Finally got my puppy! Update April 2014

[Mustafa]

So after an arduous 9 1/2 week wait, I finally got to pick up my puppy on Thursday!
She is a German Shepherd and wicked smart. And she LOVES bacon (best training treats ever)!
She already does pretty well sleeping through the night and has only had two accidents and one of those I caught her in the act and got her outside to finish, so good learning experience.
Can't wait till she gets trained up!

Momma:

Daddy:

Starbuck:
On the right:

First time meeting her at about 3 weeks:

7 Weeks:

First day home. 9 1/2 weeks old

Playing on the floor

So happy! Little afraid of her potential size though with how big her paws are already! She could be a beast!

 

[Texgal_338]

congrats, nice looking pup

 

[TractusArms]

Congratulations! New pups are always fun, followed by work

 

[Turk]

Congratulations! New pups are always fun, followed by work

And sleepless nights! Then again something's are worth it. Beautiful pup!

 

[KYpatriot]

Congrats, good lookin dog, grew up with gsd's and still love em. Check out Leerburg.com he has a couple DVDs that are the best I have seen on pup training, one of them is "your puppy 8 weeks to 8mths" and the other is "establishing pack structure". This guy has is a renowned GSD working dog trainer and knows his stuff. What I liked was he knows that dogs need leadership before friendship, do it in reverse you get problems.

Congrats again...if I can help it I will never be without a good dog!

 

[ZLBubba]

Mustafa, you and I tend to agree on quite a few topics. Now we agree on another. IMHO, I don't think there's a better dog than a well-trained GSD. Beautiful pup!

 

[Switchblade]

If she refuses to go into that crate at about 6 months and sleep wherever the heck she wants, allow it. Let her sleep where she wants. This is part of her ability to guard the house and all of you. Bulleit refused to get into his at about 5 months, and sleeps where he likes, but is ALWAYS the first one up when there is an odd noise outside. I'm usually awake immediately after him.
She looks like a great one. The Large Breed Blue Buffalo Puppy Chow has the good stuff in it to manage her growth so she builds solid muscle and joints. Yeah, I use it exclusively for Bulleit and he loves it

 

[ShtrRdy]

Thanks for the pics! Puppies are a lot of work but it's worth it.

Can you add pics, ....... like every other week or so?

 

[W54/XM-388]

9 Weeks old is where you start having all the fun & can see the results of your work / training
Quite possibly in my opinion one of the best / most important points in a master / dog relationship.

Now when you have a brand new litter of 10 puppies..... well let us just say I have not been getting much sleep these past few nights....

You might also try nice fresh cooked chicken, it drives quite a lot of dogs totally crazy.

 

[Mustafa]

Thanks all! I did get a bunch of videos from Leerburg (8wks to 8mnths, pack structure, obedience training, power of playing tug, and puppy bite work) and I really like the info they have. Great way to train! I've had her for 3 days and she already follows me everywhere and is constantly sitting down and looking me in the face hoping for treats. I'm starting to work on marking her coming to me now so recalls are easier later. I also REALL like to play tug with her! She has taught me the value of ALWAYS having a small tug toy near by so when she gets all rambunctious and starts going after my hands and arms I can re-direct to the tug toy (guess I learn pretty quick too!).
She is a lot of work, but she is VERY good about sleeping in her crate at night. She cries for a few minutes after I put her in there and she realizes the door is closed (I always put her in with a bully stick), but she quiets right down and goes to sleep or chews the bully stick. I got really lucky with her so far! Just got to spend a rather entertaining few minutes watching her chase an ice cube around the apartment!

 

[Victor N TN]

Thanks for sharing her photos with us. Take good care of her and she'll take care of you and your family. She looks like a nice little girl.

 

[fx77]

Great Pup best of luck
with regard to Crates..once she is house trained, leave the crate available and door open. Your dog will choose where to sleep. Sometimes she may prefer the "Den."

 

[sic]

Great looking pup, man's best friend.

 

[Windrunner 50]

Congrats on the new puppy, GSD's make some of the best new family additions! They grow up fast, start working with her now, and she will pay you back with unquestionable loyalty.

 

[Mustafa]

She has impeccable taste. Dog bed or pillowtop mmattress and 600 thread count sheets?

At 4 months..

Starbuck's Starbucks

 

[Maxwell]

You would think viewing a gun board the first thing would be to look at guns & all the associated info. Nope, I first look for dog pic's! Wife said after another trip to Italy for her (and what would my first) we can get another GSD.

The very best with your new GSD! May you have as many happy memories as I had with ours.

