my friend's foundling GSD is showing aggression towards people :(
(The latest update is further down thread)
So my friend lost her beloved GSD yesterday. He was 8, too young, to lose him, but he's gone.
She's looking for another dog, but a bit overwhelmed now, and I'm only so helpful as my dog knowledge is more along the lines of breeds she knows she doesn't want (ie. no NKs, though she did toy with the idea of a Kai for a bit, but she is hoping for a larger breed). Anyway, I thought some people might have some experience with some of the breeds she is considering, and also some people here have worked with shelter dogs and might be able to give us more tips for what to look for when trying to figure out if a homeless dog would fit in her household.
She has three parrots. She needs a dog that will not harass the birds in their cages (so not a super high prey drive), and though she always moniters dog/bird interactions, she'd like to have a dog that will not leap at a bird if she is carrying it or is sitting on the sofa with her birds. (her previous dogs, goldens and GSD, have been wonderful, and her BT was from a breeder that has birds too).
She also has a border terrier. He can be a bit snarky/in your face with new dogs, but he adjusts and gets along with other dogs, and is used to living with a large dog.
She would like a large dog. She would like a dog that would alarm bark, and said she feels safer having a large dog, even though her GSD would have in no way engaged a thread--it was just having him there, and knowing he alerts her.
She loves Golden Retrievers (and has had two) and that was her first thought, but luckily for Goldens, the rescue here gets very few goldens, and so she may get on their waiting list, but is also looking at other options. She is interested in greyhounds but is worried about them with the birds. I think it would be more about the individual dog than the breed on greyhounds at least, but if anyone has experience with them and knows how strong their prey drive tends to be, we'd love to hear that. (I don't know, either, if greyhounds alarm bark or not?)
She is also looking at GSDs, but again, not a lot in the formal rescue, though there is one at the animal shelter she may go look at---so one thing we really need is suggestions on what to look for when meeting a shelter dog--so hard to tell, and they often don't know much about them. She likes labs too. (I don't, so I'm afraid I've not been helping her follow up on that! Ha!)
She does not like the bully breeds, unfortunately, since there are quite a few that need homes and probably would work with her family.
She'd like to go through a rescue to get a dog that has been evaluated and fostered, so we're exploring that. She would like an adult dog, possibly even a senior.
Can any of you all think of breeds she might look for? (or ones we should stay away from other than NKs!) Know anything about Greyhounds and birds? Have tips for evaluating shelter dogs? I was trying to steer her to rescue as I figured the foster homes would give us a lot of info about the dog, but she does want to consider shelter dogs too.
So my friend lost her beloved GSD yesterday. He was 8, too young, to lose him, but he's gone.
She's looking for another dog, but a bit overwhelmed now, and I'm only so helpful as my dog knowledge is more along the lines of breeds she knows she doesn't want (ie. no NKs, though she did toy with the idea of a Kai for a bit, but she is hoping for a larger breed). Anyway, I thought some people might have some experience with some of the breeds she is considering, and also some people here have worked with shelter dogs and might be able to give us more tips for what to look for when trying to figure out if a homeless dog would fit in her household.
She has three parrots. She needs a dog that will not harass the birds in their cages (so not a super high prey drive), and though she always moniters dog/bird interactions, she'd like to have a dog that will not leap at a bird if she is carrying it or is sitting on the sofa with her birds. (her previous dogs, goldens and GSD, have been wonderful, and her BT was from a breeder that has birds too).
She also has a border terrier. He can be a bit snarky/in your face with new dogs, but he adjusts and gets along with other dogs, and is used to living with a large dog.
She would like a large dog. She would like a dog that would alarm bark, and said she feels safer having a large dog, even though her GSD would have in no way engaged a thread--it was just having him there, and knowing he alerts her.
She loves Golden Retrievers (and has had two) and that was her first thought, but luckily for Goldens, the rescue here gets very few goldens, and so she may get on their waiting list, but is also looking at other options. She is interested in greyhounds but is worried about them with the birds. I think it would be more about the individual dog than the breed on greyhounds at least, but if anyone has experience with them and knows how strong their prey drive tends to be, we'd love to hear that. (I don't know, either, if greyhounds alarm bark or not?)
