German Wirehaired Pointer Club of America

ashleyM · Member Joined: 14 Jan 2004 Posts: 13

Hi! I am ashley from Tulsa. We recently adopted Homer, aprox 2 y.o. gwp, from a rescue over Christmas. We spent a long time looking for the right dog, since our beloved first 'baby' Toby (english pointer) died at age 5 last year. Anyway, he is a gem of a dog, gets along well with our other dog (german shepherd) , loves our girls, is great. I do have some questions:
First, he compulsively retrieves things: laundry, shoes, whatever. The minute I walk in the door, he brings something. If I scold him, he brings something. I am just curious about this, and what sorts of activities ought I try channeling this into? We are very active; he gets lots of long runs and exercise, and I am a stay at home mom. We missed the current session of obedience classes, but will probably start that in March. He is already well mannered, though we are working on down stays! So I guess that is my main question: what to do with his knack for retrieving?
Thanks!

cheerio · Moderator Joined: 11 Mar 2003 Posts: 285 Location: Canada

That's an easy one: SAR!!!!
We constantly need good Search and Rescue dogs. The first condition to success is an uncurable drive to retrieve. He is 2, the perfect age to start your dog too!... If you are active, then SAR work is probably for you...
Oh please do volunteer and train your dog for SAR. My Cheerio is the only GWP I know that entered this line of work. It would be so neat to know of another...
It is such a rewarding activity, I hope you'll give it a try!

cmmilach · Posted: 01/15/04, 1:18 pm Post subject: New Dog Question

Hi,

Welcome to the wonderful world of wires. I have a nine year old male you retrieves things also. My 18 month old wire does not do that. Doc will bring anything he can get his mouth on, shoes, towels, napkins!

It does no good to scold them. I have learned to just take it from him & tell him hello.

Good Luck

ashleyM · Member Joined: 14 Jan 2004 Posts: 13

Cheerio: where does one begin with SAR? Is it likely that my city has an organization for this purpose? I am only familiar with the obedience classes a local companion dog school offers. That is where I have taken two dogs for training. I know they offer agility, and some tracking classes but they specialize in obedience and conformation classes.
Yes, we have learned to love Homer's bringing us things. It is a funny thing to do. The only thing that worries me is that he'll bring me dirty laundry in front of guests, or worse, to them!

cheerio · Moderator Joined: 11 Mar 2003 Posts: 285 Location: Canada

SAR training is not offered in Canine training schools. It is done through your local authorities. In Canada, it is the RCMP. You can phone your local Police K-9 Departement and ask them whether they have a SAR Volunteer dog handler group, or if they know of the closest one. If you want, you can tell me where you are, through the board or private e-mail and I will be glad to put you in touch with your nearest group.

In the meantime, put his retrieving ability to a good use by teaching him to get your slippers, to bring the mail, or the newspaper, or again to pick up what you've dropped. All my dogs have learnt to help me bring the grocery shopping from the car to the kitchen and they absolutely love it. One of my dogs is also on charge of carrying my handbag and that has become very handy since I now never forget it anywhere, my dog takes it for me! Laughing

Dogs love to please and to be usefull, take advantage of it.

oacona · Member Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 13

I'd like to take a poll of all our friends - How many of you have now been brought a pair of our dirty socks? To love us is to love our dog is to love our dirty socks, I suppose. Ha.
_________________
Oacona

Dave1967 · Junior Joined: 04 Aug 2003 Posts: 44

Ashley I agree with Cheerio on both the SAR's training and putting the pup to work. You can think of a lot of things that the pup can use this desire for. One that I have a lot of fun with is to teach the dog to pick up all of his/her chew toys and put them on her rug. I have had pups that I could send to the kitchen for a beer and of course you can select anything to have the pup carry from the yard to the house or from the house to the yard. Sounds to me like this pup is just full of desire to please and really wants to do anything that will get it positive feed back. Best time in the world to teach, train and teach again. These pups can learn anything and the more that you teach them the easier it to teach the next thing.