Video Call Training

Video Call Training Sessions 

We know busy schedules and distance can keep many of our clients from reaching out to get the training they are looking for, so we are now offering one on one training sessions via video chat to help with your requests. 

Sessions are up to 30 minutes each and cost $75 CAD.

 

Puppy Teeth

 

            Puppies will be "Teething" aka losing their baby teeth and growing new ones from about 4 months of age. This will go on for several months. 

            It is good to remind yourself that your puppy does not need you for this process to happen and they will be just fine without their owner's help. Puppies will be bleeding a little bit from their gums at this time and that is completely normal. Very often the adult tooth will be pushing out the old baby one and for new owners, it can look quite alarming, but it is completely normal and how it should be. Same as in the picture above. This does not affect the quality, shape or location of the new / growing adult tooth. You do not need to, and should not, try to pull or wiggle the old tooth out. It will fall out when it's time. 

            The best thing you can do is to make sure your puppy has plenty of bones to chew on, that is actually quite important in my opinion. Yes, we use bones a lot, all the time!

            Here I will mention a trend that I have been seeing in the past few years, sadly. If your veterinarian will try to pull this tooth out or prescribe any pain medication whatsoever, my most honest advice to you is "change your vet asap, before you actually do need him for a real problem or emergency". 

How Dogs Make Puppies

     From our experience over the years we’ve decided that it would be beneficial to explain how puppies arrive on planet earth as many people are not completely clear on this and think they can (or we can) “order” a puppy somehow. 

Female dogs come in “heat” usually twice a year. Heat is their short time frame when dogs can get pregnant. This is not always exactly the case. Sometimes it can be only once a year and the timing is also only an estimate. There is usually few days during each heat cycle when the male and female dogs can or will breed. This is also not a for sure thing. Sometimes the male will refuse to breed the female or vice versa. Sometimes it happens that the dogs bred successfully but for whatever reason the female did not get pregnant. 

     On top of that no-one can ever know how many puppies the momma doggie will have and on top of that no-one can predict how many of those puppies will survive and or will be healthy, and on top of that no-one can predict how many males and females of what colour will be born. Only mother nature can. 

We have lifelong experience with breeding and training dogs but still can only use our best estimates based on our experiences in the past. 

     That is why when we tell our clients that they could expect their puppy in the fall, it is only our best educated guess. We can not “order” a large black and white male puppy to arrive on July 23rd for example, like many people are used to with material things online nowadays...

 

Dog Games

     We are creating a little fun series of Dog Games for You and Your Dog. I have created this idea in order to promote healthy exercise and activities for your pup and help both of you start working and playing in a fashion that should help you with Training as well as Relationship between you and your dog and also give you a goal with nice trophies/accomplishments to be proud of. These games are purposely built for our clients who own CzechMate dogs but anyone is welcome to participate. The only difference is that owners of CzechMate puppies will receive their trophies free of charge.  

Enjoy your time with your pup. Get out there and have fun while applying some structure, rules and exercise to your daily lives. Hopefully, this will lead to a better trained and healthier K9 partner and a happy handler. 

Record and Submit your video to me in any way convenient for a review and you will receive our Title with a Certificate Of Completion for each game and a Winning Medal!

We have only started our Game Series as of Summer 2020 and more games are still planned to come. Likely they will include Dock Jumping, Obedience and a Mushing Game. 

Disc Dog Game:

Rules:

     You - The Handler must throw a "frisbee" (a flying disc of any size and material) from behind a starting line for any distance greater than 15 feet and your dog must catch above disc "In The Air" and retrieve it back to you past the starting line without dropping it. The dog is allowed to drop the disc anywhere on your side of the starting line.

     You and your dog have to have 3 consecutive throws, catches, and retrieves in a row. Recorded on one uncut video. Below is an example with 6 throws. Remember you need only 3!

Vox CzechMate is our Dutch Shepherd Stud Dog

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Hank CzechMate with his handler / owner Aly earned their Disc Dog Title today from our kennel. 

Good job guys! 👏 🏅

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We have another receiver of CzechMate Disc Dog Title. Goose CzechMate with his handler John in Vancouver BC. Beautifully done guys. 🏅💪

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Next team to receive CzechMate Disc Dog Title! Chester CzechMate with his handler Jennifer P. from Alberta. Very nice job :)  

PS: Chester is Sage x Rex puppy 🏅

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Another team to win CzechMate Disc Dog title! Peter Ott and Nellie CzechMate 🙂 from Victoria BC.

Nicely done guys 👏 🏅

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This is Drake CzechMate with Danielle L. Belcourt in Kamloops BC. They sent us their qualifying video and earned their Disk Dog title too! 🙂 I didn’t know we have so many pups playing Frisbee. This is great. Good job guys 🥇🐶

Drake is Aischa x Rex pup. 