She is also looking at GSDs, but again, not a lot in the formal rescue, though there is one at the animal shelter she may go look at---so one thing we really need is suggestions on what to look for when meeting a shelter dog--so hard to tell, and they often don't know much about them. She likes labs too. (I don't, so I'm afraid I've not been helping her follow up on that! Ha!)
She does not like the bully breeds, unfortunately, since there are quite a few that need homes and probably would work with her family.
She'd like to go through a rescue to get a dog that has been evaluated and fostered, so we're exploring that. She would like an adult dog, possibly even a senior.
Can any of you all think of breeds she might look for? (or ones we should stay away from other than NKs!) Know anything about Greyhounds and birds? Have tips for evaluating shelter dogs? I was trying to steer her to rescue as I figured the foster homes would give us a lot of info about the dog, but she does want to consider shelter dogs too.
Comments
Honestly, the first thing I thought when I read the write-up was a Labrador. Watchdog capability and, from the right lines, can be rather complacent/moderate energy level. For a larger breed, maybe a Newfie or another kind of BFD (big fluffy dog) mixie (like a GP mix or something).
My best suggestion for checking out shelter dogs is to spend a little time with them, maybe tossing around a ball or a squeak toy or something to gauge the dog's reaction and gusto?
(By comparison: my Shibas sit in front of the cages and drool. My girl Shiba caught one of the birds once--his cage door wasn't entirely closed and he got out and she grabbed him. He was fine, luckily. And Leo, the Kai Ken, had shown no interest in the caged birds, but when he saw African Grey out the perch one day, he lunged for her immediately.)
I don't know if she cares about the barking. Her GSD was a barker if he was outside, so she is used to it. She does like labs...I'm just pretending they don't exist! Ha!
She went to see a GSD today at the shelter and I'm going to go see him tomorrow with her too. 1.2 years old, owner surrender because he jumped the fence too often (they had a 4 foot fence). They also said they just couldn't afford him anymore. He doesn't seem to know any commands or have any training but is sweet, neither too skittish nor bold. They think he may get along with other dogs--he has shown no interest in the dogs there, anyway.
I figure he was probably the dog someone got and neglected, and he got bored/lonely and got out.
Anyway, anything else we should do with him tomorrow? She walked him and while it's clear he's not been for tons of walks (he was all over the place) he also didn't pull much either. I don't even know what to look for really, but she said her visit today showed no red flags, and he seemed like a nice dog, very confused to be in the shelter.
And there was a Shiba mix there, very clearly mostly Shiba.
And dog breed wise, I know a lot of bird people who have shepherd breeds, because apparently their prey drive towards birds is pretty low, and all the ones I've met that were around birds never even seemed to care that they were there.
(And yeah, the close calls with my dogs have always been when she was right there with the birds, but the dogs move fast. It's clear my dogs think, hey, there is a snack right here in these cages! When do we get it?)
Obviously,with any new dog, she's going to have to be hypervigilant for quite awhile, but that's why she's concerned about the dog--and why NKs are a no-go.
I actually thought she could maybe go for a LGD, but she finds them a bit much to even consider.
On the downside, I've heard that they have brief average lifespans -- yes, most of the large breed dogs do, but Berners were shockingly low at an average of 7 years. If Gideon's eight years were not enough (and are those limited years ever enough?), those statistics would be problematic, indeed.
Another good "all-around" large dog that I am personally gravitating towards lately is the Rhodesian Ridgeback. Yes, they have a prey drive too, but they seem to be more stimulated by larger "game," FWIW. At least the ones that I've met.
(Also, on one website I saw a supposed Rhodesian Ridgeback/Basenji cross, and thought uh, is that even possible? Actually the dog looked more like a pit mix anyway!)
My friend loves standard poodles, so I'll propose that to her too!
