Hi everyone

I’ve had my beautiful GSD boy for just over a year now,
He’s a wonderful family dog and has more patience for me than I could ask for. He’s my best friend

I’m an adult, I live with my divorced mum,
For the first few months of having him everything was perfect, He’s obedient, we have no trouble with him at home. He doesn’t chew on anything, get up to trouble.. He digs a few holes but nothing crazy, lol.

A few months in, My mum was having trouble keeping her property, We moved into a different house with a smaller yard (Still perfect for GSD)
I also changed jobs at this time and was no longer working from home

I could leave him at home for an hour or two, But I felt horrible not giving him enrichment.

My GSD grew up with my brothers dog and so at this point while I worked my dog was jumping house to house, When I could be off work he was with me at my mums, When i was at work he was at my dads with his other dog siblings.

My GSD is very used to travelling in the car at this point.

So I began taking him to my partners house with me, to give my parents a break but also so he wouldn’t be lonely or bored

Here is my problem…

i’ll admit that I’ve been very neglectful in giving my GSD more experiences.
When he was a puppy, we had started taking him out (8 weeks) but he was already ‘reactive’ to dogs at this point and instead of us trying to fix it, we ignored it because it wasn’t a big deal as a puppy, and we wouldnt really take him out. He was mostly a home dog.

As he got a little bit older, he was okay with strangers in public but he hated children and was scared of them, I could tell he wasn’t comfortable so I’d pull him away, mostly for the kids sake.

So most of his life he has been a home dog.

And now my circumstances are changing more and more, I love my dog so much so I’m trying to bring him along with me to make it work.

I haven’t really done any outside walks with him, just because I knew he didn’t do well outside as a puppy but also because we had a yard, but since moving the yard can only do so much.

This is a few months later
Our compromise was that we had a large public outdoor area at my partner’s house, so we would use that area when no one was around and throw the ball for him.

One of these instances happened when an old man and his dog were walking along the road, it’s a quiet street so usually there’s no one out and about.

I had made a mistake of leaving my dog off leash,
His recall is perfect, but I have lacked the consideration that they could be unknown factors in the situation such as a dog

Before this, he had never done anything bad, he would bark and bark at the dogs, which annoyed me because I really wanted to take him outside but he would just freak out and get reactive at these dogs,

The old guy and his dog were pretty far away so I wasn’t worried. I was just thinking that I’ll grab my dog and leave so we don’t bother them

My GSD had taken off and was chasing the old guy’s dog barking and aggressively snapping at him,
This had never happened before, so I was terrified,
My GSD was close enough to bite, but he didn’t bite it which makes me feel a little better, but I was still absolutely terrified

The old guy and his dog were fine, I apologise profusely to the old guy and he was nice about it (which he didn’t have to be, I completely understand. I’m in the wrong) and his dog was fine too, didn’t really care to be honest.

So ever since this happened I have been freaked out and never really realised that he hated other dogs this much,

Another issue we have is at my mum’s new house, he now absolutely hates any strangers and freaks out and barks very loudly, and when my grandparents came over, he aggressively went up to their face and barked at them (like the dog) he didn’t bite or anything but still this is terrifying.

For both of these, I had no idea that it was coming and it was almost like it came out of thin air, obviously there were points that led up to it but I was ignorant and the week before he seemed to be fine with people in the next week he wasn’t.

I had gotten a dog trainer after this (around 6-7 months old) and we have started sessions, I’ve paid thousands of dollars
We’ve had three sessions so far and it’s been months, but I feel like we’ve made absolutely no progress.

My dog is now over a year old, and every day is getting worse and worse.

When I go to work, I can’t always take him to my dad’s house, so he has to sit at home at my partner’s house in a crate for hours on end. I feel so neglectful and I love him so much

I can’t take him for walks because he reacts to every single dog.
He’s much better with strangers when he’s not at his house (I think it’s a territorial thing) but he still won’t let anyone or anything approach him.

My dog trainer is a lovely woman, but I feel like we are taking it too slow and my life quality is getting so much worse because I’m trying to compromise for my dog.

I know that it is mostly my fault since I got my dog, and I wish I knew the circumstances would change so drastically as I wouldn’t have brought him into this.
But I love him so much and I can’t bare to rehome him, he’s such a perfect home dog.

Even right now, I’m sitting in bed and he’s minding his own business. He doesn’t wander off. he loves to stick by me. He just sits in the bed and lets me pat him. Even when I’m depressed some mornings he stays in bed with me and he‘s so patient. He’s my best friend.

I’m sticking to everything. The dog trainer is teaching me but I just want this to be over with and he’s a smart dog and he can learn but, the situations are getting harder and harder to control which means I’m having less and less opportunity to train him.
My dog trainer said not to bring him out into the environment until we are ready, but I am so cooped up inside with him.

I’ve lost a bit of weight, too. I’m already a small person, and I weigh around 45 kg right now,
I’m finding it harder and harder to control my dog, especially when he’s barking at other dogs,
Again, this is my fault, but it is never been a problem before.

I’m considering a boarding and training, my dog trainer is really against it, and I know that some of them are bad, but I’ve heard some of them are good,
I really want someone who knows what he’s doing and can control every single situation, I don’t get enough opportunities to train him because I can’t control the situation enough.

