Interview with Dave Rinke in December of 2009 by Pam Stoesser
How did you get started in German Shepherd Dogs?
We used to have dogs around the house at my folks place all the time. We had a Cocker Spaniel and another time a black Lab. We were about to get another dog and I decided to buy a German Shepherd, because they were kind of a macho dog and a good thing to have around. So I bought a little female German Shepherd and I don’t remember whether she had papers or not. She only lived about a month before she died of distemper.
Not to be deterred, this time I spent “big bucks” and got one with papers. He was a $50 dog but since a bag of dog food was about $5, he was a semi-expensive dog. He was a pretty nice dog; particularly in temperament. I ended up taking him down to the GSDC of Minneapolis and St. Paul for training. I had bought a Goldbecker and Hart book and I was convinced he was a Grand Victor. Like all neophytes, it appeared to me that he had it all! I remember Helen Miller Fisher deflating me just a touch. After I ran him around a little bit, she said he would probably be best suited for obedience.
Not too long after that and before we were married, Martha was living in a tough neighborhood, so we decided to get a German Shepherd for her since the one at my folk’s place was such a nice dog. Her father knew Bob Foster through his Army Reserve unit and thought Bob was in shepherds. Bob and his wife turned out to be Bob and Ruth Foster and through them, we met Paul and Joan Johnson. We ended up getting the dog for Martha from the Johnson’s – a female by the name of Velvet. She was a real dark Edgetown-type bitch who was a little long in coat and unfortunately ended up being dysplastic in both hips. We gave her to Martha’s sister where, surprisingly, she ran around for more than 12 years and never limped a day in her life.
At that point, we’d been going around to shows just looking at dogs. The first one I went to was the Topline Specialty. These were big shows and when I say big shows, there were two rings with two judges and German Shepherds all over the place. If you didn’t get there early, you couldn’t sit in the first row to see the show. The puppy classes had 25 to 30 puppies being shown, mostly by their owners. They were shown in a different style at the time. All the dog had to do was to run along beside you, pretty typical of the way other breeds are shown in the all breed shows today as opposed to our rather unique, double-handled, hell-bent-for-leather, shown-by-a-professional style which dominates our breed today. It was a fun atmosphere. There were often parties afterward and people were a lot younger and could stay up at night. It was a festive environment that I really enjoyed.
|
|
Last Updated on Saturday, 06 February 2010 17:53 |
|
Read more...
|
Not too long after that and before we were married, Martha was living in a tough neighborhood, so we decided to get a German Shepherd for her since the one at my folk’s place was such a nice dog. Her father knew Bob Foster through his Army Reserve unit and thought Bob was in shepherds. Bob and his wife turned out to be Bob and Ruth Foster and through them, we met Paul and Joan Johnson. We ended up getting the dog for Martha from the Johnson’s – a female by the name of Velvet. She was a real dark Edgetown-type bitch who was a little long in coat and unfortunately ended up being dysplastic in both hips. We gave her to Martha’s sister where, surprisingly, she ran around for more than 12 years and never limped a day in her life.