So far the dogs she has been interested in at the shelter have (happily!) been adopted, and some of the local rescue groups golden mixes the same, but the GSD rescue in Colorado has a lot of dogs right now, and they are happy to have an experienced GSD home interested in their dogs, so I'm suspecting we may make a trip to Colorado in the not to distant future. I think a rescue dog would be great for her, because she'll be able to hear what the foster families have observed about the dogs, and it is true the GSDs (in general) don't seem to have high prey drive for birds, and she likes the breed, so I'm hoping one of these will work out. There are a couple of special needs dogs she is even considering, so I'm thinking this could be a good situation all around.
Ridgebacks are supposedly very popular in Texas. And California! Goldens in rescue, too. But if adopting a couple states away is a difficulty, I guess just keep your eyes out...
Basenjis benefit from having a well-organized national rescue, so adopting and transporting across state lines is actually not a huge issue. But no, most would NOT do well with small birds (as the NK), and dog-to-dog snark is considered on a case-by-case basis.
BTW, Brad, she specifically said "I know I don't want one of those big fluffy assassin dogs like Brad has." (I believe the big fluffy assassins are the COs *lol* After we visited, she kept saying, how can such a fluffy attractive dog be so scary? *lol*)
eta: and she's willing to do interstate adoption, but you know a lot of rescues won't adopt out of state, so right now it's still sorting out that ones that will. I'll mention the goldens in CA though....bet she'd like to take a trip to CA! We're looking at Texas, too, for GSDs.
I didn't talk much with owner..
Best of luck to her, that's such a sad circumstance with those lava rocks
We've also seen some gorgeous huskies. Risky with prey drive though re: the birds.
I don't think she'll go for a shikoku laika mix, but.....You know, she did like Ike too! *lol*
They are such special dogs and there are just so many of them. Maybe show her that great YouTube channel of that giant pit bull with his baby chicks....
But she may have already found another dog. We'll see how things go tomorrow. We happened to see an adoption event and stopped. Most of the dogs were chi-mixes or other small ones, so we started to walk away, but I said "German Shepherd" and this lovely man came racing out from behind a desk, and literally grabbed my friend and stopped her, and said "German Shepherd? Are you looking for a German Shepherd?" It turns out a woman had just that day contacted them about placing her dog, and we'd just missed her. She was so new she had only just finished the paperwork, but hadn't given up the dog yet, but he gave us her name, so we called her and went to meet the dog at a local park.
We thought he was perfect, if he gets along with her dog and birds. Our first glimpse of him was of a gorgeous purebred GSD racing across the park after a tennis ball. He was off leash. There was also other offleash dogs there, including a Shiba mix (!) and he was not interested in them at all. The dog is 4 years old. He's had some training (they apologized and said "well, he doesn't walk well on a leash, actually, so we mostly just let him walk off leash since he never runs away" and while I don't like off leash dogs, I was impressed to see he really wasn't interested in going away from them at all). He didn't mind the kids in the park running around him (and in some cases over him). He knows some basic commands, and he looked healthy. He is in a family with a lot of kids, and the woman just seemed overwhelmed. She said they were moving out of state in a couple of months and didn't seem to have time for him, and just wanted to find a better home for him. While I am not that sympathetic to the "we're moving" argument, I certainly thought this might work out well for my friend.
He looks like a super energetic dog (ball obsessed), and he has mostly been an outside dog, though he is housetrained, so I'm sure there will be some problems and hitches along the way. He did seem pretty bonded to one of the kids, too, which made me sad for boy and dog. But he also seems about as good as my friend is likely to find in a rescue dog--seems to have a good temperament, knows some commands and is ok offleash and is not interested in other dogs. He's been around small dogs too, and hasn't shown much interest. His coat was super glossy and he looks health, and considering what they feed him (Beneful) that's pretty amazing. The only thing they said that might be a health issue is that it's hard to keep weight on him, but I suspect a good diet will help with that too.
Tomorrow she is going to meet them again with her dog. We know even if the meeting is not initially great, it could turn out ok still--her terrier is snarky at first but calms down within 10 minutes or so, and I figure that as long as the GSD doesn't show serious reactivity to the terrier, they should be ok, and we'll watch for prey drive with the birds too. The bigger challenge, probably, will be getting him used to living inside rather than more outside (though they did say they keep him in more during the winter, so he has slept inside before and been ok.).
