I miss our 12 working (GSD's) German Shepherd Dogs..... A full blown Kennel for 31 years, with Kim obtaining more titles on our dogs, than the big GSD Kennels in all LA County. TD-Therapy Dog/ TDI-Therapy Dog International Confirmation-a simple show of who's pretty, or closer to the breed standards. Obedience-Kim taught all of our dogs, every aspect of "the complete GSD" Kadiver-Locator Dogs. A GSD can smell up to 60 feet below while hovering over water. Search and Rescue- Drug Detection Explosives Detection even Herding Certificates on all. and Lure Coursing too, the only GSDs to be entered in such. A blood donator, who also was the 1st dog on a Superior Court stand, to enable a young 12 year old girl, give her the security to point out her step-father assailant. No need to go further. Although one of our TDI Dogs was the 1st ever Therapy Dog to be allowed on a Superior Court Witness stand, to comfort a 12 year old girl, point out her step-father assailant....
Rob....did any of your dogs have seizure sensing abilities? I understand quite a few of the German breeds have this ability. One of Ajax play buddies when he was a pup was a GSD named Blade. Blade first detected the owners heart condition...hypo arrhythmia and saved the guy on two occasions. He'd just pass out and fall like a log and the dog twice flipped the guy on his back and jumped on him to keep his heart pumping. He's since had surgery to correct the defect. Ironic..the guy was a marine scout sniper and he always too pride in his low heart rate.....made him a better shooter under stress situations.
Found out very quickly that the Shepherds in this country were smaller than the ones I encountered whiled stationed in Berlin. Our site was at Rudow right on the wall so we got very good looks at how the Vopos used the dogs to keep people from crossing into the West. Our site mascot was a Shepherd named Toby who clocked in probably at 110 pounds and could look me right in the eye when he placed his paws on my shoulders. I've always admired those dogs, smart and tenacious. When stationed in the zone a friend of mine had a white shepherd named Queenie (female) around 65 pounds. He taught the dog all its commands in German and would bring her with him when he had 24 hour CQ duties. He had very little problem with barracks residents when he brought her in.
I am glad you asked that Question Tom. I should of noted as much 1st. Yes, indeed 3 of our GSD's were seizure early detection capable. Our Son had one sleep on his bed, roomy for both., Kim had one sleep in our bed. Our 3rd rotated in and out with the other 2. All those seizure detection dogs, would alert minutes prior to seizure activity. If Kim was in another room, and I in another. One of the 3 would run into the room I was in, and alert and bark vehemently, while turning their head in the direction Kim or Kenneth were in. They barked with almost desperation, more fervently, and would not stop until I followed them.... That aspect of our dogs, was no doubt the #1 factor of importance in our lives..
