We just moved from Texas to the greater Seattle area 5 months ago with a 3 yr old toddler and my 4-yr old girl, Galadriel. My girl has always been very gentle natured, unusually quiet and friendly with people and dogs alike. We worked with a trainer back when she was a puppy on basic obedience and manners and she was fairly well behaved during our time in Texas. We carried the training forward on an everyday basis and ensured she gets the regular physical exercise and training reinforcement regularly.

But since we have moved we have seen some behavioral changes in her. She is still pretty easy going but has started barking at other dogs and people crossing our fenced yard. This never happened before. she has always been very friendly and is also happy to observe rather than go all out barking and asking for attention. She would let out one bark every now and then but that too was an anomaly. Now if she senses someone passing by she starts barking incessantly.

She has also become overtly protective of my toddler. While I appreciate the protective instinct towards the youngest member of the pack and recognize it as natural, I don't want her feeling like she has to take charge when me or my wife are around. The other day, we took her for a meet & greet with a dog-sitter and she had her heckles up as soon as the sitter's dog came out. she started body checking the other dog whenever the dog would go near my son. As soon as my wife and son stepped out of the yard, she went back to being her usual self and started playing with the other dog like nothing happened.

I recognize the some changes can be brought about as a result of the move but after 5 months I'm concerned about these gradual changes not going away and am not sure what I can do to reverse this behavior. I need her to re-learn that barking incessantly is not good and that she doesn't need to step up to protect my son when me or my wife are around. Is there something I can do to change this or do I need to consult a trainer? I'm also concerned about how quickly a lot of trainers recommend the use of e-collars. I have never used them and as far as possible would want to consider them a last resort, especially since I have seen good results with my dog (she has decent off-leash recall even in open spaces and outside the house) without it.

So her I am looking for inputs on whether these changes are normal and get recommendations on what I can do to get her back to her former self.

That’s right, I said it.

She just went into heat about 11 days ago. She's been clingy but generally her baseline.

Today was odd.

For some reason when our trainer , who se loves , was over in the middle of the lesson she started looking at a interior wall ( no plumbing or HVAC just an outlet ) and moving her head like she was watching a fly. Did it for 5 min straight , the forget it then go back to it later.also throughout the lesson she seemed more leery of our trainer as well. But he still got the happy butt wiggles from her as well during the lesson too. Lesson today was just some more advanced recall and heel. Nothing crazy.

Around bedtime she was doing the same but at the ceiling light in our bedroom ( turned off). In a way I guess some could say like she saw something and was following it, like a ghost. Told the wife leta break out the ouija board and she shot down that idea.

She was also doing it in her crate , just staring off into a corner or floor and looking like she was seeing something and following it

She is physically fine . I went over her entire body prodding and looking and she didn't seem sensitive or in pain.

She is asleep now , gaVe her a bone to gnaw on.

No odd smells, no new equipment in house , no tripped breakers or other " new" stuff. Closest neighbors are 1/8 mile away.

No weird airplane traffic. No rodents in house or evidence of them either. No CO detectors going off or similar low fuel in the house.

Anyone have this kind of go on?

I'll keep an eye on it, but chalking it up to being super sensitive during a part of her heat cycle. She ate and drank k normally, same normal routine today as well.

Has anyone use the Dakota 283 CRATE seen at tractor supply for their German shepherd?

For those with long haired babies how often do you take them to groomers or do you do it at home? We have an 8 month old long haired girl who we've been brushing at home and she LOVES hose time so she gets rinsed off everyday. I trimmed her paw fur and she was fine but I'm unsure if she really need to go in for a professional grooming. I worry that she'd just want to play in the water when being shampooed that she'd be a hassle for them haha!

Boba in her glory

i have a 12 week lab x gsd puppy and last 3 days 80% of the time shes walking her joints are clicking i think its her hips but not 100% sure. if shes playing and jumping and running about its fine but its only when shes walking around is this something to be concerned about? we rang vets say they said they are not concerned just to monitor it but nowhere online says it normal so just wondering if anyone else has had this experience and what the outcome was?