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This is Diesel CzechMate with his handler Carlos. They earned their CM Disc Dog Title today! :) Very nicely done guys. Diesel is Sage x Rex puppy in Kitimat BC 🕺🏅👌 

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Here is Murphy CzechMate with his handler Clayton. They earned their CM Disc Dog Title today too! :) Murphy is a handsome Sage x Rex puppy in Maple Ridge BC 🏅👌 

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Tilly CzechMate who is only 5 months old Bonnie x Rex puppy with her handler Tanya. They also earned their CM Disc Dog Title! Tilly and her folks live in Prince George BC 🏅👌 

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Tikka CzechMate is a puppy from Sage x Rex and here she is with her handler Katherine earning their CM Disc Dog Title! Tikka and her folks live in Edmonton AB Canada 🏅👌 

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Duke CzechMate and Travis S. earning their CM Disc Dog Title! Duke and his family live in Kamloops BC Canada 🏅👌 

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Coco CzechMate and Erik earning their CM Disc Dog Title! Coco and her family live in Meadow Lake SK Canada 🏅👌 

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Nova CzechMate and Veronika earning their CM Disc Dog Title! Very nice job guys. Nova is deaf due to an accident while she was sold as a pup, we then took her back and Veronika did a good job with her.

🏅👌 

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Tav CzechMate and Marc earned their CM Disc Dog Title at 6 months of age. Very well done guys. 

🏅💪

Dog Health Tests

            

            Alright because this is becoming such a thing, same as running to a vet with every loose stool, I will shine some light on it. It will also become a bigger “thing” as vets can not do tails, ears and dewclaws now and this is such a nice sounding lobby. Everyone needs to get a health test for their dog, right? Wrong :)

            Vet health tests hold a little value for me. When it comes to hip and elbow dysplasia I can see it has 0 effect on the results of your breeding and the health of hips and elbows of your puppies or the breed as a whole. That is a fact, no matter how you wanna twist it and that was a primary reason why I ended my long relationship with the German Shepherd breed and started with GSP and Belgian Malinois. This was a big step for me as GSD are sort of a heritage for me and I love them very much. And FYI all German Shepherd Dogs must have hip and elbow tests before breeding in Europe! Yet they are about the worst for it now besides Golden Retrievers. Explain that! Honestly, this is where this article should end. Even with all the testing, the issue is only getting worse so obviously it has no effect on breeding and genetic health of the puppies the way we see it. 

Nobody was able to eliminate hip dysplasia nor know what and how it is caused. Imho mostly by inbreeding or line-breeding how people "nicely" call this sick practice. I have definitely never saw it caused by any environmental stress. Running or jumping, that theory has always been completely made up in order to present some sort of a smart-sounding idea and yet is so present online. (Which doesn’t surprise me) I have however seen many benefits to exercising your dogs vs leaving them to sit for the first 18 months without adding stress load on their body progressively. 

            

We run all our dogs on our sled team and that is partially how we test our dogs for their health. That is how every breeder should test their dogs, by working them to see their limits! Because Xrays don't show much at all till the dog is fully matured anyways and if your dog can run 30-50 milers, and not be sore and be ready to do it again tomorrow, his hips are perfect. We also dock dive with our dogs and again, if they can jump over 20 feet, their hips are in top shape. Etc etc. But oh wait, most breeders don’t do much with their dogs besides talking a lot and feed them space food so they will tell you all about their health tests and how important they are ;)

            I think heart test is the same as above, no point explaining much there except the fact that most veterinarians can’t really tell you much about your dog’s heart with a stethoscope. It has to be a specialist and even then, those results are sooo all over the place that there just isn’t much point to them at all as a preventative test. Again if you want to really test your dog’s health, you just have to do it with hard work and exercise. 

So here are my two cents again :) Keep it simple lol. I know it’s hard to understand sometimes lol. 

Puppy Biting

          

          Young pups often want to play with you and they can be very "mouthy" and bite your hands. In my opinion, the better the dog, the more he will be biting you because the more he will want to do something, have more drive and play with you. You should be very happy for it actually :)

I think it is important to understand that they don't have hands like us humans and they use their mouth to interact with us and express themselves. People often perceive it as something bad and even aggressive (even tho the pup is only 8 weeks old). IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH AGGRESSION nor future biting you really. They just want to play and that is how they know to do it. This biting will stop after they stop teething and if not then it is very easy to stop it later on. I very very seldom come across dogs that have so much self-confidence that they would be willing to bite me after they are maybe 6 months old. (a handful of times in my life and I have worked many titled Schutzhund and IPO dogs) On the contrary, most pet dogs that I work with have low self-esteem, even tho their owners think how macho their dogs are. Usually, it takes one bad look or one time to raise my voice (the right way, not a squeeky mad shriek) to make them stop. 

         What I would recommend is for you to just play with your pup and let him bite you as much as he wants to, put some work gloves on if you have sensitive hands for the few weeks even when you play together. That is if you want to raise a nice self-confident working dog or a pet really. You can also try to redirect this play biting to your Training Toy. I take advantage of this stage and use this play biting to build confidence and teach the pup to bite his Training Tug properly. Yes, there is a way to bite properly :) With a nice full bite without chewing, but that's not for this article. This will come very handy later on when you teach the Hold and Retrieve! And this is the proper way to teach the basics for teaching that. Not to destroy this natural drive to bite and hold and then try to teach it again forcefully using what is called "training tables" and other inventions. But to each their own. Not because I am softie, but because it's just not smart. Just think about it, later on, you will want your dog to use his mouth to bring you your birds or the ball, or the beer from the fridge etc and hold it nice and proud like. Get it?
Basically, your puppy is offering you a very handy way to constructively interact together and mould his temperament and selfesteem in the way you need to. The same goes for a tug of war. Play together and you be the judge of who wins when. I generally would let almost all pups and all GSPs win about 80% of the time. So take what he gives you and shape it to what you need it to be. For any of the police oriented dog sports this ideology is a complete must. 

