Mom of 3 Children Seeks German Shepherd Breeder Recommendations

[Anonymous]

Oh come on, people. Labs are well known for their stinkiness. Healthy GSDs should not smell much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh come on, people. Labs are well known for their stinkiness. Healthy GSDs should not smell much.

There is a way to handle stinky dogs...baths?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh come on, people. Labs are well known for their stinkiness. Healthy GSDs should not smell much.

There is a way to handle stinky dogs...baths?

Some breeds seem to reek despite regular bathing.

[Anonymous]

OP, I know you One of your kids is a gymnast, right?
Good luck in your search. Dogs are great!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a GSD and our kids are 5 and 3. He is absolutely fantastic. He is so patient with the kids (they climb all over him, snuggle with him, play with him) and has the best temperament. We have had SO many people over the last 10 years tell us he is the best dog they've ever met. My Dh also travels for work so I feel better having our dog home with me and the kids. We adopted him- check your local shelters and set up some visits! There's many wonderful dogs looking for homes.

Please please please don't let your kids climb on the dog. I'm glad it's gone okay so far, but one day if your dog wakes up with stiff hips (age, weather, degeneration) or isn't feeling good, or didn't sleep well and is crabby for whatever reason, that puts everyone at huge risk of the dog reacting to pain and snapping. It's exceedingly dangerous.

It's also just not kind to the dog. You want to teach your kids that the dog is allowed to approach them, or they can encourage the dog to come to them, but they should never ever force the dog to accept attention. Think of it as asking for the animal's consent.

--trainer

+1.

[Anonymous]

I love GSDs and am an experienced, life-long dog owner, but they tend to have lots of health issues and die young’ish, shed intensely and require a ton of training or else can be dangerous. For these reasons, I have never owned one. I prefer the look of the sporting dogs, who are very intelligent too: ridgebacks, pointers, setters, weimeraners…

I do not like labs: not intelligent enough, tend to become obese in middle age, and have lots of health issues. Goldens are overbred too and crazy shedders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Referencing this that it’s not meant to sound snarky:

Have you ever owned a dog? German shepherds are not good starter dogs. you know they require a lot of training but what you imagine times 10 is the reality. Will you be home or will they spend their days by themselves?

This!

They are so many videos out there from vets and dog trainer who will tell you that a German shepherd is not a dog for first time dog owners.

They're first time owner dogs, but it's really the 3 kids that puts this over the edge for me. I can imagine some super committed DINK couple working with trainers and spending their weekends doing agility competitions, canine good citizen, going on long hikes, etc. maybe being ok. But in my experience, people with young kids are pretty crappy dog owners as a group, which means you probably shouldn't get a "zero-errors" breed of dog that requires a working life to be happy. I've trained and owned GSDs....to have a good one means a ton of commitment. This is not a "just let it out in the backyard" for exercise dog. I would never recommend it for parents of young children and DOUBLY so as first time owners! I know a few people who make it work with challenging dogs and young kids, but they are VERY experienced owners. Does someone with three young kids have 4+ hours a day to commit almost exclusively to the dog? Because it will need that at least for the first few years.

+1. The only reason our gorgeous, intelligent large breed dog works for our family is because we had him for about 5 years before kids and spent A TON of time on training and exercising him. We really enjoyed that because we were DINKs and he was our only baby for a while, but no way would I add that dog as a puppy to our current household with young kids and busy lives.
He is not a GSD by the way, but a slightly easier to train, highly intelligent breed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'll second the Ransomshire Shepherds breeder recommendation. I own one from them and have 3 kids. My GSD is a wonderful family dog and we appreciate her intelligence, beauty, silliness and how protective she is.

That said, we are working through a few challenges (which we anticipated, but it's still tough to do while raising 3 small kids):

1. Leash Aggression - she lunges and growls at all other dogs while on walks. I've pretty much corrected this behavior on my own, but I'm still going to a trainer to make sure I'm doing this the right way.

2. Dominance issues with other dogs (she got kicked out of daycare for this one). Daycare is often not the best fit for GSDs, which I've recently learned.

And I'm sure you're aware because you've done a lot of research, but people will be afraid of your dog. People cross the street when I walk her. We have to board her when the kids have sleepovers or planned guests. We can't have people just randomly stop by because she's recently become quite protective of the home.

