Free 9 month old German shepherd

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Yay!

[Roberta 42]

She is a genuinely beautiful girl, who is laying here with her head on my lap. 

She will be a service dog for my disabled oldest son. She has been a clearly a much loved and well cared for dog, and will continue to be, just by our family now instead. 

[Andrew Roberts 17]

44 minutes ago, Roberta said:

She is a genuinely beautiful girl, who is laying here with her head on my lap. 

She will be a service dog for my disabled oldest son. She has been a clearly a much loved and well cared for dog, and will continue to be, just by our family now instead. 

Thank you Roberta !!!!!

 

she a very sweet girl.  

[Cortezcapt (Derek) 156]

I am so glad this worked out for both of your families. 

[Beckers 1,136]

11 hours ago, Roberta said:

She is a genuinely beautiful girl, who is laying here with her head on my lap. 

She will be a service dog for my disabled oldest son. She has been a clearly a much loved and well cared for dog, and will continue to be, just by our family now instead. 

What a wonderful outcome. Best of luck with her training.

[caveat lector 181]

Great update. Thanks for sharing.

[Roberta 42]

Not even 9 months old yet! Will continue to grow until 2 years of age. 

Starts obedience training with private trainer and our entire family, on Thursday evening.

Four weeks of that and then she will graduate to service dog training. It may move faster as

she is a super smart dog and doesn't need a million repetitions of things.  

[Andrew Roberts 17]

1 hour ago, Roberta said:

Not even 9 months old yet! Will continue to grow until 2 years of age. 

Starts obedience training with private trainer and our entire family, on Thursday evening.

Four weeks of that and then she will graduate to service dog training. It may move faster as

she is a super smart dog and doesn't need a million repetitions of things.  

This make me so happy.  Thank you so much.  I miss her and ma so proud of what you guys are doing with her

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

12 hours ago, Roberta said:

Not even 9 months old yet! Will continue to grow until 2 years of age. 

Starts obedience training with private trainer and our entire family, on Thursday evening.

Four weeks of that and then she will graduate to service dog training. It may move faster as

she is a super smart dog and doesn't need a million repetitions of things.  

That's awesome!

Dogs are funny. Sometimes the dog we really need (or who really needs us) finds us in a round about way. If she'd never found her first family (and eaten their camper - EEK), she likely never would have made her way to you and to the job that seems perfect for her.  Some things really do happen for a reason.  :)

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

25 minutes ago, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

Some things really do happen for a reason.  :)

I believe that.

Actually, I believe that everything happens for a reason.  Sometimes, it just takes a while to see the reason, and for some things, we won't find out the reason in this lifetime, but it still happened for a reason.

I think this thread if proof of that.

So awesome!

TCD

[DisneyVampire 45]

Simply beautiful! You can tell she is loved

[Roberta 42]

I do honestly believe she was born to be a part of our family. She came to us in a round about way, but she was meant to be here. We have all bonded completely, and I can't imagine life without her. We all love her dearly and she shows her love back to us. 

She is a Disney girl for sure. She has a Baymax stuffed doll that she sleeps with. She could easily tear it limb for limb, but doesn't. She carries it gently and keeps it on the couch during the day. We found out that she loves balls! She found a tennis ball outside and was so excited. Now she gets to play fetch a few times a day. She loves it best when we play as a group with two other dogs, even though one of our other dogs, Blaze, gets the ball every time. Blaze is super fast and agile, while Joan is just a puppy who doesn't know what to do with all her size yet. 

All the dogs get individual time playing, while the rest are inside, but Joan prefers multi-dog play and will go to the door and cry for us to let them out. So we do. 

Totally anxious and looking forward to our first session tomorrow. The trainer is going to work with Joan, and our entire family. I will take some photos to share. 

[Andrew Roberts 17]

2 hours ago, Roberta said:

I do honestly believe she was born to be a part of our family. She came to us in a round about way, but she was meant to be here. We have all bonded completely, and I can't imagine life without her. We all love her dearly and she shows her love back to us. 

She is a Disney girl for sure. She has a Baymax stuffed doll that she sleeps with. She could easily tear it limb for limb, but doesn't. She carries it gently and keeps it on the couch during the day. We found out that she loves balls! She found a tennis ball outside and was so excited. Now she gets to play fetch a few times a day. She loves it best when we play as a group with two other dogs, even though one of our other dogs, Blaze, gets the ball every time. Blaze is super fast and agile, while Joan is just a puppy who doesn't know what to do with all her size yet. 

All the dogs get individual time playing, while the rest are inside, but Joan prefers multi-dog play and will go to the door and cry for us to let them out. So we do. 