BTW I know what you will find all over the internet. You must stop your puppy biting right away! Well, the internet is full of expert advice ;)

Generally the dogs that get into fights later are the ones that are scared because they have never been played with this way. Rough housing for fun with some system to it and learning to stop when they are told. Just like ALL the animals would do in the wild ;)

10 First Things ToDo with New GSP Malinois Puppy at Home

1. Take your puppy to Potty Outside after every time he Eats, Sleeps or Plays

2. Remember they need a lot of Sleep, even if you have to lock them in the crate

3. Don't Spoil your puppy. It won't do anyone any good, him or you

4. Kennel Train your pup

5. Feed about 3 times a day. Take away what he doesn't finish in 10 minutes and use it for next feeding

6. Go for next set of Vaccines about 1 week after you pick up your puppy

7. Your pup will have dirty ears. That's normal. Don't worry about it, they will clean themselves

8. Don't Bath your puppy. At least the first week or 2. 

9. Have drinking Water available (not in crate)

10. Don't take him for Walks or dog Parks, they are still babies and don't have the stamina or immunity

Don't Wash Your Puppy

          When you get your puppy, it is already a stressful time for him. They are going to a new place, with complete strangers and everything will change for them in one day. Both physically and psychologically.  

         Puppies coats are designed the way they are for reasons and they can also smell all their brothers and sisters, their mom and dad and they feel safer that way. Dogs always instinctively try to mask their smell. So even tho you might think he will be so happy and smell like a nice shampoo, it will not be the best move for your pups self-esteem. If you absolutely need to give your puppy a bath, wait a few days at least. You don't have to bring an old dirty blanket with him home from us, just don't wash him right away ;) Best of all, just leave him the way he is... 

GSP and Malinois Puppy adoption form

  
The form helps us place you with the best possible puppy for your expectations and life style. We always try to match our clients and their GSP or Malinois puppies to the best of our abilities.

Our Puppy Application is located on our new website. Please follow the link below.

www.czechmatekennels.com

Dog Poop

     I am not sure why some people worry so much about the consistency,  frequency,  colour,  amount and what they perceive as "quality" of their dog's poop. I am also not sure when this started to be an issue to which we must pay daily attention.

     One would expect it will be somewhat different all the time,  depending on what your dog ate,  how much he drank,  if he ate some grass,  how much he exercised and so on. IMO there is no one set standard for a perfect dog poop! I don't want them to have the same triple coiler every time! When my dogs run hooked up to a sled their poop is completely different than when they are laying at home all day. All of my dogs eat the same thing for the most part and they all have different poop.

     Slime or mucus-like substance on your dog's poop is normal. It is there to lubricate and help get rid of potential parasites. If you go read up on it, you will get the same extreme nonsense overload that unfortunately, many internet articles provide. Sort of on the same lines as GSP dogs are evil,  run away, don't listen and even being aggressive. All those myths I gave you, are the ones I like so much proving to be wrong over and over.

     Some blood in your dog's poop is OK too.  Esp on the surface and esp if they exercised a lot. It just happens from time to time.

     If your dog has a severe diarrhea when it's mostly water with blood and running down his back legs,  that is a different story. You probably should visit your veterinarian and get a bit of antibiotics for their intestines and in in some cases you might need IV fluids. But that will not happen to most of you and the ones that it will happen to,  trust me you will know! Even then stay chill. It likely will be Giardia or Parvovirus (parvo is almost not possible for puppies from us) and both have survival rate of 95% if treated.

So stop worrying about dog poop and have fun :)

PS: some dogs fart much more then others and there is nothing you can do about it, they are just fine! ;)

Below is an example of a dog infected with Parvovirus and of an example of what it looks like when you should worry.

Feeding a GSP Puppy

          When You get your puppy from us it will be used to having food non-stop. Most, but not all of our pups have free choice food available till they go home. 

I recommend starting to feed your puppy on a schedule as soon as you get your pup home. 3 times a day for the first couple months and then go to feeding twice daily and we feed our adult dogs once a day. See my “Dog Food” article. 

You should present food to your puppy and what he/she doesn’t finish in let’s say 10 minutes should be removed and fed at the next feeding. You should not be leaving your puppy food out for him non stop anymore. 

Do not start switching your puppy’s food thinking he doesn’t like. He simply is not hungry! Dogs have very few taste buds, it has nothing to do with the taste of your dog food. 

Training a Little Puppy

          I always recommend starting to train your GSP puppy as soon as you get him. This is mostly because the time you get your new GSP puppy you will start interacting with him or her whether you want to or not and this interaction is pretty much “training”.

