Lycan and I enjoy adventuring together. We hike, we ManTrail, we herd Chickens & Homing Pigeons, we enjoy Protection Training, Scent Work, Dog Obedience as well as Trick Training. I am also all about keeping this German Shepherd Dog healthy and share my knowledge regarding the DIY BARF diet (Natural Nutrition). Join us in the different facets we enjoy together including the friendship this big dog has with a not so big kitten. If you do not have a dog please come and live vicariously through us. If you enjoy the GSD breed then this is a great channel to enjoy the antics of this wonderful breed. Please note that I am a qualified Canine Health Ethologist, specializing in Dog Behavior, Dog and Puppy Obedience Training, Canine Health as in Natural Nutrition (Raw feeding [DIY BARF]) so I am qualified to dish out information regarding these listed topics.
I love how excited Lycan is around food time. He jumps around, bolts through the house to get to the patio and barks happily -telling me to hurry up. And he loves every morsel inside his dish. All dogs should be that happy about their food.
Training with Understanding means being patient, helping the dog when they do not get it right and praising them when they do. I do not use corrections in Agility but rather show Lycan again what I want. This keeps him keen despite the fact that he is not a fan of Agility.
I love watching Lycan just frolic around off lead doing his own thing. But he does look at me asking for something to do too and that is when I ask him to eg climb onto rocks etc. The GSD is a working breed and enjoys doing tasks.
Look out for next week's video where Lycan goes to a big Garden Center with me. What a surprise to find out this particular garden center is doggy friendly. For years I believed it was not dog friendly at all. Lycan loved his visit there. I hope you will all enjoy that video.
I am happy to report that just two weeks after this Mantrailing lesson Lycan and I once again had a lesson in the veld and bush and he excelled. The trails were longer than in this video and he had no trouble with them at all. It really helps to take time to work on your dog's weak points and make sure you set them up for a lot of success.
So when in doubt have a person in front of the dog with a tin of high value cat food and feed the dog a little bit at a time on a teaspoon to keep the dog calm and distracted while getting his wash. It is amazing how cooperative the dog can be when it is worth their while. Lycan was an absolute angel.🥰
You have got to love Golden Retrievers as they are mostly as sweet as the one in this video. I hope Lycan and I will come across this one again in the future.
@AdventureswithLycanmyGSD he looks cute 😍. Ears are not big thing.. bw Ears he has one of the most intelligent brain which is most important & for this whole world admire ths magnificent breed ❤️
I have another herding video coming up in the near future. I am filming these chicken videos as its great to see Lycan's herding progress. I would love to see how he would do with sheep. He has been exposed to sheep as part of his socialization when he was younger. I would love to see how he would work with them.
So what do you think? Should you rely on a particular collar, leash or harness for proper loose leash walking? Would your dog understand what they are supposed to do if you use these only?
Lycan is a South African West German GSD. This is just how they are bred - they have loose hips. The German Judges at the conformation shows are encouraging this type of breeding, as well as the roachy backs (unfortunately). The hips are just fine.
In a sense yes, his gate is not perfect. Apparently the Anorchid dog does experience a bit of discomfort in their backs. His future does hold all sorts of skeletal issues, including Osteoporosis. The other side of the coin is that Lycan is a South African West German GSD and they have incredibly loose joints, are cow hocked and wobble along when they walk. As they get older it is a little less wobbly. Their backs are also bred to be very, shall we call it "banana backed", so their back legs get in under their bodies. And to think the Judges actually encourage this type of dog, this type of conformation, and this is why the GSD conformation, gait etc is a complete mess at this time - even in Germany itself. I did not know all this when I got Lycan but I am now wiser for it and I will never buy a South African West German GSD again, not even from the best breeder in our country (and Lycan's father comes from one of the best breeders in our country).
@AdventureswithLycanmyGSD it's extremely interesting. regardless, the amount of love and bonding Lycan possesses is probably unimaginable. I'm sure lycan is living a life he may not have been able to if he was with a different owner/trainer. Everyone looks for perfection and may not have taken a second look due to the pup not fitting the standard. I wish to both of you the best out of life! Lycan is beautiful!
On a side note I want to mention that after our Mantrailing lesson we went for a bit of a hike through this property as there is wild game and lovely views. But, the wind picked up even more and blew a super fine dust all around us. Alot of this dust got into Lycan's fur and onto his skin and a day later he got super super itchy. This poor dog was nibbling on himself like crazy. I first thought fleas, food intolerance and all sorts but it was none of that. What he needed was a cleansing bath and this fixed the itch nicely. So sometimes if your dog gets itchy try a nice bath with a doggy safe shampoo as this may fix the problem.
This is Lycan's 3rd Fayre and I have a feeling he loves the Fayres as much as my daughter Natasha and I do. I also strongly believe that Lycan enjoyes being dressed up. He is also so much better about posing for photos for people who ask to take a photo of him. All that special attention is enjoyable I think. He just does not want anyone to touch him though which is fine.
This was so, so, so helpful.We are helping a neighbor who is elderly care for her rescue GSD. After attempting to work with him once I realized we needed to work with a professional trainer. it has helped enormously. I intuitively felt to watch this and it was exactly what I needed to prepare. Our assignment was to work with walking him on the lead and giving him corrections so his focus would be on us, and to work on the beginnings of heel/sit, and square walking. There were a lot more people, a lot more dogs, a lot more distractions. In hindsight I should have kept the session super short and realized there was too much stimulation for Thunder. Once, when he left my side to move towards a dog and would not listen to the command to let it go and leave giving his focus to the dog, and growled, I instinctively grabbed his muzzle looked him in the eye and said no. He needed a second discipline that session. They are not fun to give. When he got home, it was odd, he seemed happier, and more playful, and perhaps boundaries help his doggie mental health as well as our own. thank you!
That's fantastic. You are doing a great job with this dog. And yes, dogs are far happier when there are clear boundaries in place. Well done and keep up the wonderful work. 🥰
This incident rattled my big goofball but he will be even more cautious around strange cats now which is good. I really do not want him thinking every cat is sweet and then get his eyes clawed out by that one viscious cat. Lycan is still sweet and amazing to our own cats so no worries there.