Totally anxious and looking forward to our first session tomorrow. The trainer is going to work with Joan, and our entire family. I will take some photos to share. 

This is very awesome we still think of her a lot and miss her.  Have you given her a carrot ? yet.  And she also love ice.     If the trainer had any questions please call me     Lots of love

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

Simply love the outcome of this story.

God is good.

[Seals 111]

"Every Dog Happens For A Reason" is the tagline for the upcoming movie A Dog's Purpose. (I don't know anything about the movie except for the cute poster. I think it was also a book?). I've been quoting that line to our crazy rescued from the shelter dog ever since I saw the poster. 

http://www.adogspurposemovie.com/

 

Congratulations on the new addition to your family!

 

[Travisma 1,317]

3 minutes ago, Seals said:

"Every Dog Happens For A Reason" is the tagline for the upcoming movie A Dog's Purpose. (I don't know anything about the movie except for the cute poster. I think it was also a book?). I've been quoting that line to our crazy rescued from the shelter dog ever since I saw the poster. 

http://www.adogspurposemovie.com/

 

Congratulations on the new addition to your family!

 

Wonderful ending for the pup

 

A Dog's Purpose movie trailer started running a couple of weeks ago.  Looks like a good family movie.  The main character... Bailey the dog... gets reincarnated at least 3 times.

[Roberta 42]

16 hours ago, Andrew Roberts said:

This is very awesome we still think of her a lot and miss her.  Have you given her a carrot ? yet.  And she also love ice.     If the trainer had any questions please call me     Lots of love

Oh, yes! We started giving her ice on the first night she was here. Our oldest dog loves ices as well, so that one didn't come as a surprise. We bought a bag of baby carrots, and she LOVES them. Our other dogs, of course, want nothing to do with them. We used some of them in our training session today for her big rewards. Used tiny bacon training treats for repetitions. 

We covered so much territory in our session today. Our trainer is amazing and said Joan is amazingly smart so caught on extremely quickly. To be honest, Joan is easier to train than we are. We have a lot of practice to alpha dogs. She recognized the trainer as alpha immediately because she has the whole body language thing going on. We are still students, but will be working with her every day to to get the same results. 

Joan will take commands from us, because she is smart, but we will be working hard on learning "dog language" which involves much body language. She is being trained with something called Natural Dog Training, which simulates the natural behavior of a pack in communicating with each other.

Here are a couple of photos taken during her training today. The first one shows tempting items on the floor that Joan was told not to touch. There were also food and treats on the floor. Joan excelled at training, which is why she has so many things on the floor. The trainer said usually one or two items is all most dogs can handle right away. Joan was just so well behaved that she kept adding distractions and items and Joan was amazing. By the way, Joan was not even allowed to LOOK at the items she was told to leave alone, and as you can see, she's not. Incredible! 

The second photo is of Joan staying on her side of a boundary while our entire family, and the trainer, walked away on the other side. By the end of her first session, no matter how far away we went, Joan remained sitting pretty on her side.

 

 

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

This is wonderful!  Joan is beautiful, and it seems she has found her forever family and her purpose in life.

[Andrew Roberts 17]

3 hours ago, Roberta said:

Oh, yes! We started giving her ice on the first night she was here. Our oldest dog loves ices as well, so that one didn't come as a surprise. We bought a bag of baby carrots, and she LOVES them. Our other dogs, of course, want nothing to do with them. We used some of them in our training session today for her big rewards. Used tiny bacon training treats for repetitions. 

We covered so much territory in our session today. Our trainer is amazing and said Joan is amazingly smart so caught on extremely quickly. To be honest, Joan is easier to train than we are. We have a lot of practice to alpha dogs. She recognized the trainer as alpha immediately because she has the whole body language thing going on. We are still students, but will be working with her every day to to get the same results. 

Joan will take commands from us, because she is smart, but we will be working hard on learning "dog language" which involves much body language. She is being trained with something called Natural Dog Training, which simulates the natural behavior of a pack in communicating with each other.

Here are a couple of photos taken during her training today. The first one shows tempting items on the floor that Joan was told not to touch. There were also food and treats on the floor. Joan excelled at training, which is why she has so many things on the floor. The trainer said usually one or two items is all most dogs can handle right away. Joan was just so well behaved that she kept adding distractions and items and Joan was amazing. By the way, Joan was not even allowed to LOOK at the items she was told to leave alone, and as you can see, she's not. Incredible! 

The second photo is of Joan staying on her side of a boundary while our entire family, and the trainer, walked away on the other side. By the end of her first session, no matter how far away we went, Joan remained sitting pretty on her side.