Now, it is important to understand that there are baby steps involved in training and it is important IMO to follow these steps, otherwise the whole thing will crumble down later on, unfortunately. 

Usually what I see is people start asking for things that are too complex or too hard for a 2 or 3-month-old GSP puppy to understand “properly”. Same with new Malinois puppies. Often people are very happy that their 9-week old GSP pup will retrieve a ball in the living room and will come when they call its name in high pitched voice while inside the house. This is good and very nice, but this will most likely change 2 months later, I promise you this ;) Don’t let it discourage you though. 

         What I think is important to teach your GSP puppy in the first few months is the basics and make sure we have those solid in their place. It will come in handy later on. I think house rules and yes and no is probably the most important to teach your puppy. Very often, as often as almost always, people teach only “yes” and never the “no”. This gets often confused by uneducated “trainers” referring to “Positive Reinforcement Training”. This is very good and truly the only quality way to train anybody, but it in no shape or form means that the new GSP puppy, in this case, should not learn that no means no! It will only lead to unruly and confused and mentally unstable GSP dog later, mostly scared whenever it hears anyone raise their voice. Yes, these are the dogs that you mostly see in dog shelters and everyone thinks how “abused” they were, where the exact opposite is usually the truth. 

          So please teach your new GSP puppy that no means no, right from day 1, praise them for doing the right thing and ignore or correct the wrong behaviour without making it a big deal and holding grudges. 

Without this, you will probably not have a solid recall and without a solid recall, you will not have a retrieve and so on. 

Rescuing a Dog

     Many good-hearted people want to “Rescue a dog” from a local pound because they generally feel as it is the right thing to do. Usually, that is what the general public perceives as a good deed and of course all the media as well. So if you want to be a good and hip person, you want to rescue a dog, give him a new life and share your new joy on Facebook with everyone else. I do not disagree that this is a very nice thing to do on a personal level, But…

     There are a couple of issues with this outlook if we take it apart. We already have the worst dog breeding practices in the Western World right here in North America. We literally have no unified breeding selection like every other country for any of the “working” breeds. That is partially the reason why our GSD are useless as working Police dogs or our DSPs are 40lbs vs 60 and 70 and so on. But that’s a separate story on its own. So by going and rescuing a dog we actually support the system of people who breed whatever to whatever and whoever to whoever, without any knowledge or mission for the future. Rather than supporting legitimate breeders who put hard earned cash and a lot of hard work into selecting the right dogs, working with them and seeing what the offsprings turn out like and so on. 

Secondly, educated breeders can usually set you up with a suitable dog for your lifestyle. Show you the parents and their performance. That will give you an idea of what our puppy might be like. 

     Another issue is health. Both mentally and physically. A lot of people have struggled with a well bred puppy and his or her basic training, let alone with a dog that has had several homes and a lot of baggage from the past. And as per physical issues, for large breeds hip and elbow dysplasia is becoming very common, allergies are very common etc. Well, I can tell you that a breeder who works his dogs, someone like me, couldn’t, for example, afford to have, work and breed dogs like that, both financially and for performance reasons. But the guy who has them in the basement and breeds them anyways will, he doesn’t care. Those dogs will likely end up dead or in the pound and some good hearted, well meaning person will “buy” them yet again, this time from the pound. So who won in the end, in the long run? Who did we support and what did we solve on a “global” or “national” level sort of speak? 

Food for thought.

J.K. 

How Much Exercise

          How much exercise will my dog need? I often get asked that question and there is not a simple answer to it. All the dogs that I have and train and breed are active dogs, some of them less and some more. Aisha and Sage do not require nearly as much exercise or miles as Bonnie and Jessie for example. With that being said I keep all of mine conditioned at the same level but what I mean is I think Aisha would be just fine living in an apartment and going for walks off leash twice a day and chase a ball where Jessie or Bonnie would always look for more. 

          I believe it depends a lot on how the pups are raised and what is their norm, what they are used to in your pack. If they were raised in an apartment situation with an active family that goes hiking on the weekend, well that's what they will know and be OK with it. On the other hand, if you would take my best runners and want to make them an apartment dog, they probably wouldn't be very happy anymore. And there is also the other scenario, which I explored many times already. If I rescue a dog usually from a home where she lived mostly in a dog run or on a chain type life, it also requires adjustments. Usually, those dogs do not know their name and they have no recall at all. As much as I like the challenge it is not easy for everyone to succeed with these kinds of dogs as the first thing they want to do is run like crazy and run away because they were never let off the chain. I want to mention here again that I don't use leashes and all my dogs are off leash. Of course, if you want to keep them on the leash then there is not much training required. That brings me to another point. 

          I am not sure if you can ever satisfy your dogs exercise needs by walking him on a leash. I am maybe not the right guy to ask but I can not see it. My dogs run sometimes 100 or more kilometers a week, most of it pulling and on top of that, they have a free run on the farm. Exact same for horses btw. IMHO if you never let your dog run with you and let him know that it is OK or more so yet that it is desired, I don't think he will ever be mentally stable and happy. When I rescue a dog that was never allowed to run, I, of course, take it easy the first few weeks because of their muscles and tendons not being developed properly yet, but I always turn a dog that was labeled as one that wants to run away and is bad on leash etc into a very happy running dog that I think is very thankful to be here. Almost always they are so excited that they come in heat within a few days of arriving.  

