TDG

lol yeah i can see that big dogs with large mouths might be a little disappointed unless you serve them a whole bowl ful! :lol:

[quote name='TobyandSaddieMom'] When it comes to his food I am trying to follow the breeders suggestions...she was feeding him eukanuba with lots of extra things mixed in at different feedings. Like garlic one time, vitamins another time, curd mixed with a little honey one time, and every now and then a little canned food. I tried the garlic and he would not eat it...I don't know what vitamins to use so I haven't tried that. He loves the curd and canned food. But she told me not to spoil him on the canned food, however, he won't eat his food dry at all. I have to mix in either the curd or the canned food in order to get him to eat. She also didn't tell me how much to feed him...all she said was very small amount. I'm so confused![/quote] eukanuba is a popular brand, but the quality isn't great. you can do a lot better for the same price or even less. have a look here for information on commercial food: [url]http://www.mordanna.com/dogfood[/url] giving a good multivitamin daily is a great thing to do, but like for the commercial foods, the same rule goes for vitamin products: most of the stuff you find at the mainstream stores (e.g. petco, petsmart) are overpriced and of poor quality. one product i really do like is the herbal multivitamin from animal essentials. it's also reasonably priced. [url]http://www.animalessentials.com[/url] the reason i said daily is because most vitamins are water soluble and whatever the body doesn't need is excreted in the urine, so there is a daily need for replenishing and you get the best health effect if you do that regularly. as for the amounts of food, the guideslines on the bag are a good point to start. they will tell you how much to feed at what age. keep an eye on your dog's weight and don't let him get fat. be prepared to reduce the amounts of food slightly if you notice he's getting pudgy, and also substract any extras (curd, honey, canned food etc.) from the amount of kibble you feed - all these things bring calories into the diet. i know i'm going to overload you on links, but here's an interesting article on the topic: [url]http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/02/12.12.02/dog-diet.html[/url] it's not a bad thing to add different things to the kibble. you can also give finely grated or cooked veggies, a bit of meat (also both raw and cooked is fine), fruits, cottage cheese, plain yogurt, eggs and other things. just make sure you don't fall into the trap of indulging your dog each time he refuses to eat something, or you are likely to create a finicky eater who will always hold out for something better.

[quote name='newfiemom']TDG, I have a question about the Innova EVO. It may seem silly but I have a tendency to ask strange questions. I got a couple of sample packs to try out to see if my guys would like it. Are the pieces really that small? It reminded me of rabbit food pellets.[/quote] that's not a strange question at all! :) yes, it's really that small! i think it must have something to do with the fact that the formulation is grain free and the meat content is so high that lager kibbles would probably just fall apart to crumbs. my dog enjoys playing with a treat ball and the evo makes an excellent filler for that. it's also great for clicker training, and my cats go nuts for it too. i can't wait for the day they come out with an evo for cats. :)

i think with feeding home prepared food you are doing better than just rotating between kibbles. have you tried the innova evo yet? my dog goes crazy for it, i use it as treats. :)

that article sums it up pretty well. :) in germany (where i was born and lived until 5 years ago), tripe is a major part of home prepared diets of the serious dog folks and has been for decades. it stinks horribly but the dogs love it so much that even those who are sick and refuse any other food will often eat the tripe. my dog adores it, but i have to wash his snout after each tripe meal, since his scruffy beard sometimes has bits or liquid stuck to it and i can smell it from several feet away. *shudders* i'm glad i can buy it ground tho, i really couldn't see feeding large chunks on a regular basis. i think i'd have to bathe my terrier mutt after each meal. :o

