# what did impress you the most?



## jack van strien (Apr 9, 2009)

I remember when i was living in Lethbridge Alberta a looong time ago,i was in a tack shop and had a collar made for my dog(rottie).
In came a cop who was a K9 handler and he brought his dog in with him,in my view a vey nice looking dog.
We started talking and i asked him a few things about his dog and what was his dogs best feature.He smiled and said he would show me.The shop had a small room in the back full of scrap pieces of leather,i mean it was a least a foot high.He took one small piece out and tied a knot in it and asked me to hide it in between the other scraps.
He then send in his dog and within a minute the dog came back with the knotted piece of leather.I was amazed and that really impressed me to this day.
Have you got a similar story?


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## Jeff Oehlsen (Apr 7, 2006)

An old friend of mines dog had the most foul smelling gasses coming out of him that it was actually impressive if you could stay in the same room. The dog was 16 or 17.


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## Mike Di Rago (Jan 9, 2009)

Jack,
I did the same sort of thing with a pebble and have the person pick a pebble with an odd shape or color, hold it a while and then throw it in a pile and have the dog retrieve it. When the people said that was neat I just said the dog had no great talent as that pebble was the only one with scent!!
Mike


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## Matthew Grubb (Nov 16, 2007)

In the last 7 years, the best cheer I got from a demo crowd was an article search for a paper clip.


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## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

I went to a seminar and saw Michael Ellis and his dog Pi do the positions exercise and the call-off. I saw Marina and L'Simba heeling (L'Simba was about a year old then).

Totally changed my perspective on training and made me want to go for more structured training.


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## Kadi Thingvall (Jan 22, 2007)

We had a Lab mix when I was growing up that had a cool retrieve. We'd take a rock, throw it into the creek, and she'd go in and bring back that rock. To this day I have no idea how she did it, it's not like they can smell under water. But she would bring back the correct rock every time. If we threw it in the deeper water she'd dive down and find it, and if we threw in a big enough one that she couldn't swim with it in her mouth, she'd go under then use her front feet to roll the rock into more shallow water until she could pick it up without having to swim to carry it, and walk it to shore.


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## Jerry Lyda (Apr 4, 2006)

That impresses me with the knotted leather. How did he teach the dog to tie a knot just like the other one? Dogs don't even have thumbs.


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## David Frost (Mar 29, 2006)

Jerry Lyda said:


> That impresses me with the knotted leather. How did he teach the dog to tie a knot just like the other one? Dogs don't even have thumbs.


chuckle, chuckle, 

DFrost


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## Edward Egan (Mar 4, 2009)

Jeff Oehlsen said:


> An old friend of mines dog had the most foul smelling gasses coming out of him that it was actually impressive if you could stay in the same room. The dog was 16 or 17.


You were friends with my grandfather?


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

An old man that lived across the street from me when I was a kid (10-12 yrs old) had a Pointer.
That dog could and would do anything asked but most impressive (to me) was the dog never crossed the street without the old man. He may be a block ahead but waited at the curb till the old guy got there then walked in perfect heel position til the old man's foot hit the other curb.Goooooone again!
He taught me how to do that with my Collie x Shepherd. After that mom got me my first dog training book (still have it) and I've never looked back.
Something he said that always stuck with me. "
If you don't want a dog to do something, "NEVER" let him do it. If you want a dog to do something let him know what you want."
So very simple! I think it just boils down to being consistant! :wink:


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Kadi Thingvall said:


> We had a Lab mix when I was growing up that had a cool retrieve. We'd take a rock, throw it into the creek, and she'd go in and bring back that rock.


I'm so glad you posted this, because I was hesitating to post about a long-ago JRT my daughter had who did this. I thought he was unique.


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## Nicole Stark (Jul 22, 2009)

Connie Sutherland said:


> I'm so glad you posted this, because I was hesitating to post about a long-ago JRT my daughter had who did this. I thought he was unique.


We had one that would do it too, his name was Cisco.


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## Adi Ibrahimbegovic (Nov 21, 2008)

Back in the 80s, when I was a teenager, there was a Police GSD that I used to observe while training. A buddy of mine and I would go watch the k9 teams train back then (his dad was a big shot of something in the department)and they would usualy ignore us sitting at a safe distance in the bleachers at a local stadium.

6 or 7 times out of 10, consistently, he would take a decoy down while doing a long attack, no matter the decoy's size, skill level etc... He would go full speed frontal, no hesitation (common nowadays to see GSDs kind of "gather themselves" and slow down a little then go for it). 

He would go full tilt and while going at the sleeve dead center (I had it on VHS way back then and I wore the tape out watching it in slo mo over and over again), at the sae time as biting at the sleeve he would push forward, while still int he air with his front paws at a guy as hard as he could. Whether it's momentum, or his little maneuver or whatever it was, the guy would plonk down like a sack.

I guess he just enjoyed ground work, where he can be even steven with the guy so he had to do what he had to do to get there.

A fee years later somebody else who was around told me the dog figured it all on his own and developed his own technique" and style. They bred him but none of his offspring would do that later on.

The closest that reminds me of that dog nowadays that I have seen in all the videos after all these years is Terry Macia's old dog Eik Nordenstam. That dog also had a reputation as a helper down taker, as we discussed here on this very forum before and had done it many times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps_ddqj9zuw&feature=related

Video of Eiktaking the guy can be seen here:


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## Dan Long (Jan 10, 2008)

Mike Di Rago said:


> Jack,
> I did the same sort of thing with a pebble and have the person pick a pebble with an odd shape or color, hold it a while and then throw it in a pile and have the dog retrieve it. When the people said that was neat I just said the dog had no great talent as that pebble was the only one with scent!!
> Mike


 I do the same thing with twigs, have someone pick one and then put it in the brush pile. They are amazed how fast he finds it. Great party tricks lol.


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## Don Turnipseed (Oct 8, 2006)

I read an article recently about the commuter dogs of Moscow. Since the breakup of the SU in the 90's, things have gravitated to the cities leaving empty buildings in the urban areas. Feral,dogs have taken up residence in these buildings but there is not food so they ride the commuter trains into the city in the mornings to beg for food in the city....in the evenings they actually get back on the trains and actually get off at the right stop going home. Now I find that impressive. These dogs are even bringing panhandling to new heights iwith the different manners in which they entice people to give them food. Now these dogs have to qualify as "working dogs".


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## Adi Ibrahimbegovic (Nov 21, 2008)

Livin' in the burbs, workin' in the city, huh?

That's pretty impressive. All they need now is "Pravda" newspaper in their mouth when they ride the train and nobody would pay much attention to them...


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## Don Turnipseed (Oct 8, 2006)

I'll see if I can find the article.


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## Ben Thompson (May 2, 2009)

Don Turnipseed said:


> I'll see if I can find the article.


I don't personally believe the story I think those dogs look too healthy and fed to be strays. 

http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2009/04/07/smartest-dogs-moscow-stray-dogs/


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