Advice re: GSD hybrid from humane society

[wolfy dog]

Originally Posted by huntergreen

just to throw this in, i have a female gsd, 2 female jrts and one male airedale. all is fine.

That's good of course, it is never black or white, more like "if they fight.....it is ugly". But if a potential owner has the choice it is better to be safe than sorry.

[jocoyn]

And if you have kids in the house the LAST thing you need is your dogs fighting with each other. No kids yet I know, but i have been there [our little female ESS had several issues, and resource guarding was one of them (I know a lot more now than I knew then!)]

[8BRvGP]

Thank you all very much for the helpful advice. I'm not going to respond to each post individually because that would be a very long post!

I read all of your posts and have been thinking about this all day (as has my wife). We also asked our vet tonight, and he thought that it would most likely be fine, but said that we should make sure to have trial periods and a slow introduction. Right now, our conclusion is to go forward, but we will be very careful about how our current girls interact with her. If the adoption place will allow it, we'll definitely have at least two meet-and-greets to see how the dogs get along, and then we will try to foster the dog for just a weekend, and then for a longer period of a couple of weeks, before we commit.

As far as them turning on each other because they are female, that is definitely a concern. The vet said that the risk was probably small as long as you are careful. I'm willing to tolerate a little bit of risk, because we really like the dog that we found (assuming that we can even get her).

To address the concerns laid out in this thread, we are thinking:

• Slow introduction - meetings with current dogs, weekend trial period, foster period before adoption
• Always keep the dogs separated when we are not supervising (forever, not just in the trial period). Our current thought is to crate the new dog in the kitchen where the other girls stay, although we'll have to see how she reacts to that. That way at least they would be unable to harm one another.
• Up our walking time to at least 45 min/day or, if that doesn't seem to work, get a dog walking service or do doggie day care (preferably the walking service, although there is a doggie day care close by).
• Strictly follow the procedure outlined in the dog training book that we have (Sylvia-Stasiewicz, "The Love That Dog Training Program") (the book was a gift, but so far it seems to work -- I'm definitely open to other suggestions, if anyone has favorites)

We are not totally set on this, it is just our current plan.

Thanks again for all of the help. Any more thoughts, comments, and/or criticism is welcome!

[llombardo]

Originally Posted by 8BRvGP

Thanks again for all of the help. Any more thoughts, comments, and/or criticism is welcome!

More pictures when you bring her home would be appreciated. I would love to see all of her, because her coloring is beautiful

[alilyncoo]

'The Other End of the Leash' by Patricia B. McConnell isn't a dog-training book really, but a dog behaviour book. I love it, and definitely recommend reading it!

I'm fostering a 15-month (best guess) shepherd right now who acts very much like a puppy, and my own dog is a 12-year old grumpy bichon. Although they're fine together 95% of the time, they are never left together unsupervised because in certain situations (resource guarding or rough play by the shepherd, the bichon being a grumpy old man and going after her first) there could be a fight. And although I'm sure it would be over quickly, there's such a size difference that she could do major damage to him with one bite.

That being said, we're just a bit more careful to keep an eye on them and it's definitely manageable! It's hard to tell from the picture you posted, but I don't see purebred gsd, more collie.

[8BRvGP]

Welp, one last update: We didn't get her :-(. Despite the adoption group saying that she had no other applications, it turns out there was someone ahead of us after all. Ah well, the search continues. Thanks again for all of the advice!

[julie87]

Originally Posted by 8BRvGP

Welp, one last update: We didn't get her :-(. Despite the adoption group saying that she had no other applications, it turns out there was someone ahead of us after all. Ah well, the search continues. Thanks again for all of the advice!

Not to be harsh or anything, but I think is for the best...for your family and that dog's family. My biggest concern is that they would be all females and small dogs, everyone with experience has told you that..AND you personally have no time to exercise the dog. It would be too overwhelming with females and future baby... trust me.. Please don't take offense just get a realistic look at the situation.

[huntergreen]

agree with most posts. you really need to research just how demanding a gsd can be. if you can't put the time in, it won't be fair to all your dogs.

[8BRvGP]

Originally Posted by julie87

Not to be harsh or anything, but I think is for the best...for your family and that dog's family. My biggest concern is that they would be all females and small dogs, everyone with experience has told you that..AND you personally have no time to exercise the dog. It would be too overwhelming with females and future baby... trust me.. Please don't take offense just get a realistic look at the situation.

No offense to you, but I disagree. Ours may not have been the perfect situation, but it was far from the worst. I still believe that we could have handled it, and I think it would have worked out for the best for all of the parties. All of my googling and research, as well as the responses in this thread, seem to point to a lack of consensus about whether three spayed females are able to get along, and what factors motivate them to get along or not. Additionally, the fact that we don't exercise our current dogs to the extent needed for a different breed doesn't mean that we are unable to. You have to start sometime.

Despite that, I see your point and I will try to take it to heart, and consider again whether now is the right time to grow our dog family. We were definitely not thinking as clearly as we could have been, because we really liked the girl that we found and were motivated to make it work.

[huntergreen]

Originally Posted by 8BRvGP

No offense to you, but I disagree. Ours may not have been the perfect situation, but it was far from the worst. I still believe that we could have handled it, and I think it would have worked out for the best for all of the parties. All of my googling and research, as well as the responses in this thread, seem to point to a lack of consensus about whether three spayed females are able to get along, and what factors motivate them to get along or not. Additionally, the fact that we don't exercise our current dogs to the extent needed for a different breed doesn't mean that we are unable to. You have to start sometime.

Despite that, I see your point and I will try to take it to heart, and consider again whether now is the right time to grow our dog family. We were definitely not thinking as clearly as we could have been, because we really liked the girl that we found and were motivated to make it work.

if you have the time, there are plenty of rescues with some nice good looking dogs. a rescue may be able to guide you to the perfect gsd for your household. check out the "urgent" section on this forum or some local gsd rescues.