GSD I am Rescuing - Advice Needed, temperament Questions

What a sweetie you've found there. Wish he were mine .

Grooming is great for bonding and you can give him treats while you do it to get him used to it and happy to be touched.

Have you thought about a 'natural' or 'home-prepared' diet. It scores lots on taste and nutrients .

GSDs (as I'm sure you are perfectly aware ) are really intelligent so I would try to introduce games such as 'search and find' , 'hide & seek', 'fetch', hiding treats under bowls and having the dog search for them, commands such as 'leave it', 'take it'etc.

Wishing you lots of fun together.

Well done for going for a rescue dog, good choice!

I have very little experience of GSD's, but have rescued 2 dogs so far, so hope it's ok if I give you my advice? ;-)

Give them time, it can take a dog several months to settle in properly. Take one day at a time and try to let the dog find it's feet without too much upheaval.

Keep the dog on lead for at least 3 weeks. This is recommened by most reputable rescue organisations, it allows the dog time to become part of the family and therefore more likely to come when called.

Train recall for the first 3 weeks in the house/garden to prepare for the above!

Try and make sure the dog has sometime on it's own once it has settled in a bit. This will allow the dog to get used to being left gradually, incase you ever have to leave him alone for sometime.

Stick to the dogs original food and move over to your preferred brand gradually over 7-10 days to try and prevent the runs

Expect the runs!

Don't be tempted to "give in" when the dog refuses to eat (unless the dog has the runs, then follow advice given by previous posts). If you give in the dog will manipulate you into feeding what it wants to eat rather than what is good for it. Stick to your chosen diet and the dog will, in most cases, start eating again. If they're hungry, they'll eat! ;-)

And most of all enjoy your new mutt, rescue dogs are the best!

Oh he's lovely..well done to you. We've had German Shepherds for over 40 years both show standard and rescues and they are fantastic, loyal, loving and exceptionally clever dogs. They do need to be stimulated though or boredom easily sets in. He definitely looks more along German lines to me from your pictures and I wouldn't say from those he looks to be overly sized at all. He just looks lovely.

I would recommend taking him to a training class though as it will help you both and give you confidence in handling him. As for food don't swap and change his diet about but introduce any changes over a period of weeks. There are many good brands out there or you could feed a raw diet. As your just starting out though you'll probably find a commercial food more convenient for now. I've found CSJ performance (http://www.csjk9.com/) to really suit them or Burns, and Arden Grange, none of them cheap but good quality with little waste and it keeps them in good condition.
Hope that helps a little Enjoy Cody and well done for giving him a good and caring home.
Here's my German bred girl 'Darla'

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Firstly may i say what a beautiful dog , and congrats on being lucky enough to be chosen by him .
I have had gsd in the past as a child and my sister owned two males , from a young age .they were brilliant loving friendly obiedent family dogs ,my sister had hers when her eldest son was born and they never showed any aggression what so ever towards him , if anything they were very loven towards him and he could do anything (pull on there tails etc ) as all small kids do ,and they never minded .
Good luck with your beautiful new fur baby and may you have many happy years together . xxdk

I'm so glad to hear that Codey has bonded with you and your family

I agree with the CSJ, it's a great food and all natural too. If you want to make it a little more tasty, add a small amount of nature diet wet food to it. He's going to off his food for a bit until he settles down fully. Be careful not to chop and change though, and be consistant with feeding times too. Anything he hasn't eated after 15 mins, take away from him, and don't feed him again until his next feed time. This shows him that if he doesn't eat all of his food, he gets nothing more until later, hopefully it might sort out any pickiness in him.

Again, keep an eye on his tum. If you're not happy, pop him along to your vet to get him checked over.

Thank you all for you help.

His eating has been better today and he has had a whole tin of Winalot for breakfast and another for his tea which he has eaten and greatly improved his diarrhea.

He seems to be settling in quite well, but follows me everywhere. Even if I take just acouple of steps to the kitchen, there he will be - right behind me

He is going to start training soon - as soon as he has settled in a bit more and realised that he is here to stay. He has had a tough couple of weeks, being rehomed here and at the rescue center.

He doesn't "fetch" yet, but with a bit of training, I'm sure he will get the hang of it

Well, he's off to the seaside at the weekend so we'll see how he gets on in the sea. That should be interesting.:?

...don't forget to take the camera!

Glad he's coming along well Although personally I would look into dog foods for the future as I'm really not that keen on anything 'tinned' for humans or dogs

Good luck! But I don't think you'll need it, you're doing just fine

He is a lovely dog

In case you are looking for a training school, try here:

http://www.apdt.co.uk/trainers_area.asp?area=Suffolk

Have a great time at the seaside

Wys
x

Just caught up with this. Firstly, well done on rescuing Cody - he is gorgeous

I have had two GSDs, and currently have a beautiful longcoat girl, Flame. I will post a pic of her for you to see.

