# Just adopted a 5 month old german shepherd



## mocamacho92 (Mar 18, 2012)

I just adopted a 5 month old female german shepherd this past week. She is my first rescue and I love her sooo much. I have 3 other dogs and she seems to be ok with them, but she does like to play rough. I've been reading some stories about how german sheps shouldn't ever be alone with a small dog. If I train my german shepherd, Xena, she should learn how to live with the small dogs right? She likes to play and isn't aggressive to be mean, just wants to play. I am going to start training with a specialists tomorrow with a man who specializes in german shepherds. Do I have anything to worry about? I have a golden, a poodle and a pug. They are great together and can be left alone without hurting each other. Will I ever be able to do that with my shepherd? My family and I are ready to train her and to teach her how to be very obedient to us. She was just spayed a few days ago, but when she's ready, we are going to take her out and socialize with A LOT of people and A LOT of dogs so that she won't be aggressive as she grows older. Thanks in advance to any replies!!


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## mocamacho92 (Mar 18, 2012)

She likes to bite a lot and it gets my other dogs mad. Other than that, she's very sweet. I would love to hear from people who have a shepherd as well as small dogs that coexist. Also, I took her to the vet yesterday and the vet office has cats that walk around. Xena didn't try to bite that so thats good right? SHe put her face right in front of the cat and the cat swiped at Xena (without baring her claws) and Xena backed away and growled a little bit but I corrected her. Does that mean that her prey drive isn't very high? I'll post pics soon!!!


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## mocamacho92 (Mar 18, 2012)

These are my dogs


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## Shade (Feb 20, 2012)

We have small and large dogs in our family and when we all get together there's no major issues but we always supervise


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## [email protected] (Feb 7, 2012)

mocamacho92 said:


> These are my dogs


Your dogs are adorable. I have a 3 month old GSD "Darby" and I have two Yorkies. When I first brought Darby home at 6 weeks she was the same size as my other girls. (About 6lbs) They hated her, LOL. As she grew and went thru her "biting stage" she would harass them constantly. I made sure to watch them closely and let them kind of put her in her place without hurting her. My Yorkies were able to escape her by getting on the couch or the bed or whatever. Darby, now 3 months old, follows them around the yard like their faithful protector. She loves them.. They are very tolerant of her right now and even try to sleep in the crate with her. I usually have to pull one or both of them out when I put her in at night. Keep in mind that I got her at 6 weeks old so she was raised with them. Hopefully your girl will get out of her biting stage soon and won't be too aggressive with your other babies. I wouldn't leave them alone until she has had some training and you have observed their interactions with each other for a couple of weeks. Hopefully they'll be best friends in no time and you'll have a happy pack... Good Luck. /Users/deedeetaylor/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Masters/2012/03/12/20120312-130838/DSC_0001.JPG


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## [email protected] (Feb 7, 2012)

This may make you feel better.
Best of Luck.


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## mocamacho92 (Mar 18, 2012)

[email protected] said:


> This may make you feel better.
> Best of Luck.


Thank you for your response!! Your babies are so cute!!


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

I would never leave our GSD out unsupervised with our smaller dogs, for many many reasons.
I never have and never will (and this is our 4th GSD).


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## Jelpy (Nov 8, 2009)

Your girl is beautiful. 

Jelpy


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## mocamacho92 (Mar 18, 2012)

Shade said:


> We have small and large dogs in our family and when we all get together there's no major issues but we always supervise


thank you for your response!!!


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## mocamacho92 (Mar 18, 2012)

Jelpy said:


> Your girl is beautiful.
> 
> Jelpy


Thank you! I still can believe she was at the shelter


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## mocamacho92 (Mar 18, 2012)

she's already slowly improving with discipline. I've never had a GSD and Im hoping she will be a great, smart, obedient dog with proper training. Does anyone know of a german shepherd play group in the Inland empire area?


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

My shepherd is 6.5 months and I got her at 3 months..she was behind with potty training-my golden was already potty trained at 3 months, so I had to have lots of patience I also have a older dog, that thinks she is a puppy which works out well. I also have five cats and the puppy has her moments when she chases them. Once she catches them they box with her and swat at her and she leaves. I caught one of them sleeping with her the other night and they don't hide, so she must not be a threat to them. Right now she's in a crate if I'm not home for long periods-3-4 hours, but I have let her stay out if I run to the store and she behaves nicely. Eventually she will be out of the crate with the rest of the animals as long as I don't see any issues. She has a very sweet playful disposition. She doesn't bite or chew stuff and she's always happy Its going to be a personal choice if think that your puppy can be trusted as she grows and grows and grows to be out with the other animals. Start the puppy classes and get her socialized and keep going with it. Good Luck with her, she is adorable


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## mocamacho92 (Mar 18, 2012)

llombardo said:


> My shepherd is 6.5 months and I got her at 3 months..she was behind with potty training-my golden was already potty trained at 3 months, so I had to have lots of patience I also have a older dog, that thinks she is a puppy which works out well. I also have five cats and the puppy has her moments when she chases them. Once she catches them they box with her and swat at her and she leaves. I caught one of them sleeping with her the other night and they don't hide, so she must not be a threat to them. Right now she's in a crate if I'm not home for long periods-3-4 hours, but I have let her stay out if I run to the store and she behaves nicely. Eventually she will be out of the crate with the rest of the animals as long as I don't see any issues. She has a very sweet playful disposition. She doesn't bite or chew stuff and she's always happy Its going to be a personal choice if think that your puppy can be trusted as she grows and grows and grows to be out with the other animals. Start the puppy classes and get her socialized and keep going with it. Good Luck with her, she is adorable


Thanks for your response! She is going to start private training tomorrow and she will be taken on walks, to the dog park and dog beach once she's ready (she was just spayed so the vet recommends no physical activity until 10 days). She will be very well socialized. We have always made sure that our dogs are socialized. Our vet loves it when our dogs go to see him b/c he says that they are so sweet and loving. Thanks again for your response!!