 

 

This is fantastic. I can't even begin to explain how hard it was to make the decision to re home her.  These updates make it feel as if this was the plan all along.   Thanks for these updates.  Love ❤️ how this turned out 

[Roberta 42]

1 hour ago, Andrew Roberts said:

This is fantastic. I can't even begin to explain how hard it was to make the decision to re home her.  These updates make it feel as if this was the plan all along.   Thanks for these updates.  Love ❤️ how this turned out 

Joan and the rest of our family send lots of love to yours. None of this would have possible with you two. 

This evening, one of our cats came in. We used the "leave it" command. It took her hearing it three times before she would quit looking at the cat (which is a requirement) so I know it wasn't one that was easy for her. Even so, after the command was given the third time, she turned around and went about her business. Then she got a bacon treat.  

The cats were not around while trainer was here so I anticipated much more trouble with then showed up. Joan chases them and barks at them. This evening we were able to get her to look away and mind her puppy dog business twice, when dealing with the cats. 

I'm as proud of this beautiful girl as if i had given birth to her myself. I'm bragging about her all over the internet. She'll be famous before it's all said and done. 

Thank you, Andy & Carol, for giving us this opportunity add this new member to our family. We are all on cloud 9. 

Sending much love, 

The Wade family. 

[DinDavie 37]

That is one fine looking dog.  If she continues to have separation anxiety issues I suggest you look into the use of these little pills from Colorado.  My dog is now a much happier and friendlier dog.  Thunder doesn't bother her any more either. While her appetite has increased and she loves her naps more than she used to I have not noticed any drop off in ambition or intelligence.  But she was never a rocket scientist to begin with.  Just to assure you that I'm not someone you should report to the DEA, most Vets know about this stuff and can give you better information.

[Roberta 42]

33 minutes ago, DinDavie said:

That is one fine looking dog.  If she continues to have separation anxiety issues I suggest you look into the use of these little pills from Colorado.  My dog is now a much happier and friendlier dog.  Thunder doesn't bother her any more either. While her appetite has increased and she loves her naps more than she used to I have not noticed any drop off in ambition or intelligence.  But she was never a rocket scientist to begin with.  Just to assure you that I'm not someone you should report to the DEA, most Vets know about this stuff and can give you better information.

Thanks, but she no longer has separation anxiety. Our trainer explained to us that is caused by her thinking she is Alpha of the family. Therefore, if we left, she felt like we were doing wrong because she didn't give us permission to leave. As soon as she found out that are in charge, and now has a routine for when we leave, she does fine alone. 

We have only tested her for 30 minutes at a time so far, but she has been laying down waiting for us to come back and tell her what she is supposed to be doing. She has not chewed up a single thing since she has been here, except a dog toy, which she did right in front of us and we let her. It was her squeaky duck. The more reinforcement she has that she is not in charge / making decisions, the more secure she will be come. First day and already have that issue under control, at least for short time periods. 

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

7 hours ago, Roberta said:

Thanks, but she no longer has separation anxiety. Our trainer explained to us that is caused by her thinking she is Alpha of the family. Therefore, if we left, she felt like we were doing wrong because she didn't give us permission to leave. As soon as she found out that are in charge, and now has a routine for when we leave, she does fine alone. 
 

That's really interesting.

[ThemeParkCommando 81]

I'm really happy with the way this story is turning out, and I think it's great that this dog has a lovely new home with a good job to keep her occupied.   ETA:  -  your first training session looks super!   I am really enjoying reading all of this, and I hope my comment below won't stop you from sharing.   I promise I'm just trying to be helpful to the community at large, when thinking about bringing dogs to the fort.

However, I do want to comment on the issue of separation anxiety in this dog.

The reason the dog acted out at the Fort,  was not because she thought she was alpha of her family  No 8 month old puppy challenges for alpha spot in a pack.   The reason this pup ate the camper, was because she was 8 months old, in a new place with new sounds and smells, and her family had all left.  To a dog, this means abandonment.   She ate the trailer because she wanted out, and wanted to be with her family in this scary new place.   This could happen to anyone traveling with a puppy when camping out.   Until the puppy has some experience of camping and moving around from place to place,  it's very nerve wracking for them.

She also could be in the middle of one of the 'fear stages' of growing up.    Please ask your trainer about fear stages.  In GSD's, they are significant.   If you are not being encouraged to take your dog out into public places to practice your training around other humans and animals, please start doing this, under your trainer's direction.

If you are wondering about my credentials, I have been training dog classes for basic obedience, manners and obedience competition since 1984.   I'm a certified Canine Good Citizen and Star Puppy evaluator, as well.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

This amazing story just keeps getting better.

This trainer you have coming to the house sounds awesome.  How did you find her?

TCD