Elsa

[Krynos]

So as not to threadjack the other German Shepherd thread, I thought I would start my own as I'm feeling all nostalgic now.



Elsa was my German Sheperd that I had in England before I moved to the US in 2000.


She was an ex-police dog... kind of...

The problem was her temperament, she just didn't want to do what they wanted her to do...

As a puppy she had been through all the usual police obiedience training, general dog stuff, sit, stay, roll over, fetch, heel... all the normal obedience training. Once she was older they started the additional police training, and that when it all went wrong for her. Her problem is that she's just not mean, and while police dogs are not trained to be mean, they are trained to act that way. For example the standard take down training is run up to the bad guy, jump, grab the right arm (usually where a weapon will be) and drag them to the ground and hold onto the arm until the officer can get there. Training for this is teaching them to hold, not to repeatedly bite, maintain a grip and incapacitate. However while she was good at the intial run, jump and grab, once she had the guy on the ground she liked to lick faces and generally be friendly... not what they wanted.

Also they do a kind of assault course training, getting the dog to jump fences, go down tunnels and pipes, climb walls and fences, jump roof top to roof top, run along the top of walls and so on. Well... erm, she was afraid of heights... she would get up there then just want down... oh dear.

Basically she flunked Police Dog 101. So then they decided to train her as a sniffer dog, looking for drugs. She showed some aptitude for that, but never managed to make it as a good drug dog. She flunked that one too.

That really doesn't leave much left for her to do, but being as she was from a known good blood line (with papers) and had excellent hips (it is a common problem with German Shepherds to have bad hips), they decided to use her as a breeder.

She produced six litters for them, which is the maximum they will do from one dog, and proved to be a great mother.

now normally access to rehoming such dogs after they 'retire' is limited, they tend to go on as pets for police officers and their families - assuming they still have a good temperament (most do, but some get traumatised while working). Through a friend of a friend I got the chance to take her on as a pet.

The above stories are important... remember that her history showed that she was unaggressive... afraid of heights... a semi-compitent drug dog, and a dedicated mother.

So onto the first hand stories...


I had a two story home, the usual set up. Well Elsa didn't like being upstairs as going down the stairs was... well, scary lol. But she also knew what she wanted in the morning. So at pretty much exactly 6am everyday she would come upstairs, put two paws on the bed, put her nose right by my head and bark once. LOUD. Then saunter out of the room and go downstairs and wait for me. I never needed an alarm clock. The Elsa "feed me, then walk me" alarm was all that was required. This was the only time she would go upstairs.

Now I lived in a residential area in Birmingham, England. It was on the edge of a heavy industrial area. Very close to my house was a green belt of land. It had once been heavy industry but in the 1940's the Germans had decided that Birmingham needed less heavy industry and and leveled much of the area with bombers. The land had been allowed to grow wild, and over the years had been designated 'common' land for all to use, in the late 90's it was pretty much a park, had grass and hills, trees, and scrub area. Ideal for walking your dog...

So off we would go, it was about a 10 minute walk to get there, and she was excellent on a leash, go-go police obedience training. Once off the leash on the common land she would run off and do her dog thing. This is where it gets a bit wierd and I have no clue why... I would throw a stick, as you do, and she would run off into the trees or under growth to go get it. She never brought the stick back, but would often return with a log, or a brick (remember there are reminants of old factorys just under the soil). Now the logs I could understand... kind of... except she would find the biggest piece of wood she could find. I would often see her running back at me with a 8' branch in her mouth (causes interesting balance issues), or dragging a much bigger log. The bricks though.. she loved bricks.. she would bring them back to me and then if I didn't get it off her should would like to chew on them... there is something disconcerting about watching a dog biting bricks in half. Never underestimate the power in the jaws of a big dog! Often I couldn't get them away from her, she loved her bricks. As such I would often walk her home with a brick in her mouth. This got me some funny looks from other people on the way home.

Now remember that she was a dedicated mother... this becomes important now. In her eyes, any creature smaller than her was a puppy, and puppys need to be taken care of. My mothers dog (a Jack Russel) especially did not like being pinned down and washed by Elsa, he was ten years old. But after a while he would put up with it, but he was never happy to see Elsa as he knew what was coming! "Ohhh.... puppy!" bound-bound-bound-pin "I must clean you all up" slurp-slurp-slurp.

One day on the common land there was a woman walking her dog, I forget what kind it was, something... small... Elsa is running around, probably looking for a small tree that she will present to me as a gift, when she sees this 'puppy' running around also. I'll never forget the look of horror on that poor ladies face and the screaming when Elsa ran out of the bushes, picked up her dog and ran off. I mean who wouldn't be upset watching a big German Shepard running off with your dog in it's teeth?

I eventually catch up with Elsa, and of course I find her with both big front paws pinning down a snarling, upset little dog. Elsa is cleaning it with all the enthusiam she usually has. I take this small dog away from her and take it back to its owner... a big more, well, slobbery than when she last saw it. She was not best pleased to say the least, but Elsa sat at my heels seemed very pleased with the job she had done cleaning it up.

