She can probably only see her impending loss, and your joy at a newcomer. One day the switch will flip. Rationally, she has to know that there is no correlation. In the meantime, I am sure you are being amazingly supportive and giving her the love she needs and also the space from Remington that she needs.

Water. You can get bowls that are meant to hang in the crate, freeze the bowl full of water over night, and leave it with him for the day. The only problem is that the bowl/hanger can become a toy to them and create a secondary problem. When I worked full time I never found it a problem to crate them even for 9 to 10 hours, but when you get home they need to really work off the steam.

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on the new addition.
Remington is adorable !!!
You're going to have so much fun together.
This really is an amazing breed.

Nice to 'meet' another Oregon owner
I'm about 2 hrs south of you and sometimes train/trial in the Portland area.

Thanks. I am so impressed by him and what he is capable of. We went out at the start of the snow and we played with the chuckit until he was getting tired and then he had fun playing in the 1/2 inch of snow tonight.

Like I wrote on the other post I would love to know when there are trials going on. Remington and I will be working on agility training soon but for now we are starting with the basic obedience class.

Remington sure is acting better tonight he calmed down really quickly tonight after running off his energy and working on some house manners.

Saturday we are going to the vet to so Remington can have a check-up and I can ask the vet some questions. I'm hoping she can help me to make sure he is eating enough.

Welcome!! Love the name Remington too!! Reminds me of that show a long time ago - Remington Steele.
I'm probably giving away my age right now

Sorry to hear about Ruby. Hope all goes well with surgery.

felixone123 wrote:Welcome!! Love the name Remington too!! Reminds me of that show a long time ago - Remington Steele.
I'm probably giving away my age right now

I loved that show too! But do you remember The Real McCoy's?

alspyce wrote:

felixone123 wrote:Welcome!! Love the name Remington too!! Reminds me of that show a long time ago - Remington Steele.
I'm probably giving away my age right now

I loved that show too! But do you remember The Real McCoy's?

I refuse to answer that and plead the 5th!!!