German Sheperds

[HandsomeJonneh]

Anyone have experience with this breed? When I was younger, my family had a German Sheperd pup - it was a mutt, taken from an uncle who didn't want it anymore. We got rid of it because it became more of a hassle and we were too busy with daily life to properly give it the training and "work" desire it deserved.

I'm looking at getting another pup; I want to train it the right way because I don't want to take the chance on getting a badly trained adult. I'd rather it be social and comfortable around strangers, but defensive when I need it to be.

Anyone have one? Any insight? I already know I'm going to devote a lot of my time to training the little pup, but in the end, I feel it'll be worth it and will be a more than loyal companion.

[jake]

i had one when i was a kid... he was a baller

[BART]

i've heard a lot of them get bad hips

[HandsomeJonneh]

yeah, i was recommended to check the physical stature of the parents of the pup to make sure their hips passed as "good" or better

[BART]

good, i was just passing along the info. my friend had a german shep mutt and it developed a hip problem. beautiful dogs though.

[sloskimmer]

I have a german sheperd/rotwiler mix. She is really friendly to people but doesn't get a long well with other smaller dogs. I wish we would have gotten her as a puppy so we could have trained her better.

[Maddshot]

I have owned pure breed German Shepherds my entire life, and they are hands down the most intelligent dogs you can find. Yes pure breeds do have a higher chance of having hip and eye problems, so you need to make sure you get an extremely high quality pup. My last Shep died from some very rare stomach issue, where after they eat and they bounce around their stomach gets twisted it. Freak occurrence and it was a horrible way to lose an amazing dog, her father was V class trained (highest training Shepherds can get, commands are even taught in german).

So spend the extra money, get a good blood line. Need to know anything else, let me know.

[sloskimmer]

I forgot to mention that my dog also has that hip disease.

[Rob Morris-old]

Try skimming............. OH WAIT.

[RexSkimmer]

they are protective, so they bark alot at people, or aleast mine does

[Icej]

get a Labradoodle.

[omi one]

I saw a movie with a German Shepherd and a chick once.

[gulfster813]

My sister in law just got bit by a GS yesterday! She was doing a home appraisal and noticed that the home owner's dog was sitting there tearing up her ankle. She didn't feel it at first. It must've been old or something.

[shabadahbadoo]

shepherds arethe only dogs my family has raised since ive been alive..

personality wise they are all over the place, in my experiance males are a bit more mellow and aloof, females are generally sharper, you know, maybe better to train, but they bark more and are generally more annoying.

eithr way they are still fun

Just loook for the stockiest broadest puppies and parents you can find and you wont have hip problems.

[Duffskim]

when you start to train a german sheperd, make sure you are really tough on him so its a very disiplined god.

My friend has a german who is extremely disobeidiant, and thats a problem, due its enormous size and strenth

[DT]

Even though I wouldn't classify myself as a "dog person", I've always wanted a Shepard, or possibly a Husky (realizing that the heat down here is probably pretty rough on the latter).

There's just something about a Shepard that's like this canine archetype - they're smart, big enough to kick ass, but not crazy like some breeds, good with kids, I like how they look (they're not drooley, eheheh).

I think I like how Shepards and Husky's look like wolfs...

That being said...

One of my designers used to raise wolfs - until you've encountered a *real* wolf in person, you can't image how different they are from dogs. She had a male and female, and the male was monsterous (130lbs?). They react differently than dogs, make no dog related sounds, really something else.

~DT

[Sandskimmernewbie]

You can have mine - He licks himself a lot.