my personal opinion, for what it's worth: differences in dogs aside (since if it doesn't work for your dog, it's obviously worthless), i do believe that natura products [i]are[/i] superior to others. this is strictly speaking about ingredient quality (proper testing for possible antibiotic and pesticide residues, heavy metal contamination etc.), quality of supplements used (down to small details like not using menadione), formulations, and product transparency (as in making detailed analyses available to anyone who is interested, not keeping it a secret where the food is manufactured, and so on). as far as my concerns about commercial pet foods go, natura has managed to eliminate more of them than any other manufacturer i can think of and don't make any claims they can't back up. the price is good too, there are a lot of foods out there that are more expensive than natura products yet don't even get close to the quality level. what also impresses me about this company and their employees is that they do not spread bogus information, such as "it's bad for your dog to eat raw meat or bones" or "a dog should never eat anything than dog food and treats especially designed for dogs" and so on. i've talked to natura representatives and they will not tell anyone that it is a bad idea to feed raw or home cooked and that you will kill your dog if you do. one rep even told me he feeds a partially raw diet combined with innova kibble. mind you, these weren't sales people who work at a store but actually employees of the company with booths at dog venues. wellness has lost a lot of credibility in my eyes after they have sold out and prepare to go mass market (if you look around a bit, you see wellness available in pretty much any mail order catalog and on a lot of websites now), with another push to more retailers (not necessarily pet stores) soon. you can't have it both ways, true quality products aren't mass produced. besides that, the price (compared to other high end foods) is absolutely unwarranted. my main beef with solid gold is that they are very secretive about their foods and not forthcoming with information. they are also the only pet food company i can think of that does not offer a satisfaction guarantee, meaning if you have a problem with the food, you're stuck with it, unless the retailer you got it from takes it back out of their own courtesy. that makes me kind of uncomfortable. overall i also find their formulations too low in protein and [b]way[/b] too low in fat for animals who have a digestive system designed for utilizing meat and fat and not carbohyrates. the thing i do like about solid gold foods is that they utilize fairly unique ingredients, which is very useful for dogs that suffer from food allergies. the "holistique blendz" is nice for using as a mixer with fresh meat, but i wouldn't recommend feeding it as an only food. minus points for calling the food "holistic" and still using menadione. then there is also the fact that solid gold products have been banned from sale in texas, due to misleading labeling. if you try to get any sort of comments on the issue from the manufacturer, you get stonewalled. all they say is they are "working to comply with state regulations" and texas isn't a state that is known to have high standards, so this really makes me wonder. it's silly to claim rotating foods isn't a good thing to do, unless an individual dog has a really hard time with each transition. then it's best to not mess with it and try if you can at least mix in some extras..

canned tripe is generally more of a "dog food" type of thing. the overall benefit is about the same as when comparing fresh foods to canned products - certainly not bad, but also not quite as good as the "real thing". the tripett canned tripe is better, it only has tripe, garlic and a natural binder as ingredients, while solid gold's product has potatoes included. (that's not a bad thing per se, but you get more tripe per can fromt he tripett.) it's nice to add now and then, but the full benefit only comes from unprocessed, fresh, green (meaning uncleaned, unbleached) tripe. HF, you are lucky to find that at a grocery store, all i ever see there is the bleached, scalded stuff. i would recommend buying pure, frozen or fresh tripe over the canned stuff. here are some resources for ordering: [url]http://www.greentripe.com[/url] [url]http://www.omaspride.com[/url] [url]http://www.halshan.com[/url] [url]http://www.bravorawdiet.com[/url] [url]http://www.hare-today.com[/url] or you can look for local sources through the raw feed suppliers groups on yahoo. i get mine through a supplier for about $1 a pound.