Maxwell

 

[mikeltee]

Nice choice with the Shepard. There is a reason why you see Shepards as the majority of working dogs nowadays. I went with dobermans because they shed a lot less, but are equally as intelligent. Stand your ground with your significant other. Sure they all say they love them at first. My wife has been wanting me to get rid of them for years. Ain't gonna happen...

 

[Mustafa]

So she' a year old now (actually 13 months) and I have been training her since late Oct for Search and Rescue work. I love to take her just about everywhere with me including school and my favorite brew pub down the street. We usually spend about 40 hours per month working on her SAR skills and she is coming along VERY well with tracking and human remains detection. She actually tested in tracking yesterday, but failed because she lost scent in a field of thick sage brush. We went out today and worked on tracking through sage brush today and will continue to do so throughout the week. She should be ready to test again in a week or two. And her HRD is about ready for testing as well. Just need to spend some more time doing elevated finds and I think she'll be on it! In two months I'm going to start looking for a Schutzhund competition to get her BH (which she totally could have passed in Sept if they didnt have to wait till they were 15 months to test). I figure I'll end up trying to get her an IPO1 title for shias and giggles. Unfortunately, on her birthday, she had to get emergency surgery to be spayed because she had pyometria (infected uterus) that I luckily caught before it became too serious. Well, without further ado...more pictures!

Christmas at Grandma's

Closing in on her target after a 1/2 mile 30 min aged track

Hanging out at school (Utah State University)

Day before her 1st birthday (since we couldn't celebrate after her surgery the next day) with her best friend and SAR teammate Obi

"Found the dead guy!" HRD work for SAR

Late last fall

SAR demonstration. This was showing obedience in a down/stay

 

[Graham]

Finally got my puppy! Update April 2014

Beautiful dog. Is she enrolled at Utah State? Registered to vote yet??

 

[TheCytochromeC]

Thanks for the updates! I'm considering a GSD as my next puppy and I had read that white GSD tend to have a different temperament than most GSD's. It's great to see yours exhibits GSD character - I should have known they were full of shit. She seems like an amazing dog.

 

[Mustafa]

The same asshats that tell you that white GSDs are temperamentally flawed will extol the virtues of their super extra certified AKC Best in Show GSD that couldn't pass a BH let alone any IPO. They all say "back-yard breeders make white GSDs for money and only care about the color" but have no problem with their "very serious professional" breeders that only care about making their GSDs fit the perfect little mold that the AKC tells them right, and damn the consequences for the health and usefulness of the breed. There is a reason most of our MWDs and even a lot of police dogs come from Europe or at least imported European lines.

White GSDs have been part of the breed since day one (the first official GSD's grandfather was white) and the only reason they are looked down on is because Nazis (gotta love an argument where you can blame something on Nazis and actually mean it!) thought the white GSDs were diluting the colors of the rest of the breed. Now that we aren't guessing at genetics anymore, we know better. It is a recessive gene that masks their color (if you look closely at mine, you can see that she has darker spots on her fur where she would be black. She's actually has a very pretty black and gold "sable" pattern under her white masking gene. You'll note that all black GSDs aren't discriminated against even though they are the result of a similar recessive gene and people covet them for their color (they are also more prominent in European working lines. possibly because the black color is intimidating or useful at night?).

I intend on testing Starbuck in her BH in two months, and after that, i want to get her IPO1. After that, we'll see if she's got enough fight drive for higher levels and other sports, but I"m VERY happy getting her an IPO1 with prey drive, and having a VERY solid SAR dog.

So don't let those GSD snob Nazi racists turn you away from a good dog because of the color of their fur!

 

[EasyGravy]

I also would take akc titles very seriously. My father is member and dog breeder for The duetsche drahthhar club. Super controlled bread. Akc is really a joke and I wouldnt trust their bloodlines as they are not a strict club nor are their standards very hard. Ive had german wirehairs my whole life and I can personally tell you theres a huge differance in AKC to other very controlled clubs. Short of story is anyone can breed an akc dog and their standards for selective breeding are low. Ive had 3 amazing VDD dogs that I would have loved to breed but to VDD standards they scored -+4 points under the requirements to breed. Its sad but theres a huge diffrrance between AKC and VDD dogs.

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[EasyGravy]

my vdd drahthars and my redbone coonhound

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[Mustafa]

Those are awesome looking dogs! NICE!

 

[Bluejazz]

Mustafa
Found it interesting that in the solid black dog the black gene is recessive in order to get the solid black colored dog.
In Labradors, the black gene is dominant.

 

[Mustafa]

That's pretty cool. Genetics is some pretty crazy business!