School Me On Shepherd Mixes- Also, Paging Hutash for Medical Question

[stuckathuntermtn]

Probably. I saw this billboard for a Shepherd kennel with the tag line "protect your family". You could have just swapped it with a Smith & Wesson billboard and not changed a thing.

Sent from my cell phone. no, a cell phone.

[Kevo]

Well, we adopted her!

She's currently sleeping next to the couch after playing for the past several hours. We need to work on house training and getting her healthy- she picked up some minor sicknesses (kennel cough, some kind of GI bug) at the shelter and is on 3 different meds- one for the next 36 hours, the other two for about a week.

Oh, and she really like balls-


It's interesting after having grown up with goldens- she is a sweety, but has a lot more going on in her mind than a golden. She's inquisitive and even...calculating. Good solid base to work from for sure.

[liv2ski]

Good man Kevo, I have been drinking, so your post kind of brought a tear to my eyes. I am laughing at the Golden comment. Time to get you patience together, as your new girl is no Golden. She is likely a smart dog, so you are going to need to be two steps ahead of her all the way or shit is going to happen. Be patient and outsmart her. Lots of exercise and love and it will be a great friendship. Enjoy
O and a Kennel. A new dog in the house needs to be kenneled at night and while your gone for a few hours to prevent issues. Hopefully you can find a cheap one on Craigslist.

[MTT]

Very cool, looks like a happy dog.

I ber the Poop issue clears up real fast now that she is in a good envirnment

[Art Shirk]

Good to hear Kevo. Enjoy her! I grew up with Goldens too and love them. But, yes, they would kind of amble their way through the day, looking for food, love and a nice place to sleep. My aussie mix is much more calculating.

[Kevo]

O and a Kennel. A new dog in the house needs to be kenneled at night and while your gone for a few hours to prevent issues. Hopefully you can find a cheap one on Craigslist.

Thanks for the kind words.

Yep, she sleeping in her kennel right now actually. We gently warmed her up to it, let her go in and check it out and then waited for her to lay down before shutting the door. Definitely working to keep it on the "Kennel time isn't punishment" track.

Very cool, looks like a happy dog.

I ber the Poop issue clears up real fast now that she is in a good envirnment

Thanks!

Good to hear Kevo. Enjoy her! I grew up with Goldens too and love them. But, yes, they would kind of amble their way through the day, looking for food, love and a nice place to sleep. My aussie mix is much more calculating.

Thanks! Yep, definitely my experience with Goldens as well. I did have some smart goldens- very emotionally mature and empathetic dogs, but not as much situational awareness. A friend of mine refers to it as "tard happy."

[systemoverblow'd]

Good on you for rescuing. She looks like an awesome pup!

[BCJC]

love shep x's.

definitely need direct and consistent discipline. super smart can be a double edged sword...

cute pups


can be very mellow


great sidekicks if you like this kind of thing

[Kevo]

She's been doing really well last night and today- been learning to walk on a leash without tension and learning some basics like "close" (roughly equivalent of come, but requires her to stay close after coming over).

Spending the night in her kennel went well- she slept all night until I woke her up early for breakfast/walk/poop. All in all, she's doing great so far, especially for a dog that was a stray for the first 9 months of her life.

[Tips^Up]

I've got a border collie/Australian shepherd mutt. Great dog. Lots of attitude. Not like dog attitude, like way smarter than other dogs. She is fluent in English, very expressive face, great for trail runs, mtn biking, playing ball or frisbee.

Her stomach is sensitive for a dog. If she get chicken, it usually means I'm cleaning dog poop out of an unpleasant area (car, ski boot shell?, my house, other people's houses).

[Tips^Up]

She likes balls? Invest in a chuck-it. Best invention for shepherds ever. Throw the ball 100 yards, keep your hands from getting slobbery, muddy, cold, wet.

[hutash]

Does anybody on TGR have a dumb dog?

"Lake WobeTGRgon, were all the dogs are above average."

[doughboyshredder]

She likes balls? Invest in a chuck-it. Best invention for shepherds ever. Throw the ball 100 yards, keep your hands from getting slobbery, muddy, cold, wet.

I just bought a chuck it today. Went too the dog field. Had no idea my belgian shepherd could run that fast and that far. He was so enthralled with that ball that he ignored every other dog there.

Congrats on the new dog, and major props on adopting.

[Flyoverland Captive]

Does anybody on TGR have a dumb dog?

"Lake WobeTGRgon, were all the dogs are above average."