[quote]All these hippies going around saying not to vaccinate etc are the reason that all these health risks are still around![/quote] sorry, but that's a pretty ignorant statement. the reason why most diseases are still around is because they propagate in animal populations you can't reach with vaccinations on a broad enough scale (if at all) to eradicate them completely. don't you think that otherwise they would indeed be eradicated already, like so many human diseases that became extinct after vaccinations were widely available? i quote from IVIS (International Veterinary Information Service): [i]If the changing patterns of disease in dogs are to be understood, it is necessary to recognize that this re-emerging infection is influenced by the cycles of infection in wildlife, where the infection may spill over into domestic animal populations.[/i] [quote]DO vaccinate your dog!!! Though the current research has said vaccinations cover for a minimum of 3, and up to 7 years.[/quote] [quote]Immunisations can take a lot out of your dog, but certainly not as much as if your dog were to become infected with the disease and die![/quote] actually the current impression is that the core vaccines are effective for 7+ years, possibly for the entire lifetime of the dog. after the puppy series (8, 12 and 16 weeks) and the first annual booster with a modified live vaccine a dog has lifetime protection from distemper and parvovirus. the rabies vaccine may be effective just as long but is required by law in most countries and the compromise is to vaccinate every 3 years. non-core vaccinations are only recommended when there is a significant risk of exposure. where this is unlikely, treating the actual disease if it does in fact occur is the less risky alternative. * corona only affects puppies under 6 weeks of age, so vaccination is entirely pointless. * efficacy of giardia vaccination has been proven unsubstantiated by independent studies. * lepto is only recommended in high-risk areas, since side effects of the vaccine are very common and the risks outweigh the benefits in most cases, that aside the most commonly used vaccine for dogs doesn't cover all strains. * lyme is also only recommended in high risk areas, since a possible side effect is polyarthritis. in the U.S. 85% of all lyme infections occur in the 9 new england states and wisconsin. * parainfluenza vaccine only protects from one of over 8 possible causes of kennel cough. immunity lasts about a year. * bordetella only protects from two of over 8 possible causes of kennel cough. immunity lasts about 6 months. of course many veterinarians really don't want to acknowledge this because it means a huge loss of income for them and the 3-year interval is a compromise mainly in their interest. [quote]I think there are blood tests you can get done to see if your dog is still immune?[/quote] yes, it's called a titer test, and a dog can even be immune to a disease even if it wasn't vaccinated. natural exposure in the environment also causes production of antibodies. the most protected dogs are those who are regularly exposed to the environment and many other dogs. those who spend most of their time indoors and barely ever get taken for walks and never meet other dogs are at a much higher risk because their immune system never receives the triggers to produce antibodies. rabies shots aside (since they are required by law in many countries and titers are not routinely accepted in place of actual vaccination), it is much more prudent to do a titer [b]before[/b] vaccinating, since if the antibody counts are above a certain level, the vaccination won't do anything at all to increase them, so it's pointless. this is what many people don't understand. another thing is that it's totally useless when puppies are vaccinated too early, since the antibodies they received with the mother's milk will make the vaccine ineffective and you risk adverse reactions for nothing at all. [quote]As for worming, any dog fed raw meat, any dog at all for that matter, should be wormed regularly. I worm my guys every 1-2 months, as opposed to the 3 months that is recomended. That is BECAUSE they are fed raw meat and offal, and because we live on a farm and they will occasionally find and eat a dead lamb![/quote] as with vaccinations, worming should only be done if necessary. if someone for example gives heartworm preventives already, they cover most if not all worm infestations as well. even for worming there are better, non-chemical alternatives. food grade diatomaceous earth for example is effective against all intestinal worms except strongyles, plus it contains 14 trace minerals and aids in transporting toxins out of the body. whew, long post, but it's a topic that is not as cut and dry as many people see it. commercial dog food has been around for about 100 years, routine yearly vaccinations for about 50, but many people don't seem to notice how both have cut down on their wellbeing and life span quite a lot. do you really believe it when a pet food company tells you in its ads that at 6 or 7 years of age your dog is a "senior"? unless it's a giant breed with a short lifespan to begin with, i hardly think so. :)

homeowners associations have got to be one of the most stupid inventions ever. i can do nothing but roll my eyes when people talk about this "free country" and then mention some voluntarily formed group that restricts everyone's freedom just to have a certain image. sadly they seem to become more and more prevalent. obviously someone is making rules here that can't be enforced since you and the other dog people moved in before they were established. on top of that you weren't even informed. if i were you, i'd talk to all the other dog people, form a dog owner's association and fight. good luck.

your boy is very, very pretty! he looks a lot like a mixed breed i saw at dog camp this year, but it was also a rescue dog with an unknown background. according to the sheltie breed standard, a sheltie should stand between 13 and 16 inches high, measured from the shoulder blades. i think a dog can hardly fall within those measurements [i]and[/i] weigh 40 lbs at 8 months. :) the head doesn't look like collie at all. at least not like the "modern" collie - but more like the farm collies of old times. i'd be more inclined to believe australian shepherd or border collie is involved, along with possibly sheltie and maybe one or more other breeds.

