Post Your German Shepherds!

Since we obviously have so many GSD owners here let me ask you a question. Can your dogs spell? I swear Zeus can. He knows all the commands he's been taught and knows a lot of words. His vocabulary has expanded to the point that we have been spelling words in our conversations so he doesn't hear a "key" word and then act on it. For example, you can't say the word out in a sentence. If you do, he gets all excited and heads for the back door and rings the bell until you let him out. So we've been spelling words out to keep him clueless. Ok, that worked for a while but now if he hears us talking and we spell the word out in the context of actually letting him or Isis out to do their business or play he jumps up and heads for the back door... And it's not just the word out. It's all sorts of stuff. He either knows how to spell or he can read our friggin thoughts. We've also been trying to spell words backwards. That worked for a few weeks but now he's on to that as well.

Anyone?

Jon.

I'd suspect that it's the inflection and tempo of your voice that gets him, not the actual letters. Try this: spell out a different word that has nothing to do with going out, but use the same inflection and tone that you use when spelling "out" or whatever. If he reacts the same way, you know he's just keying on your voice, not the words. Just a thought.

gibbit1 wrote in post #8752095
I'd suspect that it's the inflection and tempo of your voice that gets him, not the actual letters. Try this: spell out a different word that has nothing to do with going out, but use the same inflection and tone that you use when spelling "out" or whatever. If he reacts the same way, you know he's just keying on your voice, not the words. Just a thought.

We've tried that and some times it will get him to react. But more often than not he'll do the GSD head tilt and look at you until he figures out what you mean.

Now our newest GSD is totally different. She's not dumb but she's no rocket scientist.

Jon.

My GS runs away when I bring out my camera

Pure_Gold wrote in post #8760607
My GS runs away when I bring out my camera

Hang some treats from the lens.

Jon.

Here a few new ones of Sarge. They were shot with a 400 f2.8 IS on a MKIII.

Excellent shots of Sarge!

Jon.

Great shots.

Beautiful dog! He got some serious air in that last picture.

I haven't had any trouble with Baron spelling out words, but he does know his hand signals! He's only 5 months though, so I'm sure some day he will catch onto things like that. Dogs are so funny, aren't they? Gotta love the intelligence of GSDs.

Orella doesn't quite catch the words in a sentence, unless you say them out really loud and emphatically. Although she knows such 'words' as ''let's go'', ''outside'', ''who's coming'', or just whispering. It really catches her attention and for the phrases ''who's coming'' or ''mom's coming'' and she often runs to the window and sprays it with her slobber as she starts barking. Though there's one command she ALWAYS runs to accomplish - it's ''find mom''. Haha, I usually ask her that when I come home and can't be bothered to walk through the whole garden so I tell Orella to find her and she does it perfectly!

I can't find the user who talked about his/her dog running away as the camera appears.
My dog used to do it too, she just ignored me and gazed behind her, just to keep her face away from the camera. I usually have some cookies in my pocket so I will have her full attention. Try it out, I believe your dog will want to sit in front of the camera for hours when you have something extra good for him/her :P

New poster here introducing myself and Maggie von Huerta Hof. I've only had my Rebel T1i for 2 months, totally new to dslr before that so please be gentle

Maggie is 14 months old and ALL puppy still. Enjoy!

Maggie is a beauty. From the looks of the front legs in the photos, it looks like she prances.

Most definitely. She is also a princess

She's actually a long-coat (or coated or long-haired) which is the only way I could afford such a beauty. You'll probably be seeing more Maggie pictures very soon. She's one of my favorite subjects! This one is actually one of my first shots with my brand new 70-200mm f/4L. Loving it, even without the IS.

What a great looking GSD