- [Narrator] Dogumentary TV,
producing the best breed documentaries on YouTube.
- My name is Kourtney Koruki, this is my dog, Lucian.
He is a wire haired Dutch Shepherd
and he will be three in November.
There are three different coat types of Dutch Shepherds,
there's the short hair, the long hair
and then these guys, the wire haired.
They are very rare, there's only about 500 worldwide,
and I believe 47 of those are in the US right now.
He, his litter mates, and his uncle are the only three
in California right now,
and he and his brother live in my house.
My roommate owns his brother, a nice guy, Eddie,
who lives in the house as well.
And they are brothers in the true sense
of yes, we're related,
but we're not gonna really socialize with each other.
They will deal with each other, but that's about it.
I do special effects makeup and the whole reason
I got into special effects makeup
was because of the movie the Underworld
and the werewolves that were there.
And I was searching online for dogs one day
and I came across a picture of a wire haired Dutch Shepherd
and I was like oh my god, it looks like a werewolf,
I have to have one of those dogs.
So, it took me about a year and half to find this guy.
And I knew, when I got my wire haired,
I was gonna name him Lucian
after the first werewolf from Underworld
that could change form at will.
So, and I already have the name of my second wire haired,
his name will be William, also from the movie Underworld.
So, yeah, that is how Lucian got his name.
The breed developed in Holland around 1898.
They were originally just an all-purpose farm dog,
herding, being with the sheep, keeping them away
from the areas they weren't supposed to be in,
and, to this day, you still find dogs in Holland
being used as general farm dogs.
I met someone who breeds long hairs
who, one of his long hairs,
is actually on a working cattle ranch right now
as a stock dog.
Originally, with them, they were herders,
and so most of the wire haired these days are just,
they're pets, they're family dogs,
but there are still working herding dogs.
I take him to herding classes
and it's fun when you see them actually go and herd.
I took him to get temperament tested for herding
and he already knew exactly what to do.
You just kind of saw that light come on
and he just knew how to move with the sheep
and it was very cool.
But, throughout history, they've kind of,
the wire haired, because the sheep
and having the need for the herding dog kind of went down,
so did the number of wire haired,
which is why there are so few right now.
So, right now, we're working on
just trying to keep the gene pool as large as possible
and keep these guys around,
'cause anyone who owns one of these, they love them,
it's their breed, they're more than likely
always gonna have one in their house,
so none of us wanna see them go.
Dutch Shepherds, in general, they're very versatile dogs,
they're very intelligent.
You can pretty much get them to do
anything you want them to do, with the right motivation.
I guess, in general, they're very sweet,
loving, intelligent dogs that just,
they can fit wherever.
The difference between a wire haired
and the other two coat types
would be these guys are, they're very silly,
they're very funny.
Like a lot of my friends always comment on
"he's always so happy",
'cause he's just happy doing whatever he's doing.
It doesn't matter what he's doing,
he's just a happy dog and very energetic.
But they're also really good at, they've got an off button.
A typical day with a wire haired would be
the second you move in the morning,
he's right there at your face.
He wants to get up and go do something.
So, we'll get up and we'll go to take a hike,
get him some exercise, let him come home,
and cool down for a little while.
And then he'll just kind of lay around the house
and chill out until I have to go to work.
And then he goes in his kennel
and he'll sleep until I get home,
and then it's just kind of lounging around the house
until dinnertime.
He, more so the stimulation he gets, is from training.
He gets more, the mental wears him out faster
than the physical, and so we do training throughout the day.
In the morning, when we're on the hike,
we'll start our hikes with a little obedience,
and then I'll let him go and then we'll hike,
and then we come back home later on in the day
when I get off work, I'll do just about 10 minutes
of obedience with him,
and that works his mind enough
that it wears him out more
than if I took him on a walk around the block.
As far as the protective nature of a wire haired,
genetically speaking, they were there
to be with the sheep and protect, and mostly herd,
but, if need be, and so at home
he's not really a protective dog.
I'll know if someone's there,
but he's not gonna do anything to help me
if anything ever happened.
He'd let me know they were there
as he was running out the back door.
An appropriate person or family to own
a wire haired Dutch Shepherd
would be pretty much anyone
who has a good understanding of dogs,
and especially a herding breed.
Like I said, they're very versatile,
they can just lay around your house, be great pets.
Depending upon the dog, they can be really good around kids.
Him, not so much, he's a little too energetic,
he kind of knocks them over,
but he's very sweet to them.
But, as far as energy level goes,
I have only ever seen this dog truly tired
one day in his life
and that took two very intense hikes
and a beach trip all in one day to make him tired.
The rest of the time, we hike
and we'll kind of go out
and explore different areas of the city,
like we'll have lunch with friends,
and the mental stimulation he gets works him out,
but truly have only ever seen him tired once,
and the rest of the time he'll take a quick nap
and then he's good to go all over again.