          So in the end, I guess the short answer is healthy exercise and common sense. Your pup will do his best to get used to your lifestyle and that will become his/hers norm but to be realistic, none of my pups will do fine in an apartment being walked around the block twice a day on leash. Or you might think they are. In those scenarios, you probably should look for one of the designer breeds that are "bred" to live in such situations. 

Collar vs Harness

     This is quite simple, collars are for walking and working with your dogs, harnesses are for pulling and for sled dogs. There is nothing wrong with a collar. The only possible thing wrong with a collar is the person who didn't train their dog to walk nicely with one. Get your self a nice good collar and spend the time to teach your dog to walk on leash without pulling and teach him to respect it. It is some sort of a modern invention to have a harness instead but it won't get you very far. Plus if you really want to be cool then you won't have neither and your dog will heel beside you off leash. Collars will give you more control and can deliver correction if necessary. 

Separation Anxiety

 

   

     OK, this one is very hard for me to write about. I have been avoiding this article for years because I am not a politician nor I want to be and I particularly don't care if I hurt someone's feelings. I am not in a business of collecting votes or making sure I please everyone, I am in a business of training animals and helping people to communicate with them. Truth is that if you are thinking your dog has "separation anxiety", well you will not like much what I have to say, but I hope you can see past that and make the necessary changes to fix your problem. Everyone makes mistakes and that is fine, it is how we go about fixing them. I believe very strongly that all chemical medication is unbelievably cruel and I don't even know where to begin thinking about how we got the right to administer such things to our animals. Perhaps we have some god syndrome as humanity and we think that we can do whatever we feel like to our animals, but I would never do such thing and never would I respect it. Now IMO it is completely fine to physically correct a dog if you are about to get bitten or if the situation calls for it and make sure you teach him that this is not acceptable, but I also think it is completely not fine to be so incompetent in training as a dog owner that you have to get him medicated in order to coexist together. Yet this is commonly accepted by our society and correcting a dog is not. I have dealt with hundreds of dogs and I helped to "fix" many and never needed the help of anti depressants. Separation anxiety is completely and without a discussion human caused behaviour (perhaps there is 1 : 100 000 where it is a medical issue, it is not your case). Medication should never be used as a short cut to your training shortcomings. Alright, I had to make this point in order to move foreword. If you do not agree with the above, stop reading right here because you are not ready to fix your problem yet and you will waste your time. 

     Separation anxiety is actually a very simple behavioural problem that can be fixed in 1 day in capable hands, yes you heard right, one day. Most of you will not be able to do it in a day and that is OK, it is not a race, important is that it can be undone very quickly with the right approach. S.A. simply started with the owner spoiling his new puppy in most cases. What has happened precisely was that the owner started, baby step at a time, rewarding the negative behaviour, most commonly without knowing it and most commonly with good intentions. This singularly is the biggest training mistake for dogs and horses alike (make your own judgement about children). People simply don't want to acknowledge the fact that they are responsible for their mistakes and they would often rather blame it on something or someone else, it is easier that way and our ego doesn't get hurt. See this whole S.A. issue is not really a training problem, it doesn't include specific mechanical tasks as sit or down and even complex chain of commands but it is an outlook and general way in which we treat our dog and the rules and respect we expect and give. This comes very naturally for me but I also understand that it can be very hard to grasp for some people. That is OK and it is to be expected, we all grew up differently, some of us were in the military or had to finish complex schooling where we had to follow many sets of rules and some of us had to go thru life differently and living with rules is not so "normal" for them. The thing is, your dogs love rules and they require them. As a matter of fact, if they do not have set of rules to follow they are not happy, they do not feel safe, they have a hard time truly relaxing and they do not know where they belong in a sense of a pack rank in your family. All the above contribute to having anxiety and living nervous. This becomes a vicious circle and often people resort to pampering the dog instead of ordering/guiding him on what to do. We often add firewood in the fire by "calming down" a dog that already shows signs of anxiety and therefore we reward the unwanted behaviour, making it worse and worse every time. What we need to do is completely ignore it and/or correct it if we know how. Never talk calmly to your dog if he is shaking, cowarding, acting up in a crate, hiding, being destructive and out of control, those are all behaviours we must correct as a pack leader, not to reinforce. Actually, it is besides feeding the sole most important thing to do as an owner. You took on the responsibility by buying a dog so you must live up to being the leader. I purposely am not using terms as "adopt" vs buy and "guardian" vs owner. I am tired of political correctness and stupidity. You bought a dog, you are the owner and you are responsible for its mental and physical state. Any gadgets as "thunder shirts, scented oils, esoteric music etc", pls come one, I think you already get the drifts. If you still believe this is the solution to the problem, then again, you are not ready to fix what you created, you just want to feel better about your self by spending money so you can say "I tried". 

