Biography
This dog is from the purest Dutch shepherd bloodlines as Miss Powell is a AKC and UKC judge; and she and her recently deceased husband have run a kennel called seven pines in Hawkins, Texas for a very long time raising ultra high quality Dutch shepherd's for law enforcement and the military.
Taki is house broken crate trained. She is not protection trained but she is trained to alert bark if she hears suspicious noises.. she has a very excellent and even temperament and is not reactionary towards other dogs. If a dog barks at her, she will simply ignore that dog. She gets along well with other dogs but she is your typical Dutch shepherd which makes her what we would call a Velcro dog.
She will bond to one person and the family. She's good around people but initially she will be somewhat reserved until she gets to know you for 15 or 20 minutes. This is the general nature of these breeds.. if you move very rapidly or quickly or raise your arm up high in a striking fashion, she will back up or move away because I've trained her not to be an attack dog
I cannot make a comment about cats as these dogs do have high prey drive but generally they will not go after cats because after one encounter with a cat they will generally learn their lesson. But I can make no statement as to whether or not she would pursue a cat. I've seen her watch squirrels run by and not pursue them. I will say however, that anyone that has this dog MUST have a fenced yard as they are physically capable of clearing a 6 ft stockade fence. Believe it or not, if it's a chain link fence, they can be trained to climb a 12-ft chain link fence no problem.
However, I have trained Taki not to do this and she will not leave her family home as she becomes tightly bonded to the people that she is surrounded with.. The first two weeks are the critical days. Bad behavior by the handlers or the children in the first 2 weeks will make her acclimation. Stretch out to a longer amount of time.
She is an INSIDE dog and is not used to being outside in a kennel. She cannot live outside. She will love to play outside but she's an inside dog.
She weighs 60 lb. She's very compact and very agile. The owners must know how to properly put a collar on her and I will provide the correct collar because if you put a collar on her too loose she'll back out of it in a half second and be gone in 2 seconds.
And if you let her off leash, any Belgian malinois or Dutch shepherd will have a propensity to escape if they are given a prey cue such as a squirrel running by, etc. This diminishes as a function of time as the dog learns their new environment. That is why it's better to keep her as an inside dog because she's very dark colored and she does not like to be out in the direct sun and this breed is not used to extreme heat. At least I have not trained her for being left out all day long on a chain. That is totally not going to work with this dog.
This dog is not for a beginner. It's not to say this dog is dangerous as pitbulls are infinitely more dangerous. It's just that these dogs are super athletes and are the ultimate in reading persons body language.. That's why they use them in Holland by the police in lieu of carrying a pistol cuz these dogs can read your body language from 30 m away
I have had one Belgian malinois, two dutch shepherds and a German shepherd dog before that and I can tell you this is the sweetest and most calm dog I have ever owned.
She is still not spayed as these dogs are very rare.
There's only approximately 1,600 of them left in the world and she went into estrus on September 23rd to October 23rd. She is microchipped with an avid microchip and she is fully vaccinated. She will need a rabies shot on November 17th and she does need biannual checkups checkups as even though these dogs have very few inherited disorders, it's always better to catch any problem before it becomes serious. Of course that is up to the new owner. Generally speaking twice a year is good enough.
I use Advantage multi-plus topical to cover her heartworm flea and roundworm protection on a monthly basis. I prefer this product as it has a 23-day half-life as compared to heart guard which is ivermectin and only has an 18-hour half-life. as you read on, you'll understand why I recommend Moxidectin as a heartworm medicine versus ivermectin.
When I received her she had early stage II heartworm disease and as a pharmaceutical scientist I immediately got her to the vet and spent several thousand dollars to have her given the FDA approved treatment therapy using Diroban .. which has a 98% success rate.
She is a picky eater when it comes to dog food and she will sometimes require to have her food changed or she'll just stop eating for a couple of days until you switch her dog food. This is happened twice in 8 months and I simply switch from one sub flavor to another. More importantly, as she consumes a huge amount of water each day which is good because it keeps her kidneys and her organs clear of toxins.
She walks excellent on leash and is very obedient and is not aggressive whatsoever. If you give a command to her, she does not show any aggression towards the handler.
I've trained her with hand signals but that won't be necessary as she also just is so intuitive that if you have her on a leash when you stop, she stops. When you go. She goes when you walk. She walks on your knee. She is not a puller whatsoever.
