Wyn Strickland and other GSD legends - Page 2

Bubba, I don't know if she could or not, but it wouldn't have surprised me .

Since Wynn Strickland can't tell us herself I suspect there may be competing versions of her GSD conversion.  I am going to go out on a limb and guess that she preferred or liked the German type SL over the AKC type GSD which I think do not use the SL vs WL label and come to think of it neither does the SV.  In defense of the AKC GSD I would say that they all came from the same stock and the AKC GSD breeders went in a different direction.  Perhaps it was a wrong direction but they had the guts to breed their own vision of what they wanted the GSD to be and that is more than the SV followers in the USA have been able to do as they are still importing the vast majority of both SL and WL dogs from Europe.  I suspect Wynn Strickland chose the lesser of the evils and switched to German type Show Line vs the AKC GSD or the German Working Line (so called) or perhaps she took the German SL and created a GSD with her own vision of what a GSD should be.  That is the definition of a GSD breeder is it not??

Blitzen .. she was before the positive methods took over in the late 80's .. did she start out with avoidance and switch to positive methods??  Or was she a closet positive method trainer before the pendulum swung away from avoidance training??  Did she have a conversion to positive methods of training or did she continue to train "old school" until the end??

No one else want to talk about another GSD breeder who you think had a lot of influence on you or the breed as a whole? What about Ernie Loeb, Helen Miller Fisher, Henry Stoecker. They weren't only AKC judges, they were pioneers in the breed who imported many of the great dogs from Germany. They also mentored thousands of newbies over the years. Mrs. Dodge? Louis Donald? Fred Lanting?  Jane Firestone? What about working line legends?

I don't know the answer to that, Bubba. One of my dogs trained with her way back in the late 70's and at that time she was still a preponent of what we would consider "old school" training. How she trained her own dogs I do not know. They were already titled or on their way when I used to watch her at OB trials. Whichever method she used, she could train GSD's like no one else I ever knew. I once saw a photo of 5, 6 of them each sitting on a rung of a step ladder holding an American flag in his or her teeth. I thought it was about the most awesome thing I'd ever seen. In fact I think it's in one of her OB books.

Bubba, I believe that Wynn did a number of ASL x GSL breedings. A few friends of mine owned some of them. Hexe may remember.

"by Blitzen on 26 May 2015 - 19:05 If you want to discuss the spins and pros and cons of ASL's start another thread please."

Not sure if this was directed at me or Sunsilver??? The question was initially asked by Sunsilver and you responded, however your responce was irrrelevent to the actual question- Perhaps because of the way she worded her question or perhaps you misunderstood the question because you were not aware of Gustav's post??? Either way it's not a topic brought up by me and you already engaged in the discusion (with Sunsilver). I simply attempted to provide some clarification and express a hope that Gustav would not post a reply too quickly. 

I confess I misread Gustav's post. I didn't realize Strickland switched form ASL to GSL. I thought she gave up training completely.

Maybe it would be better for me to PM him to avoid derailing the thread...

I think Strickland stopped showing dogs in "Shows" and did not like "SchH," ever. I saw her in obedience in her golden years. I would also nominate Blitzen, who's dogs I have learnt about here and who has advanced obedience degrees and show champions on the same animals. It says other GSD legends.... trainers breeders or kennels that did both?

I think Darby-Dan and Nocturne had SchH Titled AKC CH Dogs? Probably Estahaus,

Bubba is right, Wynn had a lot of dogs and did many crosses, she crossed a German import female to Lance of Fran-jo and probably was around before people called dogs GSD dogs SL or WL.

The handling at top shows in the USA is done by handlers anyhow, so she would not of liked that part. She did have a section on show training in her book though, and held events where people could practice showing their GSD themselves.

OK, right now I'm Doing 1910s, Hoheleft, Winterview, Palisade, and Others.... Soon to come, 1920s Giralda's and then Cosalta! :)

My ASL (1/4 GSL) was a CH when I got her at 3 1/2 from Helen Gleason.  She earned her AD, BH, CD, RN, TCI, CGG since I got her, but the foundation work was already done before I got her. Helen, Nocturne,  bred and BHOT  the only Am bred, V rated AKC CH with a Sch3 and a KKL1.  He is out of a 100% ASL CH sire and a 100% GSL Sch3 female. Others have put Sch3's on imported dogs that became CH's, but to the best of my knowledge Helen's dog is the only Am bred one to do that. She has bred and owned other Sch 3's, but no others have earned their AKC CH title.