I lived in a row of houses where I was the only single person pretty much, so to the left and right of my house were families. The Gardens at the back were separared by low fences, 2-3 feet or so, and were always filled with the local kids playing. Now there is no way I can keep Elsa in my own garden as she was trained to scale large walls and fences. But she always stayed in the gardens of the homes around me. The local kids loved her, and she loved them - being small, and in need of washing... So she pretty much had the run of the place. I would be at work all day and most days would just let her roam the gardens as she wished. If I didn't then pretty much when I got home I would have a garden full of kids waiting for her. Bear in mind that she really was a a gentle creature, so I, and the parents of the children had no problem just letting them play. It ended up where when I went to work, if it was a school holiday I would just leave the back door of my house open so Elsa and could get to the kids, and the kids could get to Elsa, I would often come home to find the local kids watching my TV, or on my playstation with Elsa lying across them all, or they would be out playing with her somewhere. I never had a problem find dog sitters or someone to take her for a walk in the evening if I'd had a rough day.

Like all German Shepards she was very protective, in her case of me, of the local kids, and my house and the gardens. She would only accept other adults if "introduced" to them by either me or the local kids, any other child was automatically okay - it just needed cleaning. This was great as the other parents liked that they felt their children were safe out playing as long as Elsa was along. No nasty strangers would be able to mess with their kids!

[Krynos]

(wow I went on and on and on... there is a 10,000 character limit on a single post )

This did however backfire on one of my old friends from University. We'd shared an appartment back in our student days on work placement in Birmingham. He had an ex and a daughter in Birmingham from those days though he lived in London at this point. He would come up most weekends to see them, and being as he didn't always get along so well with his ex I had given him a key to my house incase he needed a place to stay locally. I was at my parents one weekend, and had not seen him in a long time. He didn't know that Elsa lived there too now. It was a Saturday evening and his visit with his ex and daughter had not gone too well and he needed a place to stay so he headed over to my place and let himself in.

Elsa was not impressed with a stranger (to her) just walking into her home. So she did what a police trained guard dog would do. Decided to take him down and incapacitate him. Remember that she's not too good at that and is not disposed to violence. My friend is quite a way into the house when Elsa attacked. She, of course, missed his arm but did get him nicely on the leg and dragged him down. Of course at that point she let go, probably trying to decide if he needed washing or not, and he got away. I came home about three hours later and found him baracaded in the bathroom with an angry Elsa trying to tear the door down. He was okay, he had a towel tied round the nice bite on his thigh, and once I let Elsa know he was okay she calmed down pretty much immedately. They got on quite well after that, but my bathroom door was never the same again.

A lot of my friends at the time were from my time at university, and a lot of time at university was spent either drunk, in cloud of smoke, or both. There was some studying I am sure... but I don't really recall much of that to be honest! But anyway they would often come round as I had a decent place to hang out. Elsa of course is a semi-competant drug dog, so I never had any problem figuring out if one of them was holding out on us... Drug dogs are trained so that if they find drugs, or someone carrying them they will sit, all polite at that location or in front of that person (note: if you are ever in an airport and one of the police dogs sits in front of you, it doesn't want its ears rubbed, well it probably does, but it's pointing you out in a quiet manner to it's officer, prepare for fun with body cavity searches!).

Over the years I had her, Elsa had claimed my sofa as her own. It wasn't in the best shape to begin with, but a couple of years of German Shepard attention had made it pretty nasty. But it was hers and indoors it would be where you would find her, her favorite spot.

When I got a job offer I couldn't refuse in California it was a hard decision to make about what to do with Elsa, bring her with me, or find her a new home. In the end I decided that I really didn't want her going through an extended quarentine proceedure at a goverment run kennels, and also being as she was a long haired German Shepard, taking her from the English weather where she didn't much like the English summers even, to the edge of a desert in California would be too much and too cruel on her. Of course I had no problem finding her a good home. She ended up with a friend and his family who had a nice big house and garden across the road from a big park - perfect. Also he was so dedicated in taking her on, and making her at home that they got rid of their nice family sofa, and in its place put Elsa's nasty, beat up, ratty sofa. It looked quite... special... in their upscale family room lol.

Those are my favorite Elsa stories, she really was one of a kind I think.

I miss her a lot sometimes.

[Ginevive]

Aw, I loved reading your little story there. It must have been hard to say goodbye to her, but i think you did the right thing. Do you still talk to the people who took her?
On a side note, I have wanted to go to England for awhile, and I was wondering, is it always foggy there?

[frankykeno]

Rick oh I laughed. You've such a gift of dry wit and bringing a scene to life! You must write up Elsa's story on your website. I grew up in love with the Herriott series and you so remember me of that style. Please write it up as I'd love my kids to have access to it all the time at your site (heck I think you should write a short story and submit it to a dog magazine!)



~~Jo~~

[JLC]

I greatly enjoyed reading your story, Rick! Thank you so much for sharing Elsa with us....she's a great dog!!

[jglass38]

Rick, what an amazing story! I loved reading about Elsa and you obviously cared about her very much!

[MedusasOwl]

What a wonderful dog with a rich history! I love how she was just too sweet for police school but remembered it all when it counted. Def one of a kind..

[cassandra]

See, we need another german shepherd because they do not make an alarm clock loud enough! I love these stories, even though I've heard them all before many times. =)

Good idea on getting them written up for our website!