My last resort is rehoming him, but I really don’t want to do that.

i’m also so inclined to get this done with because everyone I know is terrified of him, my in-laws are scared of him because he barks at them (because he doesn’t know them) and everyone always asks me if he will attack them,
This absolutely breaks my heart and it hurts me so much because my dog is such a lovely boy and I can’t believe anyone would even say that to me, I was so appalled!!!
I could not believe that someone would just look at a big dog and think that that thing would hurt them just because he’s big.

Please don’t be harsh or rude on me I’m still learning,
We’ve had many family dogs that I consider mine, but they are all small or medium dogs and we had a better, more stable situation,

The reason I got a GSD isn’t the aesthetic or or the idea of having a personal guard dog, when I was a child we had one as a family dog and she was my best friend, I truly believe I can care for him excluding his reactivity, but that is the only thing holding me back.

Any advice would be welcome.

a few months ago i posted abt my soon to be puppy lookinh a bit funny. the backlash i got was a bit suprising. some comments actually were trying to be helpful which i still very much appreciate but most of them were very … accusatory? Which on one hand i understand, but when i tried to explain things some outright called me a liar. So! here she is 5 months later beautiful as ever. she just had an awkward puppy stage, but now shes one of the most beautiful dogs ive seen. she has absolutely zero health issues and her overbite has actually fixed itself (which i said it might). Thank you reddit, for scaring the shit out of me. Im glad i didn’t listen to you. (SARCASM ALERT)

EDIT: find my long ass paragraph in the comments i cant put it here for some reason

Every GSD owner has that one moment where they think: "yep, that's a shepherd." Herding the kids, guarding the bin like it's top secret, following you to the bathroom, or giving the delivery driver a full inspection.

What's the moment that made you laugh and say "classic shepherd"?

I wish I could post video here but omg she’s such a big help for me. And she’s so pretty in her gear

6 month old male GSD (we think). We adopted him 2 weeks ago from a GSD rescue after he was dumped in a rural town with Parvo and picked up by animal control. The rescue pulled him from the pound and got him through Parvo treatment, which is why he’s so skinny. The more we look at him, the more doubts we have on whether or not he’s full GSD or if he has some or a lot of Belgian Malinois in him. His face looks more Mal to me, but I’m not an expert. We got a DNA test for him and are waiting on it to get here so we can do it. Thoughts?? Does he look like a 6 month old GSD or could he be a Mal?

My girl Kaya got out last month and thanks to the help of amazing people in my community and an amazing individual who called and reported a sighting we were able to get her home.

Shoutout to Toby the elderly chihuahua for helping out as she would have never approached us if he wasn’t there.

She stays double leashed on walks going forward 😂

Love this girl so much.

He’s a 4 mo shepherd mix (shelter guessed Aussie 🤷🏼‍♀️)

He had a good last few days at the cabin.

Meet our newest pet horse, Ruckus. We adopted him from a rescue over the weekend.

They did have some background information on him and all his health has checked out (though we have a vet appt coming up to verify everything and check on anything else) so we have been told that he is between 6-9 months old. I can barely lift him, over 65lbs, easily. We also have been told that his parents are a German Shepherd and a Saint Bernard (eventually we will get his DNA tested just to see) and every single person I see tell’s me look at his paws. He’s going to be huge.

We wanted a bigger dog. So we are ready.
Based on these pics, what do you see?

He is such a smart boy. He also is lazy in the mornings. Doesn’t pull with the leash. Has picked up on tricks incredibly quick. I’m amazed. And he wants to love every single person in the universe.

So, tell me what you think of our “little” guy? We are beyond happy with this whole rescue process and even though he has his crazy puppy moments where he lives up to the name we have him, he is just so good. My heart is full.

Then... .they stop the shenanigans they were up to!

Is it only me that feels like there dog is a crackhead addicted to balls? If he’s not sleeping he’s trying to get me to play any game that has balls in it. Fetch which requires 2-3 balls or else I’ll just throw the ball once and then it becomes keep away. Even after 15-20 mins of constant non stop fetching he’s locked on to balls even when I can see him getting slower and more tired he can only see balls, ball is life. Even if by the grace of god he lays down he’s either chewing his ball or keeps in front of him and stares at it. After a 10 minute rest he brings it to me and is ready to go again. We live on a farm so actually playing is not an issue but that much running can’t be healthy for his joints. I also have 2 other dogs (gr x husky siblings) who he also plays with but they are never able to keep up, he’s on a whole different level. He’s adopted so I can never be sure if he has working line genetics and he definitely doesn’t look like it but I’d say his intensity is probably comparable to Belgian Malinois ( I don’t have experience with Belgian malinois but I know for a fact that that’s above average intensity for a gsd)
He’s 15 months old

That's it. I just feel super embarrassed. Nothing bad happened. She just shot out and ran to the other dog, wagged her tail and ran back inside when I yelled after her. I'm a foreigner so I guess I feel extra self-conscious about getting a bad reputation.

1 day after 2nd surgery. Trazadone doing its magic and keeping him calm. Until his neck balloon comes he has to wear the cone of shame

My beautful shepard lab mix Millie a lil over a year. Never a dog with evem a lil shepard in them, let alone one that is mostly shepard. Wouldnt trade her for all the marbles im the world.