ok, here goes :) don't look at the name on the "package". catch phrases mean nothing. BARF, SARF, schmarf, whatever. the only thing they usually do is link the feeding program to one particular author of one book or another. what is important is that the diet you choose works for [b]your[/b] individual dog. this is not necessarily an all-raw diet and not even always free of any sources of carbs, like for example moderate amounts of grains and starchy veggies, like potatoes or sweet potatoes. i know people feeding a wide range of diets, from those who feed only strictly muscle and organ meats and bones ([url]http://www.rawdogranch.com[/url] is a nice resource for that) to those who do not want to deal with raw meats and feed home cooked. it doesn't only depend on the dog tho, but also on what resources you have available at what prices. home cooked food that incorporates carbohydrates is more affordable than feeding a strictly animal based raw diet unless you can buy in bulk at greatly reduced prices or team up with other raw feeders. meat, scraps and bones are generally less expensive in rural areas. personally i feed a mix of both raw and cooked foods mainly because my dog prefers cooked meat meals over raw ones, but he does adore his raw meaty bone meals. plus the cooked stuff is very convenient for me to feed in the mornings. another thing many people get very confused about are the supplements needed for feeding home prepared food, regardless if raw or cooked. there are many things you [b]can[/b] give, but very few you [b]have[/b] to. the colloidal silver you mentioned is one of the optional ones. once you read a few books on the topic, you will see that different people advocate adding different supplements, some have a more complicated schedule than others. some actually have a purpose, others people vehemently disagree upon as either absolutely necessary or absolutely useless. there's also a lot of hype about certain things out there. keep that in mind when reading. here are some recommendations for you: [b][url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0875962432/qid=1101513023/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-1988352-0344927?v=glance&s=books&n=507846]Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats[/url][/b] * [url=http://www.drpitcairn.com]Dr. Pitcairn's website[/url] i really, really like this book and recommend it to anyone who wants to move away from commercial pet food. some people disagree on the composition of the recipes (which you [b]can[/b] tweak to suit your specific needs), but it is an easy read and doesn't over-complicate things and scare away people from trying. required supplements are explained in detail and i'm a huge fan of the "healthy powder" which i have customized a little bit for my own animals. [b][url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0646396242/qid=1101513434/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-1988352-0344927?v=glance&s=books&n=507846]Raw Meaty Bones Promote Health[/url][/b] by Tom Lonsdale * [url=http://www.rawmeatybones.com]Dr. Lonesdale's website[/url] he's a vet who actually has a PhD in canines and not just a lot of "book knowledge", unlike many other authors. [b][url=http://www.sitstay.com/store/books/diet1.shtml]K9 Kitchen Your Dogs' Diet: The Truth Behind The Hype[/url][/b] by Monica Segal * [url=http://www.monicasegal.com]Monica's Website[/url] and *[url=http://groups.yahoo.com/group/K9Kitchen/]Yahoo Group[/url] monica is great because she is not biased towards any particular way of feeding and acknowledges that each dog's needs are different. if you have a limited budget for your research, do make sure you definitely get this book. her yahoo group is also a great place to learn about dog nutrition. even if you don't want to participate, reading the archives provides a lot of excellent information. [b][url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1561706361/qid=1101514604/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-1988352-0344927?v=glance&s=books&n=507846]Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats: The Ultimate Pet Diet[/url][/b] by Kymythy Schultze i don't agree with everything she says and she makes a number of unsubstantiated claims, but if you take what she says with a grain of salt and do some critical reading, it's still a decent reference book on raw feeding and it's fairly inexpensive.

dryer sheets are treated with chemicals (and often also fragrances), it's not a good idea to let pets chew on them or ingest them. i have a dog who is nuts about them too, but we have settled on a compromise of plain, untreated sheets of paper towel or kleenex that he likes to shred.

yup, as i mentioned in my post above, it's the "holistique blendz". :) it has only 18% protein and 6% fat and the only animal protein/fat sources used are fish. it's a very nice product for people who want to start out mixing kibble and fresh food.

actually this is a question i'm finding myself answering quite often. :) i've spent quite some time researching the topic of adding extras to kibble, regardless if it's raw or cooked. here is what i've found: all the claims that kibble and other foods digest at greatly different rates and feeding them together is dangerous come from internet sources that have no hard facts to back them up. nothing, nada, zip, zilch, zero. they are just passed on from one person to another (generally by those who are pretty zealous raw feeding extremists) and if people hear things often enough, they tend to take it as fact. then i turned to professional sources. dr. richard pitcairn, a respected vet practicing alternative medicine, recommends supplementing kibble with fresh foods and even has specific recipes for kibble mix-ins in his book (page 45, [i]dr. pitcairn's complete guide to natural health for dogs and cats[/i]). [url=www.monicasegal.com]monica segal[/url], the "doggie dietician" and author of the book [i]K9 Kitchen, Your Dogs' Diet: The Truth Behind The Hype[/i] had the following to say on the [url=http://groups.yahoo.com/group/K9Kitchen]K9 kitchen yahoo group[/url]: [quote]Kibble leaves the stomach after 4-5 hours and, in fact, anything over 8 hours is considered a problem in that the dog would now be considered to have "delayed gastric emptying". Someone, somewhere decided that raw food is digested a faster rate but then we hear that raw food leaves the stomach in 4 hours -- which, of course, isn't faster at all. In any case, to the best of my knowledge, the "informtation" about digestion rates of raw foods is nothing more than one person passing information on to the next person and you know how that goes. If we hear something long enough, we start to believe it :) My concern aboyut mixing kibble into raw food only extends to one being dry and another being wet. If a dog is a serious gulper, there's a bit of a chance that a piece of dry kibble will be thrown into the back of the throat, causing the dog to choke. This is no longer a concern for me if the kibble is mixed in well so that it's as wet as the raw food, therefor going down the throat in the same way.[/quote] if you go by what the manufacturers of pet food say, they generally make recommendations about mixing canned and kibble, which is basically the same situation. in some cases (like with solid gold's holistique blendz, natura's innova evo and eagle dry foods) you even get recommendations about mixing with meats. as far as personal experience goes, i've been mixing kibble and "real food" (both raw and cooked) for years until i finally moved away entirely from feeding kibble. never any problems. :) if your dog does well with this, don't worry about it and continue. :)

