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“A pleasing appearance is desirable, but it cannot put the dog’s working ability into question” - Max Von Stephantiz, creator of the German Shepherd Dog breed OBEDIENCE & PERFORMANCE TITLED DOGS Whitemist Treasure DWDF.S AD JDX GD SPD SD HT ET AAD Schatzi owned by Rachel Devenish-Meares, Schatzfunde Kennels, NSW. Schatzi and Rachel are continuing to break records! Schatzi was the first white to obtain all of these titles (except the ET) in Australia! No other white even comes close to achieving this many titles! Rachel and Schatzi have also been award our club’s most Esteemed Working Dog Award for two years in a row now! What an unstoppable team! Schatzi’s ANKC Titles DWDF.S = Dances With Dogs AD = Agility Dog Title JDX = Jumping Dog Excellent GD = Gamblers Dog SPD = Strategic Pairs Dog SD = Snooker Dog HT = Herding Test ET = Endurance Title Other Titles AAD = Australian Agility Dog Alpenwolf Arctic Warlock C.D.X. T.D.X. Blitz owned by M. Gandert ANKC Registered German Shepherd Dog Blitz lives on through Neigepearl kennel lines Bayein Frosty Snowman C.D. T.D.X. Frosty owned by C. Marschner ANKC Registered German Shepherd Dog Ceora White Flash A.O.C Australian Obedience Champion ANKC Registered German Shepherd Dog Strathclyde White Fang A.O.C. ANKC Registered German Shepherd Dog (Australian Obedience Champion) Schondi Warna CDX TD (Companion Dog Excellent; Tracking Dog Excellent) Stronway Marty CD (Companion Dog) RAAF DOGS, RIP & JUNE Owned, trained & loved by Lifetime Honorary Member, W/off Ret’d G.W. Gadsby B.E.M.J.P Glen & June, 1963 Thank you for your letter. I was very interested to hear of your association. I had two White German Shepherds during my RAAF career; firstly a white bitch called June (Police Dog 41) and a white dog called Rip (Police Dog 251). I knew of one or two other White Shepherds during my 20 years of service, but to the best of my knowledge, there weren’t many. As to whether being a white dog was detrimental or very visible, I never found it a problem with my two Shepherds. They obviously are a little more visible but with their wonderful ability to scent an intruder around corners as I used to say, and their fearless and swift response when required, I would back my whites against any black and tan! I most certainly would not consider them to be inferior in any way. Both my dogs were highly intelligent, devoted to me, protective and responsive to whatever was required of them. Very sound in temperament. I saw and supervised a lot of training of service dogs, Army, RAAF, Navy and when they first introduced, the customs dogs were trained under me at the then RAAF Training School at Toowoomba and the colour of a dogs’ coat meant little, it was their abilities that were important. Over a lot of years I did PR work for the RAAF with both of my dogs, along with other security guards in my mustering. One of my RAAF mates, had a beautiful pure black Shepherd, and we caused quite a stir during demonstrations for the public (showing the skills, and the tricks of the RAAF Police Dogs). When he worked his black dog along with his white bitch, they worked wonderfully together. I taught firstly the bitch, and later the dog to carry a raw egg in their mouth around an obstacle course, finishing with a jump through a fire hoop. People didn’t believe it was a raw one until, at the end of the demo, I would throw the egg up in to the air and it would break as it hit the ground. I was, to my knowledge, the first man to teach an RAAF dog to do that. Both my dogs did lots of little tricks which I would incorporate into the demo along with the more serious skills they possessed. RAAF Police Dog “RIP” Rip went through Cyclone Tracey, in Darwin with me in 1974, and I vividly remember when we came out of Darwin in one piece, and were posted to Op. Command at Glenbrook in the Blue Mountains. We did a demo at Penrith Showgrounds, I think it was, and when we came out to start, the announcer introduced as the man and the dog who went through Cyclone Tracey, we received a standing ovation from the crowd. Lovely memories! Rip was officially presented to me, age 10 years, by the Commanding Officer of 7SD Toowoomba, Sqn Ldr Jim Dunne, during a very moving official presentation. Rip was wearing a red coat with Sergeant stripes on it. It was a first for a RAAF dog, and received a lot of publicity. Unfortunately, Rip had bad hip dysplasia and arthritis and only lasted another 12 months before he had to be put to rest. June, the bitch, also had hip dysplasia