Thanks for the memebership

[Char_BM]

Hi all,

First of all - thanks for the membership. I have been following this forum on the sideline, as I did my research on which breed we should choose as our new family addition.

So guess what: We finally got our DS puppy! Yay!

We are a married couple, living in Denmark (Europe), previous bullterrier, amstaff, and labrador owners. We fell in love with the shepherd breeds, after meeting my sister-in-law's Swiss Shepherd. However, we wanted a shepherd with more energy, and after meeting the DS we were completely sold!

This is our new little friend: Anouk! He is 15 weeks old now, and we are still getting to know him!
We got him from a breeder in Germany, after carefully researching which line of dogs we wanted a puppy from.



We went to get him 4 weeks ago, which included a 12-hour drive back home. Anouk did so well - our first night together was spent at a hotel, where I slept on the floor with him. After the trip, he has spent a few weeks coming around in his new home. We have a cat, which he gets along with just fine.

We are looking forward to joining the discussions on the forum, now that we actually have some DS-experience to share!


-Mads & Charlotte

[ICE]

very handsome guy!

[centrop67]

Welcome. He's pretty big already for 15 weeks!

[Char_BM]

very handsome guy!

Thanks! I hope he will look like his father - he is really stunning with a gold bridle coat!

Welcome. He's pretty big already for 15 weeks!

Yeah it seems like the little man is having a massive growth spurt right now. He is exhausted and I swear it seems like his legs have grown after each nap! (he was also the biggest one in the littler )

[Tim91118]

Welcome....how did you go about choosing which line of dogs you wanted to get your puppy from ?

[Char_BM]

Welcome....how did you go about choosing which line of dogs you wanted to get your puppy from ?

Thank you!
First thing we did was to go and talk to some DS owners at a local dog show. They gave us some information about where we could find some breeders. DS are very rare in Denmark, so we quickly realized that we had to look elsewhere.

The next thing we started looking for, was breeders with focus on sports dogs - in particular agility.
Neither of us have ever owned a working type dog, so we didn't want a dog with a crazy drive or desire to protect.
However, after all this research, we are very open to trying IGP if Anouk turns out to love bite work.

We contacted several breeders and described what we were looking for and they were very helpful.
In the end our final selection was based on bloodline, health and traits of the parents and how they breeders were raising the puppies. The breeders we chose had full health and mental testing of both of the parents, which I find very important. The dam is currently competing and titled in IGP and is trained in nosework too. The sire has multiple titles in agility and rally-o. Both dogs are good with strangers and other animals.

We ended up selecting Anouk out of the puppies the breeders had selected for us, because he was very relaxed and interested in us compared to his two other siblings. He had a good toy drive and he didn't seem worried about being handled or by any strange noises we made. In the end, he will be a family dog, so he needs to be able to navigate in everyday family life.

I guess time will tell what kind of dog he turns out to be. He seems very kind and easy to work with as of now. He needs a little time to investigate new things, but he doesn't seem timid or nervous.
But he is only 4 months old, so I guess a lot can change we have an important job ahead of us!

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[Tim91118]

What you’re seeing now is pretty much what you’ll have. You do the molding and tweaking with him so he becomes a trusted part of the family.

[Char_BM]

What you’re seeing now is pretty much what you’ll have. You do the molding and tweaking with him so he becomes a trusted part of the family.

Then he will be a nice and mellow dog! He seems very polite towards other dogs as well.
Hoping to build his drive and energy when working with him. But right now, it seems like all his energy is spent growing some long legs

[ladyjubilee]

Welcome. He sounds like a great dog.