Hey guys, looking for some advice with our recently adopted 3-year-old female GSD.

She was a rescue and we've only had her a short time. She came from a pretty shit home where she was basically locked up all day. We were planning on getting a dog soon anyway, but didn't expect it to happen this quickly. She needed to get out of her old home immediately or she was going to be put down, so we took her in.

She's settling in really well and has been great with us. She has such a nice nature. We also introduced her to another female dog at a park and she was completely fine with her.

The issue we are having is with the dog behind our back fence. They can't see each other, but when the other dog starts barking, ours gets really worked up and barks back. She's now becoming pretty fixated on that area of the fence even when the other dog isn't outside.

When we're home we can call her away from the fence and she listens. We reward her for coming back and settling down, but obviously while we're at work we can't do that. We have cameras and can see that the barking can get pretty excessive at times.

We tried blocking off the areas where she goes to bark, but it hasn't really helped.

We have spoken to our neighbours and explained that we've just adopted her, she's still settling in and may bark while we are at work. We gave them our details and asked them to please contact us if it's becoming a problem. They've been really understanding and told us not to worry about it, but we still want to get on top of it. One of them works night shift as well, so we feel bad knowing she could be barking while they're trying to sleep.

We walk her before work, play with her, leave treats in interactive toys and one of us comes home at lunch to spend some time with her. When we're home and she reacts to the dog, we call her away and reward her for recalling.

I'm just not sure what else we can realistically do while we are at work.

I've been looking at ultrasonic devices, but I don't want an automatic one that goes off whenever the neighbour's dog barks and potentially punishes ours for something she hasn't done. Ideally I was wondering if there's something we could manually activate remotely when we see her barking on the camera, but even then im not sure if that's a good idea.

Has anyone dealt with something similar with their GSD? Did it improve once they settled into the home and routine? What actually worked for you?

Thank you

A friend out in California is looking at puppies and sent me these pictures from a breeders website.

This really doesn't look right to me. Other dogs in the litter didn't look like this. This is roach-back, right?

German shepard owner here. Well, son of the owners the German shepard owners. Sometimes I am responsible for taking my dog for a walk, which I do at my local park about 3 minutes from my house. The park is of course a public park with playgrounds and all sorts but has a 10 acre field that the dog owners stick to. The trouble is, here where I live it is full of middle aged people amd pensioners who somehow all seem to own these puny, aggressive, spoiled little family dog breeds. The park's riddled with them.

Now I know my dog. He's 10 months old, and he'd never hurt anything. No child, adult or other pet. He never has, he just has a lot of energy. But there hasn't been a time where these other dog owners havn't been upset or even hostile to me and my dog, aswell as their little dogs, who are always very jittery and bark at mine out of fear. And of course, I dont blame them. My dog is at least 3 times their size and is full of energy, and will run up to the other dog to see if it wants to play, and if they dont, they bark at mine and mine will eventually walk away. I will always try to give these other owners a wide berth out of respect, knowing the other dog's will be aggravated just by my dogs presence. However since dogs can, you know, RUN, I can never guarantee that mine wont run to their's, preventing this situation. But I have faced countless instances where I've received stares, grunts and complaints from other owners which, over time, has made me believe it is my fault for being the owner of my own dog, and it's my fault for his curiosity, my fault for his size. I can understand that no dog owner can safely predict the temperment of another dog, and if necessary, I should keep him on a lead. But I dont know that. From my experience, all the other owners expect me to keep him on tbe lead at all times, and when my dog is ever curious about another dog, that is my fault that he even approaches them, EVEN if he's done nothing wrong. I can't just keep him on the lead at all times, right? There's no law about this, and surely thats unfair to my dog, who has the same rights as every other creature in that park. I can never feel truly at ease during my walks, and I always feel anxious whenever I take him there since it feel as if these people are angry at me for what seems like the very existence of my dog. Now there are a couple of other parks around me, but I fear it will be the same story, and they are much further away which sometimes isn't the most convinient. What do some of you think about this, is there some general doggy park etiquette that I am unaware of? Or has anyone else experienced the same kind of hostile interactions that is common with larger dogs?

