Our new pups Tog, Tora and Tammy arrive from Germany and Ruby retires

My first job of 2017 was to travel to Hovelhof  in Germany the home of my friend Alfons Schumeister  to collect our latest pups for our puppy program. Alfons is a small family German shepherd breeder who has been breeding for over 30 years under the kennel name of Moosheider Teich.

Here they all are in my kitchen after their 2 day journey via Calais and Dover and I never had a peep out of them throughout the trip.

The pups are now 4 months old. Let me introduce them to you individually.

TAG

Tag is a very chilled laid back puppy who doesn’t get too excited about very much in life. That all changes if you get a toy or a ball out then he goes into overdrive.

TAMMY

Tammy is a very highly driven dog who plays extremely hard and is very determined. She has not had the level of socialisation that the other 2 have had and so that will be the main objective for her over the coming months.

TARA 

We found out 2 weeks ago that Tara had a small umbilical hernia and so I had decided not to purchase her. The reason I wanted to purchase 2 females was because we are looking for a future breeding female. An umbilical hernia tends to rule out future breeding as the experts tell us it is a genetic fault.

However once I saw her character and infectious personality I was smitten and had to bring her back. Her tail never stops wagging and she meets everything in life head on.

Once I got the pups home the plan was for them to stay with me for 2 days to give me a chance to evaluate their characters and personalities before going to their puppy walkers.  As always our girl Sasha wanted to mother them all and took them under her wing.


Prior to me going to Germany my daughter went on her honeymoon to New Zealand for 3 weeks and we are looking after her Cocker spaniel dog Bruce in addition to our dogs Lenny, Rudi and Sasha

Obviously while I was away in Germany I couldn’t expect my long suffering wife Di to look after them all and so Lenny and Rudi had to go into kennels for a few days. I knew that Lenny would cope but I was worried about 7 month old Rudi because of his age. I needn’t have worried apparently he had a great time.

I really enjoyed having the 3 pups but after two days together it was obvious that Tammy, Tag and Tara needed to go to their puppy walkers because their play together was becoming much to rough and aggressive. I could see them injuring themselves with the speed they were charging around the garden.

I have had a number of people wondering why I have been travelling to Germany to collect pups.

In 1994 When I was a Police dog Sgt I took 3 of my dog handlers to the Westfalen Police dog training centre in Germany which is responsible for over 350 Police dogs. The visit was very informative and I have maintained contact with one of the head instructors Werner Rapien ever since.

Through Werner I have got to know Alfons who has provided several excellent dogs to our dog section. It is difficult obtaining enough good quality pups in the UK which have the qualities we are looking for and so we are hoping that by going to Germany we can supplement the pups we acquire in the UK.

That’s not to say that Germany the fatherland of the GSD do not have their own problems because they do. It is a global issue which revolves around limiting the genes to a specific breed of dog

Puppy walkers collect their dogs

On Sunday 8th January our puppy walkers arrived to collect their pups.



We all had a great time with the pups running around and Sasha didn’t need a second invitation to join in.


Looking at how calm and relaxed the pups are here being restrained by people they have never met before indicates to me that they all have very good characters. No sign of panic or stroppiness which bodes well for the future.

Terry and Jill will be puppy walking Tara.

They have only just finished puppy walking Ronnie who was also bred by Alfons and he will be on the January 2017 Initial Police dog course starting this week.

Nigel and Sue are temporary walkers for Tag who will be going to his permanent puppy walker in 2 weeks time.

Nigel and Sue puppy walked Billy who is also on the 2017 Initial Police dog course.

Angie and Graham are also temporary walkers for Tammy who will also be going to her permanent walker in 2 weeks time.

They puppy walked Reggie who passed out as a Police dog in December last year.

We are extremely grateful to Angie, Graham, Nigel and Sue for helping out while we fully vet the new walkers of Tammy and Tag.
One last photo and away they all went.

I'm looking forward to see how they all develop and we will keep you all informed of their progress.

Ruby retires from the Breeding Program

Prior to Christmas I made the decision to retire Ruby from our breeding program. It was made mainly because we had during her two previous seasons experienced difficulties getting a successful mating and having more than done her part for our program I felt it was best for her and her Carer Mark.

Ruby has been a very important part of our small breeding program having had two litters the A & C litters both with 7 pups and both litters consisting of 3 males and 4 females. Of those 14 pups 10 have gone on to become licensed operational Police dogs.

We purchased Ruby as a puppy in 2011 and she is pictured here when she was 11 weeks old. ( Show Pic 13) She was puppy walked by Pauline and Derrick Fisher.

Ruby had her first litter at our house in June 2013. Here she is with her pups in the garden

Here are all of the A litter with their puppy walkers about to leave to go to their new homes.

In October 2014 Ruby had her second litter the C litter again at our house. Here they are having a meal outside.

Here they are with Ruby and me in the summer house

Here they all are with their puppy walkers on our first training day..

As previously stated 10 of her pups have gone on to become operational Police dogs in Devon and Cornwall, Dorset and Avon and Somerset.

Here are Mark with Axel & Carla with Arry.

Here is Mandy of A&S with Argo and their commendation for excellent Police work

Here are the rest of the A litter on their passing out parade with their handlers and puppy walkers.

From left to right are Ash, Grommit, Argo, Annie and Ava.

Axel, Annie and Ash have also gone on to become elite Firearm support dog teams

Here are the C litter pups graduating as operational Police dogs on their passing out parade with their puppy walkers and handlers.

From left to right are Chaos, Charley, Cosmic and Comet.

We are extremely grateful to Pauling and Derrick for puppy walking Ruby and also to Mark Fairchild who has been Ruby’s carer since she had the A litter.

I didn’t realise just how emotional I would find it to retire Ruby but it is not surprising particularly as I have watched her develop from 8 weeks of age and watched her being the perfect mother to her pups at our house where she raised them.

However I am happy in the knowledge that she will now retire with Mark who adores her and I am sure they will just carry on as they have ie joined at the hip enjoying each other’s company for many more years to come

We wish them luck.

Finally I thought I would finish with a couple of pictures of Sasha our one remaining breeding female just to illustrate just how ball mad she is. She recently sat and watched the recent Spurs v Aston villa football match hoping the football on the screen would come her way.

The January 2017 Initial Police dog course gets underway this week and I will introduce all the handlers and dogs in my next blog.

See you next time.