     There is also another thing that is important to add here and that is exercise. Most dogs are overfed and under exercised. To put it in perspective, my dogs, for example, run pulling me on my bicycle (bikejoring, you can see my videos) 15-20km 2 or 3 times a week, plus they have a free run of our farm, plus they run with me beside my horse or a quad. Walking your GSP or a Drahthaar on a leash around the block is not sufficient exercise and his energy has to go somewhere, esp if you feed premium dog food meant for dog athletes. 

     So to sum it up, set up rules, reinforce them, kennel train your dog and exercise him as much as you can, both physically and mentally. 

Kennel Training

     Kennel training is IMO important thing to do for every dog and owner. Not only that it can help you and your dog to co-exist more peacefully but it can also come handy in cases of travel, emergency, dog shows or competitions, hospital stay and many other scenarios. Basically, all serious working dogs and many pets at some point have to be in a kennel. It is unfair to leave your dog at an animal hospital where they always stay in a crate, with a serious injury plus the added stress of being in a crate for the first time on top of that. What if you will have to transport your dog on a plane or what if you decide you would like to pick up agility or go to a dog show? Basically what I am trying to say is that not training your dog to be in a crate is not fair to your dog, even tho many people project this idea exactly the other way around. That is only because they don't know any better and are unable to do so themselves ;)

     Best is to start kennel training on the first day you bring your puppy home. No point to wait, plus it will greatly help you with potty training and setting up rules in the house. Your dog will eventually learn to like his crate, it will become his own space and he will learn to go there to relax and sleep. I also feed all my dogs in their kennels, that way they can eat their food in peace. 

     Once you decide to put your puppy in his crate, remember that's when the training starts. Most pups put up a huge fuss and it will sound as if you are chopping their tail off, but don't worry, they are just testing you for the most part. It is important you don't give in and don't open the door. Wait till he calms down and is quiet, even if it is for 15 seconds and then you can let him out. Never give your pup any attention when he screams and never let him out or it will be only getting progressively worse and he will have you numbered at that second. Ignore him while he screams, give him attention or let him out when he is quiet. Best is to put your puppy in after he plays or eats, take him outside to potty and put him in for a nap. 

     You will need a couple crates as your puppy grows. In the beginning, it is important to get one that is just big enough for your pup to sleep in and not play or go potty on one end and sleep on the other. Some of the wire crates come with a movable divider, that is also a good option. 

It is not really important where the kennel is, it is not really important whether he has it covered or not or whether it is a $10 or $300 crate. I always leave a bone in for them to play with, but that's it. It is a place to rest, not play.  

     Some people just can not stand their puppy screaming, for those the best is to either put the crate in a separate room, the garage, etc or put your pup in and go for a walk. That is a much better idea than giving in and creating a bigger issue. If this is done properly, there wouldn't be such cruel nonsense as antidepressants for dogs with anxiety problems, which IMO is what truly is cruel, screaming puppy in a crate for few days is just a normal part of life. Remember all dogs can be kennel trained, no excuses, your dog is not special.

Potty Training

     I recommend starting right from day one as soon as you get your new puppy home. The best way to go about Potty Training is to get the right size (not too big!) crate and start crate training right away (I have a separate article on Crate Training). Your puppy will want to go potty after every time he eats, sleeps and plays so best is to be proactive and plan ahead so we avoid accidents. The fewer accidents, the easier it will be. I do not let new puppy to run all over the house. If you let him run all over it will be very hard to keep an eye on him for you. Best is to block off the kitchen, hallway or such. A smaller space with preferably lino or laminate floor for easier cleanup. In my opinion crate training is very important, safe and practical and it crucially helps with potty training. Dogs naturally do not go potty in their "den" unless they really can't hold it anymore. Therefore after I play with my puppy or after he eats, I will let him go potty and put him back in his crate or beside your bed to sleep. When he gets up I will take him straight outside from his crate and praise him when he does his business in a designated place. Again remember to be proactive and take him outside after every time he plays, eats or sleeps. I do not necessarily encourage people to correct puppies too much if they make a mistake so they are not scared to pee in front of you, but I will also let him know that I am not happy. Usually simple UhUh that's not good! with the right tone of voice does it. When he does pee outside, on the other hand, praise him nice and calmly and let him know that you are happy with him. Many puppies will never really pee in the home if its done properly, esp smart dogs like pointers. Remember small puppies can not hold it for too long, so you will be up few times a night probably. 

     Pee Pads are a bad idea, in my opinion, intended for lazy people. They are often scented with ammonia and basically teach your dog that his home is a toilet so the dog goes to relieve himself on it and IMO if a person is that lazy and incapable that he can not train his dog to not potty in the house he shouldn't own one, not one of our pups anyways.

Don't Spoil Your Puppy

     

   
        This is not a complex article, more of just a suggestion. Try not spoiling your puppy more then you have to :) I know it might be hard, but in the end, it will be all your fault when things go bad later on. See if you give your new puppy all the attention, cuddles and time in the world, he/she will be expecting that for the rest of his life because that is what he will think is normal and it is not possible. Your dog will need structure and rules and limitations in order to live happily in the human environment.  It is not fair IMO to spoil your puppy for the first 2 months with you and then cut him off and start correcting him for what was once perfectly fine and maybe even "cute". Love your new pet, treat him good and with respect, but set your boundaries right from the start. This will prevent you saying 6 months down the road "we love him so much, but we can't give him the time he needs so we are looking for a new forever home for him". Please believe me on this...

