- Joined
- Feb 19, 2001
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- 34,872
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Most of you know that we put our beloved Kenai to sleep recently. The house is not the same without her, and Mike wants a dog really bad, so we heard about a rescue-owner surrender in Washington, liked the look of his picture, and evaluated the history that was offered up about him. He is 2 years old, he barks and he has not been worked in quite sometime, was the information relayed to us. He was also recently neutered, so with prayers in our heart, we went last weekend to pick him up, driving 600 miles total for this special boy. By the time we got home, this beautiful german shepherd dog had destroyed my favorite shirt, a blanket and a sheet, and we didn't even know he had! But that's okay, chewing we can deal with.
We took him out to our back property, snapped a lunge line on him and let him run and sniff. It was nearing midnight, and we were dead tired, so we took him in the back way and put him in Kenai's cage for the night without letting any of the cats see him. So much for stealth- he went absolutely nuts in the kennel- barking, howling, scratching and running around in circles- it is a big cage. Mike maintained that it was impossible to stop a dog from barking, and I countered that it was not, and that I would not have a barking dog period! So I went into the room alone and 30 minutes later, Neko was not barking. He had not been terrorized or assaulted, I simply showed him that no barking brings it's own reward and barking is bad. And so, he slept the night without a peep.
Early in the morning, I took him with me to feed the horses. One minute he was heeling at my side, and the next with no warning he was streaking through the pre-dawn silent and intent in the kill. He was after Cleo! I braced my arm- he was on the lunge line and he hit the end of the line and was literally jerked off his feet while Cleo streaked by him and ran up the walnut tree, scared but safe. That was the deal breaker, and that day Mike drove the dog back to the rescue organization. We will not have an animal here that cannot get along with other critters.
So now, thanks to some unique set of circumstances, we go on Thursday to look at what will hopefully be our next German Shepherd dog. It will be one of the two below, if the pups pass the temperment test. They are 5 1/2 weeks old right now and young enough, that even with a high prey drive, you can raise them with cats and kittens and have them perfectly accepting of the other animals-
We want to evaluate the breeders dogs, but we have spoken on the phone with her now several times and I am impressed with her set of values, her breeding program and her and I think a lot alike- she also does GSD Rescue- One thing is for certain, these two pups look like a bundle of fun, energy and love!
We took him out to our back property, snapped a lunge line on him and let him run and sniff. It was nearing midnight, and we were dead tired, so we took him in the back way and put him in Kenai's cage for the night without letting any of the cats see him. So much for stealth- he went absolutely nuts in the kennel- barking, howling, scratching and running around in circles- it is a big cage. Mike maintained that it was impossible to stop a dog from barking, and I countered that it was not, and that I would not have a barking dog period! So I went into the room alone and 30 minutes later, Neko was not barking. He had not been terrorized or assaulted, I simply showed him that no barking brings it's own reward and barking is bad. And so, he slept the night without a peep.
Early in the morning, I took him with me to feed the horses. One minute he was heeling at my side, and the next with no warning he was streaking through the pre-dawn silent and intent in the kill. He was after Cleo! I braced my arm- he was on the lunge line and he hit the end of the line and was literally jerked off his feet while Cleo streaked by him and ran up the walnut tree, scared but safe. That was the deal breaker, and that day Mike drove the dog back to the rescue organization. We will not have an animal here that cannot get along with other critters.
So now, thanks to some unique set of circumstances, we go on Thursday to look at what will hopefully be our next German Shepherd dog. It will be one of the two below, if the pups pass the temperment test. They are 5 1/2 weeks old right now and young enough, that even with a high prey drive, you can raise them with cats and kittens and have them perfectly accepting of the other animals-
We want to evaluate the breeders dogs, but we have spoken on the phone with her now several times and I am impressed with her set of values, her breeding program and her and I think a lot alike- she also does GSD Rescue- One thing is for certain, these two pups look like a bundle of fun, energy and love!
