Winifred
Gibson Strickland certainly has had a full-life with dogs….and with her
favorite the breed, the German Shepherd Dog.
She is known at Ms. German Shepherd of Obedience. In November of 2002 she put her 208th
title on one of her dogs with a score of 297 ½. Wynn has over 1500 awards and trophies to
her credit. One award she takes special
pride in is the one from “des Verein fuer deautsche Schaeferhunde” or SV, the
parent club for the Shepherd in Germany.
As the world’s largest single breed club (100,000 members) the SV rarely
acknowledges outside accomplishments yet they gave her an award for Excellence
in Obedience Training. Over forty
perfect (200) scores in obedience isn’t too shabby, either.
Ms. Strickland was
an AKC Obedience judge for 18 years and judged all classes including Tracking.
She was a Director of the German Shepherd Dog Club of America as well as a
member for 54 years. She is President and Founder of the Diamond State German
Shepherd Dog Club, Honorary member of the Southern New Jersey German Shepherd
Dog Club, member of the GSDCA-WDA, the USA SchutzHund Club and the “des Verein
fuer deutsche Schaeferhunde” (SV). As an author Wynn has written Expert
Obedience Training for Dogs, Joll and Me, The German Shepherd Today, and
Obedience Class Instruction for Dogs: The Trainer's Manual. Wynn also has three
videos dealing with Novice, Open and Utility.
Ms Strickland has trained thousands of dogs in her Obedience classes and
clinics. They were all different breeds
not only Shepherds.
With
the rapid growth in Agility few recall that Wynn Strickland designed and put on
the first agility test in 1971. It was
much tougher to navigate than the current tests and had fewer obstacles. It was held at the German Shepherd Dog Club
of America National Specialty in Arizona.
Her
classic quote is, “Dog training is becoming a lost art.”