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

mocamacho92 said:


> Thanks for your response! She is going to start private training tomorrow and she will be taken on walks, to the dog park and dog beach once she's ready (she was just spayed so the vet recommends no physical activity until 10 days). She will be very well socialized. We have always made sure that our dogs are socialized. Our vet loves it when our dogs go to see him b/c he says that they are so sweet and loving. Thanks again for your response!!


Thank you for rescuing her Have fun with her and enjoy her...some of the best dogs come from the shelter..well some of them don't start out that way but its what we put into them that gets them there.


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## Laney (Feb 12, 2012)

I have had Rivers since he was 9 weeks old. He has grown up with a 5 year old (small) boston terrier, Andy, since we got him. They have been alone together. They play great. They rough house but Rivers is very gentle with him. Rivers is 8 months now, and significantly bigger (he is 60lbs and Andy is 15lbs), and we have still never had a problem. I would still be careful as I know this is different from dog to dog. Rivers has never shown any aggression towards any dog or any person. And Rivers loves all small dogs! You will get a feel for how yours interact as time goes by. Hope this makes you feel a little better 



















When they were younger:


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## mocamacho92 (Mar 18, 2012)

Laney said:


> I have had Rivers since he was 9 weeks old. He has grown up with a 5 year old (small) boston terrier, Andy, since we got him. They have been alone together. They play great. They rough house but Rivers is very gentle with him. Rivers is 8 months now, and significantly bigger (he is 60lbs and Andy is 15lbs), and we have still never had a problem. I would still be careful as I know this is different from dog to dog. Rivers has never shown any aggression towards any dog or any person. And Rivers loves all small dogs! You will get a feel for how yours interact as time goes by. Hope this makes you feel a little better
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Your babies are so cute!!!!!! This definitely makes me feel better. Xena just wants to play with my dogs, she's not aggressive in a mean way, so Im hoping she will learn how to be gentle with my small dogs. My three other dogs are 9 years, 9 years, and 4 years so Xena's the baby. The older ones get a little annoyed by her but I trust them to not hurt her because they are very sweet and gentle dogs. They always have been.


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## mocamacho92 (Mar 18, 2012)

llombardo said:


> Thank you for rescuing her Have fun with her and enjoy her...some of the best dogs come from the shelter..well some of them don't start out that way but its what we put into them that gets them there.


She is so precious! Im very happy that I rescued her. I usually buy purebreds but decided to stop that trend and start rescuing!!!


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## 4score (Nov 4, 2011)

Your pup is sweet and beautiful. You were lucky to find each other! Can help you much with the experience with living with smaller dogs, but I bet she'll do fine.

and...Darby looks very beautiful too!


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## mocamacho92 (Mar 18, 2012)

4score said:


> Your pup is sweet and beautiful. You were lucky to find each other! Can help you much with the experience with living with smaller dogs, but I bet she'll do fine.
> 
> and...Darby looks very beautiful too!


Thank you so much! Im very happy to have found her.


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

mocamacho92 said:


> she's already slowly improving with discipline. I've never had a GSD and Im hoping she will be a great, smart, obedient dog with proper training. Does anyone know of a german shepherd play group in the Inland empire area?


Um, I hate to sound stupid here, but what is/where is Inland Empire?? 
The reason I ask is they call our region the Inland Empire (eastern WA).


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

msvette2u said:


> Um, I hate to sound stupid here, but what is/where is Inland Empire??
> The reason I ask is they call our region the Inland Empire (eastern WA).


Glad you asked cuz I was wondering too:rolleyes2:


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## mocamacho92 (Mar 18, 2012)

The Inland Empire is about 40 minutes away from Los Angeles, California. It contains cities like Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana, Redlands, etc.


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

Oh. Interesting. 
Our Inland Empire is Yakima and the surrounding areas.


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## GSDMUM (Aug 18, 2011)

mocamacho92 said:


> I just adopted a 5 month old female german shepherd this past week. She is my first rescue and I love her sooo much. I have 3 other dogs and she seems to be ok with them, but she does like to play rough. I've been reading some stories about how german sheps shouldn't ever be alone with a small dog. If I train my german shepherd, Xena, she should learn how to live with the small dogs right? She likes to play and isn't aggressive to be mean, just wants to play. I am going to start training with a specialists tomorrow with a man who specializes in german shepherds. Do I have anything to worry about? I have a golden, a poodle and a pug. They are great together and can be left alone without hurting each other. Will I ever be able to do that with my shepherd? My family and I are ready to train her and to teach her how to be very obedient to us. She was just spayed a few days ago, but when she's ready, we are going to take her out and socialize with A LOT of people and A LOT of dogs so that she won't be aggressive as she grows older. Thanks in advance to any replies!!


I don't know about that but supervise all playtimes till she is adult and you know how she will react. To make you feel better also, two of my shepherds who were 115lbs each, were scared away by a little dog I rescued when I let the little 3 pound dog lose in the yard with them. They sniffed the little one, the little onw snarled and they ran for their lives! My friend's mastiff was about 150lbs and was terrified of the pomeranian next door.


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## MustLoveGSDs (Oct 31, 2008)

Cute pup, congrats on the adoption!


No matter how must trust you have in your dogs, I would never leave multiple dogs alone unsupervised together for many reasons(especially bigs and littles), but that's just me. Dogs are animals with teeth who do not have the ability to reason. A fight or accident can happen in the blink of an eye in the canine world.


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