As much as this is sometimes frowned upon in “certain” GSD groups, he actually comes from a very well bred show line. Both his parents have won many shows, but beyond that, her dogs also do agility and tons of other competitions. Our breeder is a veterinarian as well, so we know she takes a lot of pride in her dogs. He came with a 2 year hip and elbow guarantee. If we x-rayed his hips and elbows at 2 years and sent them off to be certified and came back with any type of hip displaysia, we would get a full refund. We had him x-rayed at 2 years (he’s 3 now) and his hips came back good and his elbows at normal. With hips being rated in like 6? Different categories, “good” is the second from the highest.
I will also add that his work, drive, and focus, is as amazing as nearly any dog I have seen. I can go to a beach or a park filled with hundreds of kids and dogs, and he can be 100% off leash and as long as I have a ball in my hand, he ignores every person and every barking dog. He will fetch that ball until i make him stop, and could easily chase it into heat exhaustion.
At home, he is just the same. Constantly bringing toys to throw. I can throw a dirty shirt in the bathroom, tell him “laundry” and he will pick it up and put it in the laundry basket. We play “hide and seek” with his Kong (empty, so no food scent) and I can lock him in the bedroom, and hide it anywhere in our apartment and he finds it 95% of the time. We never trained him to do this, we just started playing it as a game and he picked up on it instantly. We let him out of the room and he drops his nose and just goes to town searching. I can wedge it deep down in the couch cushions out of site, and he’ll sniff it out.
That being said - his drive is incredibly high and he has to be well managed. He can certainly turn it off plenty at home and isn’t a nuisance, but for example, one of his brothers can’t be brought in public or around other dogs, which I’m sure is due to improper training and lack of socializing. Our dog (Neo) is completely indifferent towards people most the time, or occasionally a bit uneasy at first. He usually warms up eventually, but really has no interest in gaining their attention at all.
Here’s a few photo’s, since you brought it up. I could go on forever lol. I had a chocolate lab for 13 years before, and while I don’t know that I could ever love a dog as much as him (I had him from 16-29) our GSD is on an entirely different level in terms of intelligence and drive.
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They are. While it seems like it could be odd, it’s actually not annoying at all, kind of nice, and a little extra sound dampening/insulation. Some people seem bothered by this, but usually prospective lookers. I’m in a few Casita groups and it’s not anything that people ever complain about.