[quote name='hunt_jumpfl'] Here are my requirements: Low/No shedding (little to no "doggie smell") Intelligent (I can handle strong willed) Medium size (I would love something in the 20-35 lb size range)[/quote] looks like a standard schnauzer would be a pretty good fit for you.

i don't like that cesar milan guy. in my eyes he's just another of those "celebrity trainers" that are hyped up by the media but when you look closer they are a lot of talk and not much elsee. i don't like how his words contradict his actions. when it comes to the phrase "dog whisperer", paul owens is it. :) [url]http://www.raisewithpraise.com[/url]

it's important to judge a food not by its name, brand or packaging, but by its ingredients. absolutely mind boggling how some poorer quality foods can be more expensive to feed overall than high quality ones. just because they are "popular" also doesn't mean they are of particularly great quality.

as far as food issues go, there's a lot of information here: [url]http://www.mordanna.com/dogfood/[/url] only one thing on that topic here: stay away from [b]any[/b] dog food sold at grocery stores. armed with that it shouldn't be too hard to find a good food that's locally available. point to note: pet stores aren't necessarily the best place to look, especially not large chain stores. i've had better luck with feed stores. other than that? i highly recommend the book "the other end of the leash" by patricia mcconnell, [b]especially[/b] to people who don't have much dog experience. it explains in detail how people and dogs have completely different methods of communicating and how from that mistakes are made on both sides. if you avoid those common mistakes, your life with your dog will be much more enjoyable for both dog and humans. sadly there are still too many sources recommending so called "old school" methods for dog training around, as well as so called "celebrity trainers" who are highly touted by media but don't have a real clue either. a GSD mix is likely to be a fairly large dog and one that's been a stray might need a little more work with certain things than a pup that had an easier start in life. the best thing you can do is to enroll in an obedience class, not only for training but also for socialization. if you are in the US, [url]www.apdt.com[/url] is a good place to look for a knowledgeable trainer. that's all i can think of right now :)

[b][url=http://www.dremel.com/productdisplay/tool_template2.asp?SKU=8000-01&Color=99CCFF]this[/url][/b] is the one i bought. :)

i try for once a week, but i can be a bit of a slacker when it comes to nail trimming - because it's something my dog really hates. it was a lot worse with nail trimmers, so the dremel is an improvement but he still doesn't love it. so the day i do his nails i don't subject him to any other "torture" :D since it's very stressful for him. oh how i loved my old dog, she never needed her nails trimmed since she'd chew them off herself if they got too long for her taste. they were always perfect. :)

i feed bones indoors all the time. my dog is trained to stay on hos towel with them, and those towels are replaced depending on how messy they get. i also give both frozen and non frozen, depending on what i have on hand. my dog doesn't seem to care either way, but frozen ones do tend to last a little longer. buried bones - well, they are very stinky. they aren't harmful or anything, but i wouldn't go as far as saying they contribute any better nutrition. decomposition breaks down proteins and fats so they are sort of "predigested", but for a healthy animal that doesn't really make a difference. i only pick up and refrigerate/refreeze recreational bones that are not cleaned of all marrow, meats and fats. once they are clean and dry, i let the dog keep them for as long as he shows interest.

i do, i do :) it's true that the quick recedes more and more the closer you grind to it each time. you can go as close as you are comfortable. the nice thing about the dremel is that even if you do hit the quick, you will only nick it a tiny little bit, not as much as with a nail trimmer. if it happens with the dremel, you will only get a single drop of blood or two and it stops rather quickly.