So, the wire haired can live pretty much anywhere,
as long as they get the proper amount
of both mental and physical stimulation.
If I lived in an apartment, I'm sure he'd be fine
as long as I got him his hikes,
I took him to his herding classes.
He's more than happy to sleep in his kennel
upside down, which is mostly how he sleeps most of the time.
Just snoozing the day away until it's time
to leave the house and go do something
and then he turns on and he's ready to go.
So, they can live pretty much anywhere,
but most of the wire haired I know,
they kind of live in rural settings.
They've got lots of land and if they go herding
or they live in large backyards,
but they're pretty versatile dogs.
As far as a Dutch Shepherd inside the house,
his brother is more than happy to lay around.
He'll just be on you and snuggle
and he would spend his entire day like that.
This guy, if there's no stimulation happening,
he prefers to lay on the floor
with his head under something,
like a coffee table or a bed, I don't know why.
But I have two cats and if the cats are around,
he tends to want to herd
and he gets that posture of wanting to chase the cats
and herd the cats.
So, with him, it's a little bit of a battle
of making sure he stays calm
inside the house around the cats
and knows he can't chase them all the time.
Whereas his brother ignores them
and would lay around and snuggle all day long.
He's very independent and he'll move around with me
throughout the house, but he is not a snuggle dog.
He wants to just kind of be on his own
and just kind of take things in.
If I'm not there, he could go outside
and hang outside in the backyard.
He deals really well with the cold,
with the warmth, and obviously,
when it gets too hot or too cold, they come inside.
But his brother is very much,
like he wants to be touching you at all times.
So, we have both in the house.
One of wire haired is very independent
and the other one is very borderline clingy.
Breed standard would be an independent dog.
A dog who can think on its own,
which is a good thing and a bad thing
when they decide if there's something they want to do.
But they're still very sweet and sensitive dogs,
and so, on the one hand,
his brother fits it very well, a sensitive nature,
and, on the other hand, he fits it very well,
because he does have that Independent thinking mind
and can kind of be on his own
without having to be like, oh, where's my human?
He's more than happy to be on his own.
Well, anytime we go anywhere, they're kenneled.
Well, that's not true actually.
He is kenneled because of the cats.
We can't leave him free roaming in the house.
His brother will free roam either inside or outside.
And they'll hang out in the backyard,
his brother will, for four or five hours,
even if we're home.
And if we're home, he's out of the kennel,
but, if we're not, then he's in the kennel,
because there's the cats.
The vast majority of their time is spent inside
just chilling out.
But they can easily go outside
and just hang in the heat, hang in the cold.
They don't have any issues with it.
Generally, he is on a kibble diet,
but every now and then,
we will supplement with raw food.
Whether it be the pre-made packages
that come in the grinds,
or if it's like raw turkey necks or just chicken breast,
or chicken hearts, or ground lamb heart,
or we gave them tripe, which is a big mistake,
never open that indoors, it's very smelly.
But they love it.
And he's got a really good stomach.
Him and his brother both, they do really well
on both raw and kibble.
But, yeah, they tend to pretty much love
anything we put in front of them.
Generally, people go for the wire haired,
or the long hair, the short,
they pick their coat type
based on what they're using it for.
A lot of people, they get the short coats,
because they're using them for sport work
or it's a working dog
in the sense of protection or police work.
And then someone who's gonna pick a wire haired,
it's they like the look of them,
at least that's why I did it,
'cause they look like werewolves.
But also just livability with these guys.
I mean, the long haired and the short hairs
are the same, you can live with them very easily,
but, yeah, I think mostly it's the look
and the sweet nature of these guys,
and kind of the goofiness that comes along with them,
that is very appealing.
Wire haired have to be hand stripped around twice a year.
Their coat, this top coat right here,
he's actually pretty close to needing
to be stripped right now.
You basically have to hand pull this top layer off
to let the underneath grow,
because, if you don't, it can actually
start causing issues for the dog's skin.
He, when I first had him,
actually started pulling it out himself,
because I wasn't getting to it fast enough.
So, twice a year,
he looks like a short haired Dutch Shepherd,
'cause I have to pull all of the top coat off of him
and let the undercoat grow out.
Lucian is my very first my dog
and while it may seem a little crazy
to get a Dutch Shepherd, a wire haired Dutch Shepherd,
as your first dog, I'm very glad I did.
This is my breed for life.
I will always have one.
I would not change a thing.
This breed is very rare,
so anyone who is looking to get a wire haired Dutch Shepherd
needs to be very serious in doing their research
as far as finding the right breeder
who health tests, they test the elbows,
the test the hips, and make sure
that their dogs are sound to be bred,
and find the right breeder for them,
and find the right puppy for them
that's gonna be the right fit,
so that these guys can stay around,
because there are so few in the world right now,
and like I said, everyone who owns one of these
wants to make sure these guys stay around.