These dogs are rarer than diamonds, especially a 99% tile dog such as this one.
I will enclose a photo of her in a UKC confirmation show where she won an award as well as just another picture of her out in the park where she likes to be.
I would reiterate that this dog and this breed as well as malinois are very much so adopted by men who like to think that they can turn this into a SEAL team 6 Attack dog. That is not what I want for this dog.. And that is not how she's trained. She's safer than a Jack Russell terrier or a Pomeranian..
This dog deserves a home with stable parents. The problem isn't the dog. It's always the people that overestimate their handling capabilities and underestimate the ability of this dog to profile you in a second or less. If you look angry, she's going to know immediately. Something's not right. This dog is almost psychic.
You cannot scream at these dogs. You cannot hit these dogs. You cannot mistreat these dogs as they can read you in a nanosecond and I have worked very hard to get her temperament as level as a calm pool of water.
I have 25 years handling experience with German Shepherd dogs, malinois and Dutch Shepherds. So I consider myself not an expert but very experienced in the handling and demeanors of the difference in breeds and a German Shepherd dog frightens me now as they have been so inbred that their stability is highly questionable.
An ideal environment would be somewhere that has a fence, backyard and people that know that this dog is a super athlete and is calm all the time if they are.
She's a mirror of your behavior.
But if you take her to the park and take her off leash and she sees a squirrel and starts running she's going to be gone Baby gone until she knows that you are her new owner and you gain her trust.
She's a very soft demeanor dog so you can't handle her rough or she will become timid. these dogs excel not by being firm with them, but by giving them immense amounts of affection and hugs and kisses and walks.
The inverse is true if you want an attack dog which I do not recommend and I'm sure you would concur. Hugs and kisses.
These dogs will die for you. Literally if you treat them like they are your only one. I can't really find the adjectives to explain how much love these dogs give you. With time they almost stop being dogs and become human. It's the most unusual thing. They become almost goodwill ambassadors to everyone if treated and trained correctly with love and affection.
They will learn to love everyone, no matter whom or where or whatever.. but they still retain that innate instinct that if someone approaches you very aggressively, they will defend you by growling. And I've never seen any of my dogs attack anyone. But Lord knows I've been attacked multiple times by many ankle dogs and bullies I am really concerned where this whole thing is going with pit bulls.
You earn their respect through love and affection just like any dog. Again, I say a Staffordshire or any backyard bred dog is infinitely more dangerous than this breed.
I am super proficient dog handler and I am super fearful of a Jack Russell or a pitbull any day of the week versus a Dutch shepherd or a Belgian malinois.
It's all in the afstamming(Dutch for pedigree lineage).
When Taki is in the house, she loves nothing more than to follow you around and be near you. She's more than willing to sleep wherever you want her to.
She's crate trained. If you want her to sleep in her crate she will sleep in her crate. If you want her to sleep on the bed she will sleep on the bed. She's a very compliant dog. Generally she likes to sleep on the floor because it gets too hot on the bed.
Her best fit would be on a farm or a area with at least a half acre fenced in backyard. 5 acres would be paradise . They have to have a certain amount of area to run back and forth or else you need to walk them a mile a day. I guarantee you if she's placed in somewhere without a fence and without the owners knowing that this dog is almost as fast as a Greyhound and want S to be where you are. If you go open that front door she's going to shoot through there like a heat seeking missile. If that should happen. Don't chase the dog. Just go sit in the front yard. Calmly she's going to hover close and watch you but if you chase her she'll run for hours just slightly ahead of you and you'll never catch her.
This dog is a showstopper. If you go shopping you better allow triple the time because every person that sees you is going to stop and say can I pet your dog. I would advise against that for the new owner as the dog needs to get to know and trust the owner.. It's not that she is aggressive. It's just that usually young children will run up and try to startle her because she's so unusual and I've never seen her growl or bark at any children. But it's just something that should be known that any dog that is startled by three or four running children is going to react unpredictably, but I would say I would trust her a thousandfold over any pitbull I've ever seen or any type of dog that has been backyard bred- even a golden doodle is more dangerous than this dog because of their backyard breeding. She reminds me of a hyperathletic golden retriever. But they're 100 times more observant.
This dog is the safest dog I've ever handled. What happens when something goes wrong with this breed is when generally a man will raise his hand and hit the dog.. I know I'm being overly explanatory here but when I want to make a point with Taki to say no, I take a rolled up newspaper and slap it once on the table or my hand .