Dog Food

          

     I have been experiencing with all sorts of variations of different ways of feeding working dogs in the past and I will try to share my opinion with you and hopefully, it could help some of you make it a bit easier to choose from all the many choices and mostly marketing suggestions. Yes, pls remember that in the modern day most of what you will hear and see about dog food in your local pet store is marketing, then there is marketing and there are lies. This is my friends a multi million dollar industry! Most pet dogs are overweight and you will just about never see a dog that is in a starved critical condition unless it is some stray or a rare case of course.
      My GSP seems too SKINNY. No, he doesn't. You are just used to Fat Dogs. GSPs are working and running dogs. They are lean, esp till they are 2 or even 3 years old and fill out a bit.
      PROTEIN Level. It has been a "phat" lately to feed kibble with Protein levels in the high 30s to low 40s percent to pet dogs. I have seen many horrific experiences from feeding such food. Unless you live in the Yukon, your dogs live outside year round and run 10s of miles mushing daily, don't even think about it! I personally know several cases of allergies developed from feeding such high protein (IMO) diets and often it means life in agony or death out of mercy. For example, pure Chicken Meat has about 25% protein. Give this a thought for a while... My dogs often run 25km every second day with the sled in the winter and I feed 26% protein food. Take it or leave it, but I am serious about this paragraph ;-)

     PACKAGE. Do not worry at all about what the package looks like, what colors are on it and what pictures are on it. It is all nonsense.

     READ the INGREDIENTS! That is just about the most important thing to do, yet only very few do it! Have we as a society really become this stupid?! I am sorry, but I consistently go to Costco where I buy food X with first 2 ingredients meat and yet most people besides me buy food Y with first 2 ingredients corn and rice for the same money, just because it is Pedigree. I never say anything, but I want to say "what exactly made you decide to buy this bag of corn vs the bag of dog food"? But I know what it is, marketing and that fluffy Yellow Lab on the front.  Remember ingredients are listed in order of volume in the food. With that being said most of them are used in their dehydrated form (very light) vs meat is used "wet" (very heavy). Therefore even if the meat is number 1 on the list, it really should be about 4 down, because it is compared to everything else dried. Smart huh, not by accident ;) So then, if you buy a bag of dog food and you have some sort of meat at num 3, it really is about 6 or 7 in reality and then you are buying a bag of corn or corn peels, yes that is right my friends, even with the fluffy shiny dog on the front of the bag, because anything after about 5 on the list is minuscule.

     PUPPY vs SENIOR. Dog Food/Kibble. All this nonsense about Puppy Food and Adult Food and Large Breed, come on, seriously. OK again, check it out. Let's say mathematically. There is a difference in fat 1% for senior dogs ($10 more) That in reality means (more or less) that from 100 kibbles if you give him 99 tomorrow you got your self the same Senior dog food. Oh yeah, puppy kibble, well what are we gonna do then? Well, we will give him 101 and we have our selves Puppy Food! ($15 more per bag) ;)

     KIBBLE vs RAW? I feed both and I don't use any magical formula. Just like I don't use one for my exact ratio of salami on my sandwich every day. I just slap on however much I think I need that day and if I ran 20km with my dogs, I slap on double! If we sit on the couch for a week because it's -30 outside, I don't slap on any because if it jiggles, it's extra lol. ;) If I don't have raw or don't have kibble for few days, who cares?

     HUMAN FOOD? If I ever hear that Dogs Can Not have Human Food I will explode. Somehow they survived it 15 000 years with human leftovers and without kibble!

     GRAIN FREE? No, it's a scam. Read the article below please, it explains in detail why. 

     HOW OFTEN? Once a day, keep your dog a bit on the hungry side and excited for his next meal. Very important, unless you like them dead beat, fat couch zombies that don't even get up for their food. There is many more reasons than I can explain, but this is not the article. If your dog works very hard, if she is nursing etc, do twice a day.

In the end, I would also like to mention that many high quality kibbles are hard as a rock. I blend kibble for my puppies and I use a commercial blender and that is when I started noticing that some kibble simply won't blend even after few minutes and some are mushed in 5 seconds. Well, I don't think the rock solid ones are all that nice in the belly, just something to play with maybe.

     Please READ this ARTICLE:

https://slate.com/technology/2019/01/stop-buying-grain-free-food-for-your-pets.html

How To Pick a Puppy

How to Pick a new GSP Puppy

     I have decided to write this article because I often see people come by wanting for sure GSP puppy number 2 and leaving 2 hrs later completely confused and puppy num 2 is not even on the list anymore, now it's 3, 5, 7 and 9 lol.

