Reply to Mom of 3 Children Seeks German Shepherd Breeder Recommendations

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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?[/quote]

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. [/quote]

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. [/quote]

+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. [/quote]

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