and was put to rest aged 11 years, which was pretty good considering not a lot was known about hip dysplasia or at least testing dogs for it before they were accepted into the Service. Police dogs in the Service to do a lot of physical work during their service life, as you would know I’m sure. Here is a little bit of background to each of my white dogs: JUNE She was allocated to me at Police Dog Training Centre Tottenham, Victoria (at no 1 Stores Depot) in 1963. After completing a 10 week training course, we were posted to Darwin for security duties at the RAAF radar station. She was a tall bitch, standing some 27 inches, and was spayed when she was accepted into the service. She was intelligent, skilful and reliable, always protective of me, and fearless in her guarding duties. In monthly assessments of her training tasks she was always in the 85-95% efficiency ratings. As mentioned earlier, she was the first RAAF dog to carry a raw egg though an obstacle course. She was used very regularly in PR displays, and was well known for her abilities. She was my 4-legged, right-hand girl for nearly 10 years, serving with me at 8 RAAF bases. Her colour was pure white with black points, and she was regarded by many experienced dog trainers as one of the best they’d seen. RIP Rip was allocated to me at the RAAF base Fairbairn, in the ACT a few months after June died. He had been partly trained by a very junior dog handler, who didn’t have a good rapport with him or with RAAF life in general. Rip was nearly 5 years old when he became my dog, a practice not usually followed in those days. It was my experience with dogs, I feel, and the fact that I had known him as a dog in the kennels, often fed him and we had a good rapport. During the next 5 years, we became a strong man/dog team. When time allowed, often in the lonely, early morning hours of a shift I taught him all the tricks I had taught to June, including carrying the raw egg trick. He was stubborn, not was easy to train as June, but very receptive with perseverance and patience. He was extremely strong with aggression work, but only on command. Those who wore the padded sleeve against him in aggression work, certainly knew how strong he was and how hard he could bite! He was similar to June in many ways, and away from “work” was gentle and affectionate.I don’t know what either of their breed lines were, as it wasn’t a requirement of the RAAF to know this. June came from Melbourne and Rip from Sydney. Rip stood 24 inches at the shoulder, was a very good looking dog, as June was a bitch, and rip was white with a pink nose. SHOW-BIZ DOGS Schatzi owned by Rachel Devenish-Meares As you can see from the titles Schatzi has earned above, she is an easily trained dog who truly enjoys working. She is also known to the general public as "The Mathematical Dog" from The Pet Show on ABC TV in which she performed her signature trick where she barks the answer to maths problems. Schatzi also won 1^st place in the TV Competition! Schatzi trains in agility, herding and obedience and is the first dog in the history of their local training club to pass every obedience level first time and win first place each time. Schatzi can perform tricks such as going to a mark, spins, speak on command, back up and can target objects with her feet, nose and even her ears. Schatzi works well with people and adores children. She will happily work with other animals. Schatzi is currently working towards getting her titles in herding, obedience and agility. Congratulations Schatzi and Rachel, keep up the great work! ASSISTANCE DOGS ANKC Registered German Shepherd Dog Whitemile Tequila Jessie owned by Rebecca Glasheen Photo by Brooke Taylor Jessie is 5yrs old (2006). She was deemed a qualified Assistance Dog (Service) since she was 18 months old. Assistance Dogs have the same standards as Guide Dogs but instead of guiding the blind they are trained to assist the disabled. Jessie helps me pick things up from the floor, turn lights on, alert on command (speak), open and close doors, help me undress and lots of other great things too help me be independent. I do charity work for ASDOG which inspired me to have my own dog trained. I didn’t want a Labrador as I always wanted a German Shepherd Dog. I was very lucky that I happened to have picked a white German Shepherd Dog that was great for the work I needed. Thank-you to the owners and friends of these dogs for providing us with these photos! These photographs are copyright and may not be used without owners’ or photographers express permission.