that article is flawed in a number of places, some of which i can clearly trace to misunderstandings in translations from german to english. in addition to that, of course the stud book would show that several wolves are involved, after all some members of the club [i]did[/i] use them extensively in their bloodlines, i never denied that. fact is that much less wolf blood was involved than many people believe, it was mainly used to design a certain "look" for which von stephanitz did [b]not[/b] care since to him looks were not as important as working ability and temperament, and some bloodlines suffered badly from temperament flaws originating from crossing in more wolf blood. here's an example of the dogs that are the foundation of the GSD, which is very obvious in the looks: [url]http://a-a-h.de/gelbbackegalerie/gelbbacke.htm[/url] i'm going to step away from this topic and will agree to disagree, i've seen too many people wanting to inerpret too many things into the breed for too many reasons, the latest of which seems to be to justify the creation of various wolf hybrids. :)

[quote]Actually, the founder dog did have some recent wolf heritage, [/quote] what i am aware of is that a great grandmother of "horand von grafrath" was a wolf cross. that's much less than even 1/4 wolf in the dog von stephanitz bought. [quote]Although wolf inheritance did not overwhelm the GSD's origins, that does not mean they did not play a crucial role.[/quote] actually that's a very common myth, more prevalent in the US i have noticed. they didn't play a crucial role. the traditional sheepherding dogs of germany did - and those dogs had been bred and used for [b]hundreds[/b] of years already at that point, from breeding programs in which aggressive animals and those who showed tendencies to bite had been rigorously eliminated, since their job was to herd livestock without threatening or biting. this is not a character trait that would have been strenghtened by wolf incrossing. von stephanitz started out in 1897/1898 with freya and horand vom grafrath. in 1899 he founded the german shepherd club with 13 fellow dog enthusiasts. by 1920 already severe deterioration of character and temperament due to wolf incrossing in some lines were noticed and dire warnings were issued against crossing in any more wolf blood just to achieve a more uniform look. at this point in the history of the GSD, wolf incrosses were [b]not[/b] made to improve working ability or other character traits, it was simply done to achieve a certain look and under the false assumption that dogs with more wolf blood were less subsceptible to distemper. von stephanitz did not care for designing a specific look and vehemently spoke out against wolf incrossing around 1902 already. the intelligence working ability had been there for hundreds of years already, in the above mentioned sheepherding breeds. some of these have been described in cynological literature in the 1700s already. you can see pics of some of these old breeds at [url]http://www.beepworld.de/members15/wolfundfuchs/huetehunde.htm[/url], there's a whole club dedicated to keeping them from extinction, and you will barely ever find one of them in a non-working home. it's also a misconception that certain names some of these breeds were known under have anything to do with actual wolves being part of the breed history. parts of breed names are "fuchs" (fox, mainly because of the coat color but also the shape of the ears - chestnut colored horses are also called fuchs in germany, and they certainly aren't part fox either ;)), "tiger" (for the merled coats prevalent in some lines, the same naming convention is used for certain coat patterns of cats btw) and "wolf" because these sheepherding dogs also protected their flocks from wolves and sometimes killed the ones that tried to prey on the livestock. a coon hound isn't called a coon hound either because it's part coon. :) believe me, if you are german, a dog enthusiast and member of a dog training club and have a boyfriend who is a GSD enthusiast like his father and grandfather, it's kind of hard to avoid learning about germany's most famous breed and the myths and misconceptions. :)

[quote name='Seijun']The original GSD was created using wolf/dog breedings.[/quote] actually that's not quite correct. one of the ancestors of the first dog von stephanitz bought for his breeding program [i]originated[/i] from a dog/wolf crrossbreeding. that's about it. von stephanitz developed his breed based on the traditional german sheepherding dogs. these don't have much more of a background of an actual wolf than any other traditional breed out there. (by that i mean region specific working dogs.) it is true that some breeders tried to develop the looks (and health, mainly susceptibility to distemper) of their lines by crossing in wolves, but von stephanitz was very much against this, since the obvious side effects of crossing in wolves were excessive prey drive, shyness, flight and nervousness - traits that were not desirable at all for the vision of a working dog he had and that are still faults in the breed standard until today! von stephanitz always focused more on temperament and working ability rather than on looks. in his opinion, a good dog can't come in a bad color. :)