Let me start by saying I'm without a doubt in love with my boy. I'm only voicing frustration because I feel sure some of you have gone through this before and I just need a little guidance and advice for how to make things a little smoother in my house.
The love--I have the most calm well behaved pup around my house. He's wonderful for pushing 6 months old. He's calm at home and whenever we go places, it's great! The vet has even complimented his behavior. He is absolutely my little shadow, goes everywhere with me. He is pretty much house trained except if he has an upset stomach, or if hubby accidentally falls asleep when I'm not home and doesn't take him out soon enough(that's only happened once). He hasn't chewed anything he isn't supposed to except the tip of a flip flop and its still quite wearable. He prefers his toys and cardboard and paper when he can find it, so glad he doesn't have expensive taste!
The frustration--He had health issues when we got him, ok that's been sorted out. He is exceptionally small. He's not the big, athletic boy I was anticipating and hoping for. That's ok, I'm good with one that turns out smaller than expected. Easier on hips and other joints right? Wrong. He wont jump on anything(not into the car and not on the couch unless highly motivated) and he has an odd gait. Like I notice it all the time and when I've taken him to my in-laws house they commented that he looked like he had trouble with his hips, and I had never mentioned anything to them about it. (I would like to take a video of his movement and see what yall think here before I go skipping off to the vet--again.) He's lazy...like extremely low drive. The only time we had the 'zoomies' was when he was on meds from the vet. But I digress....
So now he's gotten itchy. He doesnt have fleas and vet and I don't think it's his food. Vet said he had dry skin and to put him on fish oil. He's been on fish oil a couple weeks now and no change. And I wouldn't be worried about it not working very fast if it weren't for all his scratching at night and keeping hubs and I awake all flipping night. That combined with waking us up to get water several times a night. We solved the water problem and just put the bowl in the bedroom(against all puppy advice) and we've been letting him sleep out in the room instead of crating him. That way he can get water when he needs it and he knows not to potty in there. Back to the itching, he'll lay against the door, or the wall or the bedframe and scratches and it of course is loud and wakes us up. *Cue exhaustion the next morning* So last night, I gave him a tiny bit of benedryl before bed to relieve the itching and hopefully help the humans to get a full nights sleep and put him in a crate-with water bowl. So he got sick and at 2am i was cleaning up diarrhea from his bed and blankets and him and the floor where he stepped when he got out.
So now I'm exhausted and thinking about my lazy, small(32lbs tops), itchy, hot, thirsty, odd gaited, potentially hip displaced 6 month old GSD that I, for some strange reason, love to death... Boy did I win the puppy lottery. I just wanted a healthy playful puppy. That's it. I didn't care about perfect conformation or whatnot.
P.s. He's also got and odd, almost perfectly round patch of hair missing on his hip. He's got the undercoat but no long hair over it. It's been that way a while now and it's not cute.
The love--I have the most calm well behaved pup around my house. He's wonderful for pushing 6 months old. He's calm at home and whenever we go places, it's great! The vet has even complimented his behavior. He is absolutely my little shadow, goes everywhere with me. He is pretty much house trained except if he has an upset stomach, or if hubby accidentally falls asleep when I'm not home and doesn't take him out soon enough(that's only happened once). He hasn't chewed anything he isn't supposed to except the tip of a flip flop and its still quite wearable. He prefers his toys and cardboard and paper when he can find it, so glad he doesn't have expensive taste!
The frustration--He had health issues when we got him, ok that's been sorted out. He is exceptionally small. He's not the big, athletic boy I was anticipating and hoping for. That's ok, I'm good with one that turns out smaller than expected. Easier on hips and other joints right? Wrong. He wont jump on anything(not into the car and not on the couch unless highly motivated) and he has an odd gait. Like I notice it all the time and when I've taken him to my in-laws house they commented that he looked like he had trouble with his hips, and I had never mentioned anything to them about it. (I would like to take a video of his movement and see what yall think here before I go skipping off to the vet--again.) He's lazy...like extremely low drive. The only time we had the 'zoomies' was when he was on meds from the vet. But I digress....
So now he's gotten itchy. He doesnt have fleas and vet and I don't think it's his food. Vet said he had dry skin and to put him on fish oil. He's been on fish oil a couple weeks now and no change. And I wouldn't be worried about it not working very fast if it weren't for all his scratching at night and keeping hubs and I awake all flipping night. That combined with waking us up to get water several times a night. We solved the water problem and just put the bowl in the bedroom(against all puppy advice) and we've been letting him sleep out in the room instead of crating him. That way he can get water when he needs it and he knows not to potty in there. Back to the itching, he'll lay against the door, or the wall or the bedframe and scratches and it of course is loud and wakes us up. *Cue exhaustion the next morning* So last night, I gave him a tiny bit of benedryl before bed to relieve the itching and hopefully help the humans to get a full nights sleep and put him in a crate-with water bowl. So he got sick and at 2am i was cleaning up diarrhea from his bed and blankets and him and the floor where he stepped when he got out.
So now I'm exhausted and thinking about my lazy, small(32lbs tops), itchy, hot, thirsty, odd gaited, potentially hip displaced 6 month old GSD that I, for some strange reason, love to death... Boy did I win the puppy lottery. I just wanted a healthy playful puppy. That's it. I didn't care about perfect conformation or whatnot.
P.s. He's also got and odd, almost perfectly round patch of hair missing on his hip. He's got the undercoat but no long hair over it. It's been that way a while now and it's not cute.