Dutch Shepherd Forum

A lot of people say their dogs are working dogs. So what's does your dog do? Does your dog have an actual job?

If your dog works, how much time each day does it work? How do you balance just being a dog with work time? How do you manage the public while the dog works?

I guess Bramble might fall in the category since she migraine alerts (no seizures thus year so we haven't had the chance to see if she will for seizures too.) Though right now since were still obedience training, she only "works" at home. I'm not how it will go once access training starts.

Sadie is a working dog, she works on shredding things in the house

Many compete. Ring sport, is what I did, and there are a bunch of other things to train in.

So has she shredded the sofa too? Bramble is pretty good about only shredding her toys. When we first got her, she took a bite out my son's Star Wars pillow...and we all reacted with horror...she hasn't chewed any but her toys since. She must have thought we were all crazy we reacted so fast. But taking a bite out of Star Wars item is a serious violation in our house.

Dogs or breeds are labeled working dogs if they are bred to do specific tasks instead of being bred to a conformation standard. Hence, within the same breed many times there is the pet or show version and then there is the working version. The working version in many cases will look totally different. You can have a working bred dog, but that doesn’t mean you are working it. I raised and bred working terriers for years. They were working terriers because I worked them. I met many people that had working bred terriers, but I never considered them working dogs if they were not worked. They must have a task and know how to do it to be called a working dog.

Sadie only shredded dog beds luckily. She is 9 now and hasn't shredded anything in a long time. Now its my bassets turn to shred LOL. It was out of frustration. she would get happy and excited and would need to get it out so she would grab anything near by and "killit" you know how they shake prey to break its neck? that's what she would do. Although one time she did explode a feather duvet. I don't think she meant it though, it was on my bed, and i was in the shower, I have a metal 4 post bed with sharp corners and I think she pulled it down to lay on and got it stuck then proceeded to keep pulling and tugging. when I got out of the shower there were feathers EVERYWHERE but sadie looked comfy.

What did your terriers do? Earth dog?

I was wondering how many teams on the forum do have "jobs" as opposed to being working line.

It seems like some working line dogs wouldn't actually be able to "work" at the tasks a working dog needs to do. We encounter a police dog in DC that I now know to have been a Dutch Shepherd. The handler did tell us she was trained for bomb sniffing. Since she was out in the public her prey drive had to have been under control. The handle was obviously able to walk her and have her near other dogs and unpredictable children. But other Dutch Shepherds don't appear to be able to do this.

I'm just curious on how those handler manage it? What a working day is like for the dog.

Mine is just a pet, but is very keen on guarding the house and the wife. So I assume she has invented her own job. Jay

My terriers were earth dogs expected to find, fit, and stay to the game. Not all working bred dogs are capable of a high degree of work. Or they may be suitable for one kind of task and not another. A working dogs task should be enjoyable to them and they are eager and ready for it all day long. If the handler or dog can’t handle the task at hand, then they need to find something else.

It takes a LOT of training every day. When I did Ring sport with Thalie, we trained at least an hour a day, then had a few hours a week with my trainer. I used to take thalie into NYC with my parents and we would walk through the streets. You train these dogs to ignore everything. Nothing bothered Thalie and she paid no mind to anything or anyone but me and my parents.

at the dog park ( I dont go anymore) dogs would run up to her and want to play and she ignored them.

Jay knowles wrote: ↑Sun Jun 30, 2019 4:51 pm Mine is just a pet, but is very keen on guarding the house and the wife. So I assume she has invented her own job. Jay

That's exactly what they do if they don't have a specific job but I also encourage them to guard the house or letting me know if they hear someone outside. My dog Riddick once sat in an open doorway guarding the house all night after I accidentally left the front door wide open. He's only been trained in obedience along with doing some protection training later on- but never any type of guard dog training or anything like that. My wife said hey you left the door open all night, she said when she came downstairs- he was laying down in front of the open door just watching the street. I was shocked actually, almost like he knew I screwed up leaving the door open. Greatest dog I've ever owned.

Bramble did something similar. We had a mis communication and I heard "closed the gate" instead of "did not close the gate." Looked out and she was just sitting there, not crossing the line.

She is also doing a lot better not being a guard dog. The UPS man came today and she didn't bark. She came to me to let me know, very excited but didn't bark or grumble. Progress

yes, they will find their own jobs, that could be a problem LOL . Glad you are having progress !

Dutchringgirl wrote: ↑Sun Jun 30, 2019 3:57 pm when I got out of the shower there were feathers EVERYWHERE but sadie looked comfy.

Too funny.

Now that Rogue is 2 I am thinking about Search and Rescue. If I fall over drunk in a ditch, hopefully she will come look for me and drag my Carcass home. What do you say Lisa???
Actually I am thinking of Search and Rescue.

Joxgirl wrote: ↑Wed Jul 10, 2019 3:33 am Now that Rogue is 2 I am thinking about Search and Rescue. If I fall over drunk in a ditch, hopefully she will come look for me and drag my Carcass home. What do you say Lisa???
Actually I am thinking of Search and Rescue.

No way I can get lost at my house !!! Sadie always finds me.

I would def do SaR! But here is the thing, I had looked into it too for Sadie before I found out about her hips... Its really hard though, and you are not always the handler, I had talked to a Sar person and they said that its the dog, not you that does the Sar and they can call for the dog to go. Don't know if that's true in all areas? but Look into it.