Only bad thing we can see so far is that his name is Hoss. *lol*
Hoss isn't SUCH a bad name.
Well, she's going to take home a young GSD tomorrow. A different one than the one above. That one (Hoss) ended up being so anxious that she couldn't deal with him, and he snapped at her a couple of times, which freaked her out.
Then another one appeared, this one by way of our vet, who called her. Seems an old couple (like late 80s!) has found a GSD and can't keep him, and are calling around in the mountains to see if anyone either lost him or can take him.
He's young, probably around a year, purebred, intact. They live out in the middle of nowhere on a private road and he just appeared at their farm. They think someone dumped him. He was hanging around their dog (a similar looking GSD) and finally they took him in. That was Monday, and he's already quite attached to them, poor boy. They called all the shelters and gave them information and pics, and called vets in the area and even kennels, so the word is out, but the fact that no one is looking for this boy at all makes them wonder, and apparently it's really pretty hard to even get to their place, so they don't think he is just lost.
She went to look him at on Weds and liked him, and I went with her today. I was initially skeptical--he was SO shy. I felt like someone could win him over, probably even me, but I wasn't sure she had the patience for it or experience (for example, he was clearly scared of eye contact, and she kept looking at directly at him and he was getting nervous, til I suggested she not look at him, and sure enough, he started getting more brave!) Anyway, he was at the end of the leash, nervous much of the time we walked him, but I noticed that he would take a treat from me after 2 minutes. After 5 minutes, he was approaching me from behind and sniffing, though he did not want to be touched.
Then we got her dog out and let them have leash intros. (and I know leash intros can be problematic, and her terrier shows a bit of leash reactivity, but there was no other way to introduce them in neutral territory) Her terrier rushes at other dogs (rude greeting) but then is usually ok. The GSD was interested and alert--tail up--but he backed away when Truman rushed him. I asked her not to let them get too close simply because I was holding the leash of a dog I didn't know at all, and wasn't sure what to expect, but the GSD leaned against me and made eye contact with me, and seemed to be looking for guidance on how to behave. After awhile the terrier settled down, and though they weren't ever together, they seemed relatively calm, and there was no sign of reactivity from the GSD at all. And he was way friendlier with me after that.
I still wasn't sure what to think, but we took him back to the people who found him and sat down to talk to them for a bit and he was like a totally different dog--relaxed, friendly. He asked to be petted by them, and then by me. He seemed happy, at ease, and settled down right away. Like I said,he also became much more confident with us when in their presence. They said he had been very skittish with them the first day too, and didn't want to be touched or anything, but now he was an affectionate, easy going dog.
He doesn't appear to know anything at all. No hand signals. No words in English at all, except No. He doesn't know how to walk on a leash but he doesn't pull either. We have no idea how he will be in the car tomorrow. But we do feel hopeful that since Monday he has become quite attached to these people, so hopefully he will adjust with my friend well too. I think it will be a bit slower getting him used to Truman (or rather the other way around--getting Truman used to him) but since I've seen Truman calm down pretty quickly with other dogs, I suspect he will.
We figure worst case scenario is that even if he doesn't fit in, my friend taking him will be a reprieve from the shelter, which is where he will go next week if she doesn't take him, because the people who found them are on their way back to their winter home. I feel cautiously optimistic about him though.
We're trying to figure out how to get him settled into her household. We suspect he has never been in a crate and he does show an extraordinary fear of being constrained (he freaked out when he got tangled in the leash). So she probably can't crate him without more training. She has baby gates so she can keep him confined in one part of the house though.
Oh, one thing I worried about was when he got tangled in the leash he got scared, and I didn't see what happened, but my friend said he put his mouth on her (no pressure though) which freaked her out a bit. I wondered about that. But then in the house, I saw him mouthing the people who had taken him in. Totally different situation--he was doing NK type mouthing out of excitement/happiness. But I wondered if what I might have taken as a warning sign (mouth on person out of fear) might be more than he's simply not learned that he should not mouth people? He clearly was not biting my friend though. Anyway, seeing him doing it in a friendly manner made me not sure how to take the fear reaction.