She is a wonderful pet to those in her pack, but if you're not in it, she can be quite scary, which we're working on with training. I don't need her to be everyone's friend, but I need to train her to be indifferent when appropriate.

I will say that I wouldn’t trade her for the world for the following reasons:
(1) She’s a loving member of our family. When she’s with her crew, she’s so happy, silly, clumsy, and loving.
(2) I never worry when I hear a noise. I used to be terrified to be home alone and hear something. She takes all of that stress away from me now.
(3) I’m a walker/runner who now feels comfortable doing so at night because she’s with me.

Oh, and I'm a first time dog owner. Everyone's right when they say this might not be the best dog for a first time owner, but I couldn't imagine myself with any other breed. Just keep in mind that your dog will require a lot of time, patience, exercise, and money.

Good luck in your journey. And make sure you read the Monks of New Skete's Art of Raising a Puppy. Ransomshire highly recommends it.

I could have written your post. The Monks of New Skete's book was my bible when our beloved GSD became a part of our family. One point the book mentions is to expose your puppy to challenging scenarios at a given point in their development (forget at which precise point). We did that. We took him to D.C. and walked past jack hammers blasting away, etc. He was rock steady. He loved people.

We did have one challenge with our dog. GSDs can have a problem with other dogs. Our dog developed fear aggression towards other dogs after he was mauled by another dog while he was still young. He did not have it beforehand. I developed a routine that kept us away from other dogs. Beyond that, there are shepherd breeds all over Europe and around the world. These dogs had a job - to protect their herds from marauding wolves. These dogs developed over millenia to work in isolated settings, protecting their herds of sheep from other canines. I suspect this is part of the reason why some GSDs can have a problem with other dogs. This is a very real issue that can pop up, and you need to be aware of it. Here's a recent online story about a Great Pyrenees that killed 8 coyotes that had attacked his flock: https://www.newsweek.com/great-pyrenees-who-fought-off-11-coyotes-award-1851042.

[Anonymous]

Our boys grew up with gsds.

I wish I could post videos of our oldest learning to walk and feeding two grown males (about 85 lbs each - so big gsd).

My breeder retired but we have will go with her suggestion for our next gsd.

https://precisiongermanshepherds.ca/Sale.html

Her gsds run smaller and more traditional German lines- good luck!

[Anonymous]

I don’t like the slouched / collapses rear, the oily and rough-to-the-touch fur, and the heavy shedding. I like their intelligence but couldn’t deal with the intense training while parenting kids. It’s a good empty nester dog.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our boys grew up with gsds.

I wish I could post videos of our oldest learning to walk and feeding two grown males (about 85 lbs each - so big gsd).

My breeder retired but we have will go with her suggestion for our next gsd.

https://precisiongermanshepherds.ca/Sale.html

Her gsds run smaller and more traditional German lines- good luck!

Please don't. I hate this horribly deformed version of GSDs. Buy from a better breeder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our boys grew up with gsds.

I wish I could post videos of our oldest learning to walk and feeding two grown males (about 85 lbs each - so big gsd).

My breeder retired but we have will go with her suggestion for our next gsd.

https://precisiongermanshepherds.ca/Sale.html

Her gsds run smaller and more traditional German lines- good luck!

Please don't. I hate this horribly deformed version of GSDs. Buy from a better breeder.

lol.
Those are Schaeferhunde line - not American.

They are in poses for photos.

Learn the difference - sv are the real German standards - not American. SV is what military and police use for baseline in most missions.

Photos are not what makes a dog or breed great - stick to watching lifetime movies before thinking you know anything about lineage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love GSDs and am an experienced, life-long dog owner, but they tend to have lots of health issues and die young’ish, shed intensely and require a ton of training or else can be dangerous. For these reasons, I have never owned one. I prefer the look of the sporting dogs, who are very intelligent too: ridgebacks, pointers, setters, weimeraners…

I do not like labs: not intelligent enough, tend to become obese in middle age, and have lots of health issues. Goldens are overbred too and crazy shedders.

I'm also an experienced life-long dog owner, and my GSD was probably one of the best dogs I've ever had. She died at 14, shedding was medium, and didn't require a ton of training. We got her at 8 months from a rescue, and had no idea of her breeding or her background. She was the sweetest, loyal dog, who was great with children.

OP, good for you researching breeders. I don't have a recommendation, but best of luck!