Featuring the Vantasia Line of
White German Shepherd Dogs
Dog Stories
Britt the Home Service Dog
We didn't realize what we had when we first got him, but soon saw that Britt was special. We took him to obedience training where he learned the usual sit, stay, down, and other commands. He did so well that he later earned his Canine Good Citizenship title. He proved to be a willing and quick learner.
Lance was no professional dog trainer, but he worked with Britt occasionally to teach him various jobs around the house. Pretty soon, Britt compiled a fairly extensive list of jobs that he could perform. They included picking up clothes and putting them in the clothes hamper, putting trash in the trash can, fetching various items, etc. Once, Lance became frustrated trying to find the remote control for the TV late at night with all the lights out. So, Lance trained Britt to fetch the TV remote control in the dark.
Britt also became Lance's butler in the morning, having learned to fetch Lance's shoes automatically whenever he saw Lance putting his socks on. When the socks were white, Britt would fetch Lance's sneakers; when they were dark, Britt would fetch Lance's dress shoes. Britt's willingness to fetch various items led to some remarkable events connected with Lance's leather key case.
Britt the Athlete
When Britt and our Golden Retriever, Maggie, first started playing with each other out on the school field near our home, they were both about the same size. Maggie would tease Britt with possession of a tennis ball in her mouth, and then easily outdistance him when she got him to chase her. We always thought Maggie was fast. It wasn't long, however, before Britt got bigger and bigger, and stronger, and faster. Pretty soon, Maggie couldn't outdistance Britt. Instead, whenever Britt saw Maggie on the run, he would soon chase her down and herd her to a stop. No tennis ball was safe then.
One day when Lance was playing with him on the local school grounds, just for fun, Britt leapt over a four-foot brick wall and down to a lower level grassy embankment. It was a drop that that exceeded six feet. He did this without a second thought and without any ill effects afterwards. After that, we were always amazed at how tremendous an athlete Britt was.
Britt the Pushover
Britt was the largest dog we had. He was in good athletic shape at about 95 lbs. Yet he was the most gentle dog you could imagine. He got along with just about all people and dogs. Once, we decided to bring Ben, a 10-month-old German Shepherd Dog, home from the local animal shelter with the idea of adopting him. We had visited with Ben at the shelter several times and convinced ourselves of his gentleness. However, when we introduced Ben to our other dogs, we noticed that Ben tended to bully Britt, even though Britt was twice his size.
We had to find another home for Ben because we were afraid Ben would hurt Britt, or Britt would at some point lose his temper and hurt Ben - but that never happened. Later when we got Merlin, an 8-week-old white German Shepherd Dog puppy, Britt and Merlin would play roughly together, but Britt would never lose his temper. When Merlin became full-grown, Britt still got along with him very well, despite Merlin's declared ownership of all the tennis balls - and Britt still outweighed Merlin by about twenty pounds.
Pest Control
One of the dogs we've had was named Sophia. She was a blondish Golden Retriever bitch that we got free from a breeder when she was eight years old and no longer being used to turn out puppies. We were Sophia's retirement home. One hot summer day, we took our three dogs up to the local school grounds for a little exercise. On the way back, with our Maryland home in sight, Sophia got all excited and took off at a run.
At first, we thought she was running home, but then she veered to the right, crossed a street, and headed into the state park. We quickly got home and secured the other dogs, and set out to look for Sophia. Since we had not had Sophia for very long, we were afraid she might have pulled a "Lassie, Come Home" move and was headed to the farm in Virginia where she had birthed her many puppies. Fortunately, before we had gone very far from the house, we saw Sophia heading back towards us from across the street, but she was soaking wet. Apparently, Sophia had decided it was time for a swim in the lake that we had introduced her to several days earlier.
We hadn't had Sophia very long when it appeared that we had a problem with ground hogs in our back yard. They were burrowing under our timber retaining wall and possibly undermining it. We had mentioned this to the breeder from whom we got Sophia, and she suggested we just let Sophia solve the problem. She said Sophia had been the ring leader of her pack of dogs on the farm, and that Sophia was an expert hunter.
Sure enough, as soon as we let Sophia loose in the back yard, she immediately spotted one of the ground hogs. With speed that belied her usual grandmotherly pace, Sophia seized one of the ground hogs and had it in her mouth. Sophia grabbed another one before the ground hogs apparently deserted my backyard permanently. It was like the groundhogs were the Clanton brothers and Sophia was Wyatt Earp. The ground hogs got out of Dodge City and there was no more groundhog problem.
Britt the Key Operator
Britt was our first white GSD. We never had shown Britt in conformation until last year, when we showed him in the altered pet category. Mostly we had taught him to do a lot of jobs. We intended only to keep Britt as a pet, but he inspired us to add other wGSDs to our family and eventually establish Sugarloaf Shepherds.
Britt
amazed us with his desire to help. Several years ago, in late Fall, we
had accumulated an enormous volume of fallen leaves on our front lawn,
completely covering a wide expanse of lawn right up to our driveway. I
guess we had been too busy to remove the leaves on a regular basis as
they fell.
One morning, just before Linda and I were to leave for work, we had needed to transfer several items from one car to the other, preparatory to driving the other car in for service. My hands were stuffed with several items already, including my leather key case. As Linda continued to hand me additional items to hold, my key case silently slipped from my grasp and disappeared into the pile of leaves. When I realized what had happened, we both started looking for the keys in the area next to the driveway, but with no luck. Finally, we used Linda's keys to drive the car to work.
In the evening, after arriving home, it was already dark as we resumed looking for the keys with the aid of a large rake and a flashlight. We still hadn't found the keys when Linda let Britt out to have some fun. Light-heartedly, I commanded Britt to "Find keys!" I didn't really expect much, but Britt had been trained to find treats in the house, so he started looking, burying his nose in the pile of leaves. Almost immediately, he came up with something - a tennis ball. We praised him, and reiterated - "Find keys!" He started looking again and so did we.
We were very surprised several minutes later when Britt walked up with my leather key case in his mouth and offered it to me. Britt repeated this feat a year later during the winter when, on command, he found my keys in a flower bed that was covered with a healthy growth of ground cover, loose leaves, and snow. I had accidentally thrown them into the air, in the dark, while slipping on a patch of ice on the nearby path to the house. From then on, Britt would automatically pick up my keys and "hand" them to me whenever he found them within reach, after my having carelessly strewn them about the house.
Britt took on other jobs as well. He picked up my clothes from the floor
and put them in the laundry basket; he put our used plastic bottles in
the recycling bin; he picked up trash and put it in the trash can; he
used to find the TV remote control in the dark and give it to me; and
he got my shoes or sneakers for me in the morning. One summer, after I
had returned home from a back operation and a lengthy hospital stay, Britt
actually served as my service dog. Because I was under doctor's restrictions
not to bend or twist my back for awhile, Britt picked up various items
on command when I pointed to them or accidenytally dropped them. And,
of course, he always kept me very warm at night.