One should never ever hit a dog under any circumstances.. or even raise a hand in a gesture to a dog . They will forget but they will never forget. And if you hit a dog like this, it'll take 2 years to bring her back if you can never get that out of her, after she correlates the sound of a rolled up magazine smacking on the table with the word No, the next time she starts even thinking about doing something wrong- Just when she sees you reach for that rolled up newspaper, she stops whatever negative behavior she's doing which is rare if ever this dog is so well-behaved- but I've worked on that for 256 days.
I only had to do that. Maybe five or six times and now no means no. And she understands no.
I've been quite sick lately so she's been mirroring my behavior. Her appetite is down right now and she stays by my side 24 hours a day. Conversely, if I were to take her to the park and throw the ball she would want to play until she was exhausted.
Let me say you should never throw a ball with this dog unless she's on a 50 ft cotton or thin leather lead because if she doesn't trust you she's going to run.
On the first couple of weeks you shouldn't even open the front door without making sure that you have her on leash with your hand through the leash cuz this dog is so fast and so agile that she can escape and under one and a half seconds through a 4-in gap she'll be gone gone gone.
And she'll hang around. Actually for a new owner during the day if you're going to open the door it's best to have a leash on her and have someone else just hold the leash because it's their natural drive to get to that door and make sure there's no bad guys out there
These dogs are a mere reflection of their handlers behavior.
As I stated, she weighs 60 lb. She's very compact. She's about 24 in at the shoulders. And the good thing about this breed is they have the least amount of heritable disorders out of most dogs. I believe the Dutch shepherd only has two and they don't have the normal problems of hip dysplasia that you see so common in German shepherd dogs and they're much more stable and much more intelligent than a German shepherd dog.
I know because my first dog that I handled for 12 years was a East block German Shepherd dog that weighed 110 lb..
Also they don't shed. She has very short fur and one time when it comes springtime she will shed a very fine undercoat but after that it's not like all the other breeds so I would consider her almost hypoallergenic.
Right now as I sit and talk to you she's just sleeping curled up in a ball right next to me with her head touching my leg. This is how they are, so this is a animal that if rehomed in the first couple of weeks will determine the future of the dog.
I would not recommend in the initial couple weeks that the dog be constantly agitated by young children. Even though it's not their intent, these dogs need to settle in and realize the shock of losing one owner and trusting a new owner, which comes as I stated with love and affection, not three young children running up and slapping her in the head or pulling her tail or whatever.
But I'm not trying to sound dictatorial here. It's just that these dogs are exactly what you make them. And so many people are going to want this dog. I would just screen away people with young children that are under the age of 10.
You're going to have so many prospective people wanting her that have experience with German Shepherd dogs and other working breeds that there's no necessity to take the risk.
I live in a neighborhood with probably 20 dogs. Many of them are small dogs and which are very reactive and barky and like to bite at your ankles. This dog just glides on by and ignore that type of behavior..
Ideally this dog needs a 14 day break in. Where the situation is calm, not chaotic. This will determine the rehoming success of the dog. This dog is a 99 on a 100 scale as far as it's temperament..
But if you throw this dog sink or swim into a chaotic scenario where adults are screaming at each other, children are running around screaming. The dog is going to be in a state of confusion- just as any dog is after it's been removed from its 247-365 owner.
I feel safer rehoming this dog than any dog that you would get from the shelter. As I have spent so much time working with this dog and smoothing out her rough edges. It's better for her to be more calm and non-reactive than what people think that they should be, which is a snarling attack dog..
She will alert bark quite well and matter of fact you can have two TVs on at 2:00 in the morning. The dog can be in a room separate from that and she can hear what's going on outside through all the noise. That's how good her hearing is.
When you say the word protect, if you have an open blind on a window she'll just run to that and look outside and bark. That's all she does is bark only if she hears anything. Otherwise, she's silent as the wind, she's not a barker. She's not very much like a dog. She's more of a person.
She has a very unusual bark. It's not deep in profound. It's more sharp and raspy which is good because it's not overly loud but it's very effective..
That's why people always say this is not a good first breed for people that aren't calm and patient and have not had experience with other working dogs such as German Shepherd, dogs or etc. Sure, sometimes she frustrates me. But I know well that I'll gain much more by keeping my cool and just saying no quietly
This dog is not crazy energetic like an Australian Shepherd would be. This dog is very calm. Cool and rock solid demeanor.