It is always hard and a big decision to pick a puppy from a litter. I am of course used to it and see it very often :) It is an exciting event for the new GSP owners and seems as it is a very important step. But IMHO it is not, the important thing comes after. It is to raise your new puppy right and train it well so you both can coexist harmoniously together. Important is to pick the right Breed, Litter and a Breeder for you and for the betterment of the particular breed, that is what's important. That way you are guaranteed a solid, healthy and well adjusted puppy with good genetic code. In some breeds like GSP and Drahthaar we are still fortunate that many puppies are very capable of being a good sport or hunting dog, unlike for example GSD, Golden Labs, Rottweilers, Dobermans etc where you have to sift thru many many well bred dogs to find one that can do Police work for example. This is mostly due to improper breeding selection and show dog industry. 

With Pointer dog, from my experience, it is most important to find a breeder who you like and can develop a relationship with for the future. This can potentially save you lot of money on vet bills or training as some of us often have a lot of experience with common illnesses and training issues. Better yet, find a breeder that can actually train his dogs and can prove it to you. That way you know that your puppy has parents that are capable of doing the advertised work. I almost always see ads go like this: "Parents are great family dogs and they love to hunt". That's great, but so often the seller is completely clueless about hunting or training his dogs. Often they wont let them out of the yard, because they would run away for example followed by a comment "they are hunting dogs, they would just run away and chase animals". What a crock of ....! This is all very common. 

So with this out of the way lol ;) 

      Tails, always watch the tails! If you see a litter and half of the puppies hide their tail between their legs, leave, do not buy a puppy from them. They either have very bad genes or are not socialized they way they should be and you just don't want to deal with problems right from the start. Always look for happy tails ;) 

     The second most important thing is to decide if you want a Boy or a Girl! If you are planning on "fixing" your dog then it doesn't matter really. So much of their hormones will be eliminated from their body that really the only difference will be peeing on a fence or not. And no, males do not pee in the house. With this being said, if you Do Not plan on fixing your dog then IMO females are smarter, tougher and could be better working dogs BUT they are that much harder to train and get along with as well. So other words if you are looking for a serious dog and want to spend a lot of quality time training, get a female. If you want a pet and a bit of a working dog that is easy to manage, get a boy. Now, this is of course only a generalization but it has been my personal experience over the years. And NO, girls and boys are not the same!

     I breed GSP's and German Wire-haired Pointers/Drahthaars imported from Europe. (You may want to read my article on CKC Registry Issues). They are a bit different from each other and I like to cross them as well. IMO Drahthaar is the ultimate hunting dog and there is none close to it. I am talking only about Euro bred and registered dogs with unlimited lines of working titled dogs, not CKC or AKC dogs. But they are often larger, have a bit more hair then GSPs, beard and can be somewhat of protective dog and more of a handful in the wrong hands. But also the very best if you spend the time and work with them. Their coat also makes a difference in the summer and winter or fall months. If your main goal is duck hunting in the fall then you definitely want Wire-haired, if you want to run your dogs in the summer a lot, then you want GSP, if you want to do a bit of both then you want a mix of the two. 

        Size. I have some North American bred females that are around the 45lbs size and I have some Euro females who are in the 70s and 80s lbs. Here is a prime example of how important breed selection is over the generations. Imo smaller dogs (talking about pointers here) are more energetic and if raised properly can be good working dogs. If spoiled can be more destructive or trouble because of their higher prey drive often. Smaller puppies in a litter often are conditioned to fight for themselves where their big siblings often tend to be easy going adults because they never had to work for food etc. It is important you raise them properly after they go home and adjust to each dog's specific needs. What I am saying is that I would maybe raise a small female differently them a big male, talking about working dogs mostly. 

     The other thing is colour and colour pattern. This is really not important and all our puppies change their colours and their patterns in the first year of their lives a lot. Most of the time they darken up a lot and very often they will be unrecognizable from their 3 week old pictures. :) Don't pick based solely on colour. 

Cheers and have fun :)

John

czechmate

Available Puppies and Upcoming Litters

We have Available GSP puppies and Malinois Puppies for adoption     

    All our purebred puppies are from Registered parents. They come with their Deworming, Vaccines, Microchip, Health Guarantee, and our Lifetime Breeder / Training Support. We also provide Training Seminars in Vancouver BC and Red Deer AB and offer Video Training Series and Private Lessons to provide the best support we can to all our clients world wide. 

You can find many more pictures and reviews on our Instagram. Also pictures of their older siblings and relatives for comparison.

Feel Free to send us a message if you are looking for a nice and well bred GSP or Malinois puppy. 

LITTERS:

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Tarzan x Vixen Malinois Litter

(all puppies have been sold)

At CzechMate Kennels we would like to show our appreciation to Canadian Armed Forces and the men and women who are willing to risk their liver and keep us safe, and in support we DONATE one of our Belgian Malinois puppies to a Veteran or someone in active duty searching for a well bred K9 partner. 

Taiga x Huntz Litter Below

Puppy 1 - Black Ticked Boy Sold to Melodie

Hope x Rex Litter Below

Puppy 1 - Brown Ticked Boy SOLD to Josh

Jessie x Huntz Litter Below

SOLD

  

Nova x Huntz Litter Below

SOLD