You have had some great advice already. I would highly recommend CSJ food. I feed it to both my GSD and my collies and they all love it, and look really healthy. I also give me dogs table scraps added to the dry food, as well as treats of tinned tuna, raw mince and tripe, sardines etc.

Regarding training, it does take a few weeks for a rescue dog to settle into a new home and "find his feet". I wouldn't let him get away with anything now that you won't appreciate in the future. Training for GSDs is very important - they are exceptionally intelligent and loyal, and love to learn new things. Try to find a good training club where they use positive reinforcement methods and perhaps you could even look into doing agility or working trials with Cody.

As for GSDs "turning" on their owners. This is a complete myth. I have heard it in the past, but have no idea where it came from and have never heard of it happening. My GSDs have been the most faithful, loving and devoted companions one could wish for.

Most of all, enjoy Cody. He sounds like such a wonderful dog And keep providing us with new photos

Here is my girl, Flame.

Have just spotted this thread, I have owned bred shown GSDs for over 50 years & I can assure you they don't turn. Think this may have come from back in the 60's when it wasn't realised that epilepsy was linked to heredity & there were a lot of epileptic dogs who had problems when they were coming out of a fit. He's lovely & you are lucky he is so calm & well behaved. There is a club specially for long coated & white GSDs which you might be interested in joining at some time.

The photos of all the dogs in this thread are wonderful, but I just had to say I love the recent ones of Darla and Flame - wow! Gorgeous girls

Hoping we will have some photos of Codey at the beach soon!

Wys
x

I know - arent they brilliant.

We left Cody alone for 4.5 hours today, the first time we have done this. We were expecting the house to be re-modelled, but, to our amazement, it was fine.

He still feels abandoned I think, but he is getting better. He has started to venture into the garden on his own now, where before, I had to take him there to go to the toilet. Incidentally, his toiletting has been a bit of a problem because he wouldn't go on concrete, and with him being in the kennels, he tried to hold himself. Thankfully, he is OK now.

Love him to bits. I'm so happy. And at the weekend - the seaside so expect some silly photos.

Thanks all !!

Good stuff Look forward to the pics... and don't forget to update your profile! At the moment it says you have an OES

Would you PM me the link Sue, I'd be interested in it too

It's going to take a while for Cody to get used to his surroundings. Once he feels comfortable, I'm sure he'll start doing his toilets on the concrete

Here's my long coated lad. His name is Shaan and he's 7

So pleased things have worked out so well for you, Paul. Look forward to photos of the seaside trip

Hi Wolfie and anyone else that is interested here's the link to the White and long-haired German Shepherd Society;
http://www.walcss.50megs.com/
They have some good shows

Thanks MR, I'll have a good look through it this afternoon

Well, off to the vets today for a checkup (for the dog - not me ). He has a clean bill of health, and a very clean shiny set of teeth which surprised me.

We had the injections done again as we weren't sure if they had been done previously, just in case, and also had him microchipped - to make sure he always arrives home safely.

We don't know how old he is. but as he is fully grown, and doesn't yet cock his leg to go to the toilet, I'm estimating at about 14-16 months. So we have given him a birthday of the 10th March so that is something else to look forward to. I have increased his meals to 1 tin of dog food and some mix for breakfast and the same for his tea. I know this is crap food, but as he wasn't eating much when he came to us, I thought I would change his diet later once he has put on some weight as he is a little underweight according to the vet.

It's amazing how vets prices differ ! Blimey ! We paid £128 for the OES vaccinations and checkup, wheras this time it was £68 all in including paying for the second injections AND the microchip. Ah well, the money doesn't matter anyway, as long as the Fluffy Old Thing is OK and happy.

:smt001

(He also likes toast )

Hi FOT,

Glad to hear all is well, I thought that it would be

Different foods suit different dogs, as long as you and your vet are happy with what you are feeding him and his tummy isn't upset, it won't hurt feeding him what he likes.

I have a dog that is just not interested in food and seems to eat just enough to keep herself going and I would love to find something that she would tuck into with relish so at least you know you have found something he is happy with

Interestingly, my fussy eater also loves toast but will only eat one slice Have tried cutting it up into soldiers and giving her 2 slices but she will leave half if I do this

As I have said before, enjoy your boy, they really are special dogs. I'm sure that their purpose in life is to be a love sponge, they never can get enough

Hi Guys.

Sorry, I have some photos but I've lost the cable that connects the camera to the PC.

I will find it !

I Promise !