Believe it or not this dog would do very well with a couple in there '50s/60s who have no children or a couple in their 20s who doesn't leave her alone. I just mentioned all this cuz you don't want to have to rehome her three times and people are going to say anything to get their hands on this dog. Every time she is rehomed she's going to lose some of her stability.
This is not a dog to be left alone all day long if you can't be with her and you leave her all day long while you're at work 9:00 to 5:00, she's going to mentally implode.
That's why these dogs are rehomed so often because people want the status but they're not willing to put the work in. This dog is for people that are at home, not for a dog to leave locked in your home all day.. I'd recommend a Greyhound for that.
That's not to say you can't leave her for 3 or 4 hours and go do your thing but this is more of a dog that can come with you everywhere and it's so well behaved that you can go into Walmart or any store or wherever and people like to see this dog in the store. I would not recommend leaving her for more than 1 hour in the first month because you need to slowly let her know that you're going to come back. So the way I trained her was I was just go outside in the front yard where she could see me and then come back in and then you leave for 15 minutes out of sight and then come back and then extend at the 30 minutes and then come back and then 60 minutes and come back. And I don't recommend leaving her alone at night at all because of anybody approaches your house. She's going to go and the defense mode. Not that she's going to attack anyone but she's going to be barking and in the window.
This dog wants to be with you at all times. She's not a destructive animal but if you leave her alone just as with any dog for an excessive amount of time they will get destructive if they get bored they need mental stimulation or physical stimulation.
She's not afraid of thunder or lightning or gunfire. that kind of stuff that is indicative of dogs that have been maltreated.
She does not suffer from separation anxiety. However she could manifest that in the first couple weeks if the owners tell you yes we will be with her and then they leave her alone in the house for 12 hours a day.
The dog is going to get lonely and just like any dog is going to find something to chew on. This dog is not that style, but if you leave something on the table especially food, it's going to be gone..
You're probably a little bit taken aback by everything that I've said about this dog, but in reality this dog is actually calmer than probably 95% of the dogs you rehome because I've spent every waking moment of my days since the day that I got her on February 6th, being with her hugging her reassuring her walking her teaching her that people are not a threat and these dogs only turn inward when they become abused, just like any other dog.
You will have no problem finding people that will want this dog when they see the photos of her. You will have a problem of too many people wanting this dog because of its super unique look and it's dignity in which it carries itself.
Aiken is a great city to rehome her in because of all the equestrian people that live here and this dog has no problem with horses. She just looks at them quickly and ignores them..
I'm sorry I went on a long tire tribe about this dog but these dogs get a bad reputation when in fact the most dangerous dogs are actually the Rottweilers and Dobermans and backyard bred variant of any type of dog from a Jack Russell to a mini pincher all the way up to a poodle.
These dogs have been so inbred that they have very unstable and unpredictable Temperaments and disposition
Takis a very happy and loving dog. When you call her name she runs to you with such joy and glee. She'll even jump up with her front paws and try to give you a hug. This dog just has love exuding from her.
It is imperative for the first several weeks that even if you take her outside that she be on a leash at all times unless she's in a backyard and if a gate is open she will find it and she will disappear.
However, she is microchipped and but you should know with this type of breed that these dogs are. Dock diving champions agility champions 2 mph slower than a Greyhound you just have to be mindful of their super athletic ability..
I apologize for my very aggressive tone and demeanor; I'm running out of time and I'm just terrified that I should pass before I can find her a new home.
This dog is my life but when you love something as much as I love this dog you have to let her go to a new forever family.
Please feel free to contact me if I have omitted any information.
I would say with cats when I walk her and she sees a cat she does not pursue it. However, whenever I have her outside, I have her on leash, but she's not the kind of dog that lunges when she sees a cat. If a squirrel runs 3 ft in front of her, I can't predict that. But that's why it's important to have her on leash and whatever family wants to take her. I have everything that they need from three separate crates, a metal crate if they want to use that. I have a year's worth of medicines for her heartworm, fleas, etc. I have a kuranda bed for her as well
I wish I could have put this into a more compact format, but I just feel so strongly about this dog that I wanted to make sure that you understood that she's an exact reflection of the way that she's treated.