German Shepherds Forum banner

I rescued Houdini...

993 Views 8 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  Rügen
My Senior is starting to go down hill and I know he won't be around too much longer, so I decided on a rescue instead of a pup to keep my 3 year old company. I found a beautiful, sweet and fairly submissive male ~2 years old. Last night when I brought him home, all the boys played well together. But this morning he was playing with the 3 year old and got too rough and my 3 year old growled to let him know that was not OK. Then the rescue growled back and they did the stare down while growling and my old guy takes off to mediate. I called all 3 of them down before anybody thought about fighting. I had intended on crating the new dog when not supervised until I was sure everyone had accepted one another.

Imagine my surprise when I came home at lunch to let the rescue out and I see 3 GSDs coming out of the house through the dog door!!! It also scared me to death since they had done a little posturing with one another this morning! I came in the house and the rescue had bent the bottom of the crate up about 4 inches and he must have crawled out sideways. (He is very thin at present, but full grown none the less.) It still amazes me. That crate has contained 4 GSDs and a Doberman in the past.

My suspicion is that as he was wiggling out, my other 2 must have scared him a little as I'm sure that they got excited with him struggling. He is not challenging them at all now and taking the back-seat, so I'm not sure what happened that took the wind out of his sails. I checked everyone over and no one appears injured. They actually seem pretty calm and settled with one another. The problem is that I live in a very small town and I have no way of getting a super heavy crate until at least Thursday. Do I dare leave them together unsupervised? (I had to take my chances after lunch because had to get back to work.) Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated. I have always raised my dogs from pups and this is my first attempt at integrating an adult into a pack. My only options at present are to return him to the rescue (she has a kennel) until I can get another crate or pray they have truly settled the pack order and just leave them together.
See less See more
1 - 9 of 9 Posts
Can you reinforce the crate with zip ties? Or put the crate in a separate room and close the door?

My Basu did the same thing. Bent the bars and bent his teeth too.
See less See more
Wow, thats pretty amazing that he was able to do that!

Can you separate him in a room? Like a bathroom?
My only fear with separating him totally...if he gets out he is likely to destroy something trying to get to the other dogs. He had been rescued once and returned because he was alone and kept jumping the chain link fence to get to the neighbor's dog to play.
2
I think you're going to have to stay home from work and play,
er.... "supervise" them until then.
See less See more
Originally Posted By: TheAlamoGangMy Senior is starting to go down hill and I know he won't be around too much longer, so I decided on a rescue instead of a pup to keep my 3 year old company. I found a beautiful, sweet and fairly submissive male ~2 years old. Last night when I brought him home, all the boys played well together. But this morning he was playing with the 3 year old and got too rough and my 3 year old growled to let him know that was not OK. Then the rescue growled back and they did the stare down while growling and my old guy takes off to mediate. I called all 3 of them down before anybody thought about fighting. I had intended on crating the new dog when not supervised until I was sure everyone had accepted one another.

Imagine my surprise when I came home at lunch to let the rescue out and I see 3 GSDs coming out of the house through the dog door!!! It also scared me to death since they had done a little posturing with one another this morning! I came in the house and the rescue had bent the bottom of the crate up about 4 inches and he must have crawled out sideways. (He is very thin at present, but full grown none the less.) It still amazes me. That crate has contained 4 GSDs and a Doberman in the past.

My suspicion is that as he was wiggling out, my other 2 must have scared him a little as I'm sure that they got excited with him struggling. He is not challenging them at all now and taking the back-seat, so I'm not sure what happened that took the wind out of his sails. I checked everyone over and no one appears injured. They actually seem pretty calm and settled with one another. The problem is that I live in a very small town and I have no way of getting a super heavy crate until at least Thursday. Do I dare leave them together unsupervised? (I had to take my chances after lunch because had to get back to work.) Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated. I have always raised my dogs from pups and this is my first attempt at integrating an adult into a pack. My only options at present are to return him to the rescue (she has a kennel) until I can get another crate or pray they have truly settled the pack order and just leave them together.
No.

Three dogs=pack.

Pack=pack behavior as you know!

And with a senior male and two young males that can = very bad news for the senior.

Also, I go really slowly for at least 2 weeks with a new dog or foster in terms of exposing them to things, them to other dogs, my dogs to them and with playing because I don't want to have to UNDO anything. And I never have 3 dogs out unsupervised together, just for safety sake.
I currently have three. Cyrus the GSD is still crated and he is almost 2.5 years old.

The two females are left to roam at will when I am not at home, but they have never given me cause for concern.
I have seem how my three act when together, they feed off each other.

My girl Stella and my other girl Echo get along fabulous, but Cyrus got to rough with Stella one day and made her yelp, Echo jumped into the fray. If I had not been there they Echo and Cyrus would have seriously hurt her.
It is just not worth the risk for me. I feel bad having to crate but I would be devastated to come home to an injured dog.
Anyone have any suggestions on an extra heavy duty crate? The one he bent was supposed to be heavy duty.
Would it be possible to crate the other two GSDs?
1 - 9 of 9 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top