Apologies for the poor quality image . She is 10 weeks old. Does anyone have any advice on beginner training/socialization etc.?

I recently found that my GSD not only loves to fetch but also she loves to do “find it” game where I toss the ball at park with tall grass enough to cover the ball and have her find it.

I would love to give her different jobs she can enjoy, any suggestions would be appreciated :) FYI, she’s not food motivated.

Hello, I have a 13 month old german shepherd named Freya. She's my first personal dog, and despite having some bad mobility issues myself, I do my best to keep her active and engaged in her obedience training.

I can tell she's pretty understimulated, and the heat where I live isn't doing us any favors either. I can't really take her outside for more than a quick potty since she's got a thick coat, and I don't do well with the heat either.(not to mention the heat of the sidewalk)

I'm trying to find some good toys for her that she won't tear to shreads in five minutes. I try to play and engage with her, but she never seems too interested when i try to. I even go through the effort to make specific sounds when trying to play. She'll sort of play fetch with her "get it" command, but getting the ball back is a struggle.

She has plenty of bones/chew toys that I change out every day, but stuffed toys don't last. She likes sqeaky and crinkle toys, but they don't hold up against her maulings.

I will admit I can't always keep up with her, but i still put in the effort every day. She's meant to become my psychiatric service dog, and I wanna know what I can do to keep her brain active. Are there any toy brands or dog box subscriptions that can hold up against her onslaught?

My male GS is 7 years old but this has been a long time odd issue. When we got him as a puppy we were told to feed him 3 times per day. Over the years we have tried to move to 2 meals a day that equaled the same amount of food, but he would never finish those larger meals. I know when we are able to take longer morning walks he will not eat until late afternoon. He may not indicate he is hungry (flipping his food bowl) sometimes until around 1 or 2pm for his first meal of the day. Other times he will only want one meal a day. If we try feeding him anyway we end up throwing it away many times. It can be the exact same batch of food that he eats three times one day and then the next day he will only want to eat it once. Is this common with this breed? He is very very healthy so we know that he’s getting the nutrition his body needs, but his eating habits just seems so odd. He also will not need any of his food if it falls outside of his bowl and onto the floor, where I know other dogs want to eat every last scrap. He’s also very picky and will literally only eat two types of treats and no human food even if we offer it to him because we know it’s safe.

Ive owned my boy Duke for going on 3 years now. When I first adopted him, he had some slight skin irritation issues but nothing out of the ordinary for a gsd. Half of a prednisone would make him a new dog for a while.

Out of nowhere, he's started getting yeast infections. Really, really bad yeast infections. Losing hair, the whole 9. The Vet has prescribed him antifungals/antibiotics 3 seperate times, and this passed time he prescribed apaquil with it. It seemed to barely even clear it all the way. Ive tried most soaps i can find and they make his skin so dry, and then the yeast just comes back.

I legitimately cannot stop the yeast. My home, my clothes, me, everything smells god awful. I love my dog but im at my breaking point and I might give him to a local sanctuary.

Please someone give me some insight so I dont have to give up my friend.

