# GSD mixes - does your rescue take in mixes



## Remo (Sep 8, 2004)

Our rescue has always tried to help GSD mixes when we have the foster homes available.

I am curious as to whether most of the other specific breed rescues take in mixes too. 

Please chime in and let me know.

Thanks!


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## oregongsdr111 (Nov 20, 2005)

Lea,
If we had more foster homes we would do it more often.
We are 90% GSD
We will take in any breed of puppy, and will help out any small breed dogs if we have a place to put it.

From my experience at the shelter Shep mixes seem to fare better in the kennels, and are less at risk for going kennel crazy.

If we had an opening and a mix needed in, we would take it.
I am definatly not a PB snob, but we only have so much room.

We currently have a Lab/doodle because it became homeless with its GSD friend. It didn't seem fair to take one and not the other.


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## RebelGSD (Mar 20, 2008)

Yes, we call them honorary GSDs. They seem to often have a softer temperament than PB GSDs and we had pretty good luck placing them. The funny thing is, it helps if the ears are up, for some reason.


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## Fodder (Oct 21, 2007)

we have soooo many homeless gsd in southern california, to the point of having 5 gsd rescues... they will take dogs that are mostly shepherd or possible mixes when space permits. alot of times they take in pregnant moms, where the pups are in fact mixed... there is a section on Coastals site called "gsd wannabes" and also a section for private party adoptions that list shepherd mixes.

i dont have a problem with special circumstances or highly adoptable mixes... and would probably go with oegongsdr111 and say that we're 90-95% gsd... however, there is no way to save them all, so when i see 10 shepherd mixes at the rescue for months and months... and 20 gsd that are redlisted (meaning urgent) at the shelter it does make me wonder what factors were in place when deciding between who to take.

out of curiosity - how many dogs does your rescue handle at one time?

currently we have:

Westside GSD Rescue has - 62 pb & 17 mixes
Burbank - 22 pb
Orange County - 49 pb & 2 mixes
SoCal - 17 pb & 2 mixes
Coastal - 81 pb and approx 25 mixes, not including 30 private party listings.
as well as 401 shepherds and shepherd mixes listed at the area shelters...

there is a MAJOR shortage of foster homes, and boarding costs (which several of the rescues have to do) is over $300 a mo per dog.

i believe a year or two ago - Westside quoted an average of 350 placed per year through their rescue alone.


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## terry_demag (Jun 8, 2004)

We are in the same boat as everyone else it seems. We would love to help more mixes, but don't even have enough foster homes for the purebreds we are asked to help. Since applicants come to us looking for a white shepherd, we try and focus on them. That being said, we typically have 3 sets of circumstances that lead to mixes in our program.

- Can't really tell they are mixed until after they are committed to and pulled.

- they are puppies of purebreds or just mix puppies. I have some foster homes that can only do puppies, so if it's a known mix we will pull since I can't use the foster home for an adult and we know we can usually place pups quickly.

- The foster home ends up with a mix for some other reason or it is local to a foster home (and they go meet and eval themselves) or the foster home is really drawn to the dog for some reason and volunteers to foster if they can take this particular dog. One of our fosters saved a dog the day the hurricane was bearing down on Texas. This dog doesn't have a drop of GSD in it ;>) All the local shelters were swamped due to the hurricane, so this dog was staying with my foster regardless. We may as well help them place it in a good home. Of course, it's 8 months later and we haven't been able to place him yet :>)

Terry
http://www.echodogs.org


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## Timber1 (May 19, 2007)

Yes, we do take in mixed breeds with some GSD. I believe in part because the dogs that come off the street are sometimes difficult to precisely identify, and in part because our President seldom, if ever, has refused a dog that looked like A GSD.


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## gsdcentral (May 21, 2003)

I will take in mixes and have had pretty good luck placing them. I took in Midge who was a mix WGSD but couldn't tell with what, and she blessed me with 4 little mix midgelets! One of them died and I still have the other 3. I get a flurry of interest in them all at once and it hasn't panned out yet. They look nothing like GSD, look like little blonde hounds! lol I committed to Nova when she was in the Dothan shelter last year because in the pic she looked WGSD. She was probably WGSD/yellow lab but I took her because I committed to her and they held her for me. Great dog and she has been placed with a very nice young family. Right now I can only handle one at a time with still having the 3 Midgelets in residence.


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## middleofnowhere (Dec 20, 2000)

Interesting thread.

"It didn't seem fair to take one and not the other." Be careful here. If you start getting into "fair" it will probably drive you nuts. None of this is "fair." You just make choices - hard choices - if you pull "fair" into it I'd guess you'd run the risk of getting lost real quickly.


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## Timber1 (May 19, 2007)

Good point because if I took in every dog I liked, I could neither afford it or give them the level of care they deserve.


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