My Great Dane/Black Lab is the dumbest dog I've ever met. Sweet as hell but sooooooo stuuuuupid.

[Chainsaw_Willie]

Kevo - congrats! What a great looking pup and sounds like she's a real winner.

I'll be the first to say that Jack isn't the smartest dog I've ever met. He's super sweet, loyal, willing to please/trainable and really good natured, but not necessarily the smartest. "Calculating" is not a word I'd use for him. That described my old Elkhound much more.

[stuckathuntermtn]

Those working dogs are crafty. I would describe my lab mix as "tard happy" for sure. He's basically Lenny from Of Mice and Men, but a little smarter.

Sent from my cell phone. no, a cell phone.

[Kevo]

Can't believe it's already been more than a month. Keetna's doing well. She is a quick learner- understands sit/down/shake/leave it etc. Not bad for a dog who was afraid to get into a car or walk up the stairs a month ago. Biggest challenge is getting her to do what we want outside and walking on a leash (she's getting better about that though).

She was groomed professionally for the first time today at the local groomer/sheep farm/doggy daycare and was really happy to spend the day with other dogs/sheep/peacocks...seriously.

Here she is, fresh after being groomed-



Thanks again for all the advice everyone. We've still got some work ahead of us, but she's doing great!

edit to add- Her health issues have mostly cleared up. We got her on grain free food, which stopped her diarrhea. She gained 9 pounds in the first week with us and has probably put on a total of 15ish pounds by now. She had some sores that cleared up with medication as well. She just has a persistently itchy/inflamed ear to go and she'll be good to go.

[leroy jenkins]

What a cutie. I had a german shep blue heeler cross, at least that my best guess, and I know what you mean when you say they can seem smart in ways that dogs usually aren't. I'm pretty damn sure my dog had some form of actual long term memory, as anthropomorphic as that sounds. Mine was tough, had absolutly amazing endurance and pretty damn good speed, was just about the perfect mnt biking dog, paws were a little small and body a little stocky to be a great ski dog but he did all right. I got him when he was 9 and he had just about no health issues while I had him and he lived to 16.


Such intelligence and a lot of energy along with the desire to please is a great combination but if you don't give the dog exercise just about every day he's going to go crazy and start misbehaving. Also with a rescue dog, they are going to love you immensely just for getting them out into the mountains on a regular basis. Exercise is also a good reward to use with training with fetch games.


Id say more important than the breed is the individual personality, and it sounds like you've had a connection with this dog. I hope you enjoy life with your new friend.

[iceman]

Yeah lookin good, nice work.

Leroy, I'm pretty sure a lot of dogs (maybe all?) have some long-term memory, I could point to a bunch of things over the years that make me believe that. It would be an evolutionary advantage to be able to remember food/water/danger/etc. sources, so why not? I don't think any of them have a sense of time passing, though, they can't tell five minutes from six months, but sometimes neither can I.

[liv2ski]

Thanks again for all the advice everyone. We've still got some work ahead of us, but she's doing great!

That put a big smile on my face, as I sit here with my two furkids. Thanks for the photo. She looks great and happy, which is a winning combo.

[XXX-er]

In spain we passed a flock of 50+ sheep being watched over in a semi fenced pasture by a couple of big pure bred looking german shepards with no humans anyhwere close by, which seemed cool and unusual guess I have never seen a german shepard ... actualy sheparding

[userA]

Does anybody on TGR have a dumb dog?

"Lake WobeTGRgon, were all the dogs are above average."

my shepard will not walk on hardwood floors or go downhill in the snow
so we have an outdoor dog that can't go ski touring.
bf

[RootSkier]

Here's our shepherd mix (Aussie/German is our best guess) kickin' it in the sunroom yesterday. Lopez is freakishly smart, loves to go on runs and bike rides, but at the same time is the absolute mellowest dog I've ever known when just hanging around the house.

[XXX-er]

come to think of fit my x wife always raised neurotic dogs and had a chocolate Lab that didn't like water

the dog she had when I met her would bounce up and down on its front paws when it barked, puke in the car if you drive too fast and it had learned the technique of charging other dogs that showed aggression at top speed and looping back around as soon as they turned and ran

[The Reverend Floater]

My shepherd mix rules. Bella is most likely half lab, half german shepherd or something close to that.

She's 14, almost 15 and still going pretty strong though a little deaf and a little arthritic. Total emergency/non routine vet bills in the 12.5 years I've owned her? $150 when she got porcupined. She's been the perfect dog.