Tina M. Barber the Breed Founder of the Original Shiloh Shepherd Dog
Lisa Barber Proud Owner of New Zion Home of the Original Shiloh Shepherd Dog
DUTCH PRIDE SHILOHS
http://www.shilohshepherds.info/siteMap.htm
http://www.shilohshepherds.org/kennelof.htm
Hi, my name is Tina Barber- MaSHILOH and I would like to provide you with a little history about "Shiloh Shepherds™."
When I came to America things were very different from what I grew up with, the only source of comfort I had came from my dogs. They provided a strong emotional link for me, between my past and future. As soon as I mastered the language well enough I started visiting as many breeders as I could find. I then met the owner of a very large kennel, which was in the process of expanding! Immediately I offered to help clean her kennels, groom her dogs, etc. for free, just so I could be near these beautiful animals! Since both of her daughters were grown and gone, and never showed much interest in her hobby anyway, it didn't take long before she practically adopted me!
In 1962 I wanted to start building my own reputation, and chose Konigin for my kennel name. I had researched all of the top kennels around, and seen some dogs at the shows Margo took me to, so I knew what I wanted. I already had a Liebestraum and a Wikingerblut female, now I wanted to expand. Odin von Busecker Schloss, was my idea of near perfection, I felt that his lines would cross well with my girls. Yet I was missing some of the confident temperaments I needed for the strenuous Schutzhund competitions I planned to train for. The Piastendamm dogs solved that problem for me quickly! Although not as big as I had hoped for, their temperaments were impeccable! When combined with the superior intelligence of the Liebestraum lines, this was an unbeatable combination!
Over the next decade I devoted every spare minute I had to my dogs. I degreed 14 Schutzhund dogs for NASA, while still participating in as many show circuits as I could squeeze in! I truly believed then, and still do today, that the (true) German Shepherd is the most awesome breed of dog on earth! It was no wonder that they became so popular! What other breed can you find that can earn a Sch 3 in the morning....baby-sit your children in the afternoon........and lead a blind person safely across the streets of NYC that evening? Like my friend Chuck (owner & trainer of the famous TV "Littlest Hobo" stars) would say, you don't train these dogs, you teach them!
The popularity of these magnificent dogs skyrocketed quickly! It seemed like, nearly everyone wanted a German Shepherd. This brought the "backyard breeders" out in droves. They quickly outnumbered the dedicated conscientious breeders, and "flooded" the market with inferior quality animals that should never have been bred. The results from their actions can be seen everywhere. I never intended to "change" the breed, my goals back then were to preserve the "type" that I was so in love with. The big, mentally sound, beautiful dogs I grew up with! My first focus was on the hips. Once I realized what a problem this was becoming within the breed, as a trainer I knew that hips had to be the number 1 priority! I had seen perfectly sound dogs do things that were not "temperament" related, like biting a small child! Some of these dogs had such a low pain tolerance that their personality would change because of the pain they were in. Just as people react differently to pain, (some can handle a lot more then others) dogs also have a variety of levels they can deal with, and once that level is reached their personality can be effected. It does not matter how beautiful a dog is, if he is in pain and his temperament is effected, this dog is no good to himself or anyone else! It was for this reason that I started to research ways of improving this situation, you can read the full details in my LMX article.
In 1974 I had made some drastic changes in my life. It was that winter that I changed my kennel name to "Shiloh Shepherds™." There was a very important reason for this, and you can read the entire story if you click on to, What's in a Name.
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Indian boy and German shepherd puppy traning centreby Deepank18196 views
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