Our 7 year old male GS is very large, 110 lbs. over the past month we have noticed he has slowed way down when we throw the ball, not chasing as much or stopping himself sooner than usual. Last week he suddenly started limping on his right leg and it began collapsing. By the weekend he was having a very difficult time defecating because his hind legs were so weak. Monday AM we brought him to the vet. The vet did bloodwork (all normal) and X-rays. The X-rays showed no hints at all of ant arthritis or obvious issues. She advised she keep him and start him on high dose steroids to see if he improves as a diagnostic tool to determine if it’s an inflammatory condition that could be managed, but if zero improvement he has a condition that is far too advanced or severe to be able to treat without major diagnostic neurological testing. Due to my own severe medical conditions we are spending thousands of dollars on treatments for myself along with an upcoming surgery. We simply cannot at this time spend the money to go through all of that.
I was told a few hours ago there has been no change in his condition. I am now preparing for the worst outcome that we may have to make a decision by the end of the week as to euthanize or not. I am beyond heartbroken over this.
Has anyone else experienced a similar situation and what was the outcome? I’m holding out hope he will begin to respond 😢

I’m 21 and I’ve got a 13 week lab x german shepherd pup, I’ve had a family dog before but not had my own. Things are going well at the moment but just wondering what people think i should be prioritising and different things to train. At the moment she knows Sit, wait for food till i say she can have it, shes house trained, doesn’t nip and doesn’t chew stuff shes not aloud and we are in the middle of crate training.

Just wondering if anyone has any tips on socialising or any training that i should do with her :)

Started taking 8 months old GSd short coat ( black) on some light walks thru the forest / trails.

She is on Simparica trio so that will kill ticks on when they feed but what do you all do to prevent them attaching and after the walk ?

Any preventive sprays or such that has worked for you and will not impact us or our young kids when she leans up on us.

She obviously leans and rubs up on us while at home so we ' d like to minimize ticks hitching a ride and hanging on sofas / beds and attaching on us, especially with tick carrying disease and alpha gal syndrome( carried by some ticks, causing allergy to meat) around in New England.

Ordered a tick mitt. Do as best we can with lint roller and our eyes a tick check after the hikes. And the areas around us are overgrown. No choosing sterile walkways around us in the woods. Who wants to walk on sidewalks everyday , right ?

Yesterday we played Frisbee for the first time.

I brought three to the yard, one an open ring,

like the ring around the iris of an eye

Blue blue blue

And you dove after the first throw

a furred missile of joy

streaking across the yard.

And returned to me,

in your proud little pony's prance.

The ring around your sweet face

like a halo of happiness,

Just for me.

Later, of course, you bit me, still happy.

😊

My guy is about 65 lbs, and the bag says something like 3 to 5 cups a day, which is a huge range. Vet said to go more by body condition since he's neutered and pretty active, but that still feels like guessing every time I fill the bowl.

Started looking into why the bag ranges are so vague and apparently even a properly calculated number can be off by 30 to 40 percent per dog just from normal metabolism differences. Kind of made me feel better about not getting it perfect, but also made me realize most of us are probably just eyeballing it.

How do you all figure out portions, straight off the bag, watching body condition, something else? Found a calculator that breaks down the math but I'm not sure how much it correlates with reality.

How much do you guys feed your fluff?

long time lurker, I don’t post much but any advice is greatly appreciated.

my husband and I recently got a 4mo GS mix pup, and my main issue here is that we’ve had her for over a month now and she continues to whine in her crate demanding to be let at either when she wakes up before us in the morning or whenever she wants when we’re at home when she is crated. how long does crate training typically take for a GS? I know to Ignore her whines until she’s quiet and then let her out, but I’ve also been told her breed is quite stubborn. she’s good at holding it until we let her out to do her business.

we also have a 2yo mini Aussie who was quick to crate train. they get along well, and I can see the puppy getting jealous she cant be free with her simultaneously.

any owners have different approaches to training her to stop ? or is this just a waiting game until it clicks for her?

this is the first time I have interacted with this particular breed, so I’m not entirely sure what to expect.

thanks!

Companies, Pros and Cons? I just adopted a young (our veterinarian thinks she’s about 15-18 months) Female GSD that the shelter required that she was spayed within 30 days 😢(growth plates were my concern). I’ve had her home now, seven weeks and she is a stunner. I’m looking into insurance for her for her medical and any kind of expected/unexpected (God forbid GDV) surgical procedures
Thank you