I want two German Shepards, in a yard, will they get along with eachother, and small children, also what kind of health problems might they have.
Dogs - 8 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
german shepards are easy to train but not to great with kids. but its only because there protective. they do get hip problems
2 :
GSD are in the top 3 of all breeds for both intelligence and ease of training. Just be consistent and try to make it more fun than tedious and there's no end to what they can learn. I think it's great for dogs to have a yard, but I'm not a fan of keeping them outside...they are pack animals and deserve to be with their human pack. Avoid all backyard breeders and insist on clean bloodlines to get the best out of this breed. Demand a stable, well adjusted puppy from the same proven bloodlines and train early, consistently and positively. Raised properly, they are fine with children who have also been trained what is the appropriate behavior around dogs, which does not include poking, pulling, scratching, screaming, and all the other things little children do to dogs...make sure your kids have been instructed on how to respect a dog. (Unfortunately for the poor dog, it's more often the fault of the children who get bitten rather than the dog!) For a comprehensive list of health issues and other stats, log onto AKC.org and follow all the links for your breed...don't overlook breed clubs and breeders for specialized information. Good luck! :)
3 :
No reputable breeder will hand over two large breed dogs to someone UNLESS that person has a ton of experience with the breed. And even then, they may not (as it's difficult to train litter mates together because they tend to bond to one another quicker and stronger than with the owner.) PERIOD. GSDs as large, shedding, dominant, high drive, strong, high prey drive animals. ONE is hard enough for a beginner owner to handle and two would be hell on earth. No reputable breeder or shelter will hand them over if you plan on keeping them outdoors, either. There is NO guarantee any dog will get alone for any length of time ESPECIALLY if they're kept outdoors and not properly exercised or maintained. Same with children - most places won't adopt dogs to anyone with children under a certain age. GSDs are known for hip dysplasia but can have heart problems and other physical issues. That is why it's best to adopt (don't support BYB scum) or buy from a reputable breeder who shows their dogs and tests for genetic diseases.
4 :
My sister has a German Shepard and she is the most mellow dog ever. She is great with kids and very protective of them. Females are more protective of their owners and males are more protective of the property. Not all Shepards are like my sisters i'm sure. If you find a good breeder, they will be able to tell you what the liter will be like. When I bought my husky, she was one of the more mellow ones in the liter! They should be fine with other dogs. Just make sure to socialize them early on! And work with them as offend as you can to train them!
5 :
First, no responsible breeder or shelter will give you dogs if you have children under 5 years of age. No matter how big a yard you have, they still need long walks and a lot of training all through their lives. They are majorly prone to hip dysplacia. They can be amazing family dogs - if trained right. Make sure you do all your research on this dog before you buy one.
6 :
It all depends on you. They are usually very easy to train, but you need to check out their lineage (Family) to figure out for sure. They can be really good with kids, but that depends once again on the lineage, and how well you train them. If you socialize them properly, and teach them basic commands, and take them to training classes. As for health problems, here is a list I got out of the Dog Bible. Bloat Epilepsy Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency Hip and Elbow Dysplasia Panostetis Hope I helped!
7 :
2 German Shepherds (notice spelling) kept in a yard is a disaster waiting to happen. Good breeders will not sell 2 puppies to one family unless they have a ton of GSD experience or there are 2 people that will be working with the dogs. 2 dogs of the same age and raised together can get along just fine for years and then suddenly not and so any owner with more than one dog must be prepared for that possibility. GSDs can be great with WELL BEHAVED children given the proper training and experiences. Health: Bloat Hip dysplasia Elbow dysplasia Pannus DM (Degenerative myelopathy) sometimes called Degenerative myelopathy of the German Shepherd dog - that's how prevelent it is EPI (Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency) Megaesophagus (those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head)
8 :
Two bad ideas in one question! But first: "German Shepards" have no problems, for the simple reason that they don't exist. My breed was developed to HERD sheep in the German boundary patrolling manner, so its real name translates exactly as German Shepherd Dog, or GSD for short. •• Bad idea #1: It looks as though you want to get them as a pair, at the same time - litter-mates or of similar age. DON'T DO IT! Each pooch needs your complete concentration for at least the first week, preferably fortnight, and thereafter needs several sessions per day for individual training and for familiarisation/socialisation. The sensible way to operate is to properly rear & train ONE pooch before you get the next. And to get them of opposite sexes so that there is no rivalry as to which of them is alpha dog or alpha bit.ch. And if 2 is what suits you, get them half a canine life-expectancy apart, so that they don't both die at about the same time, and so that when the older one dies you have a loving fur-therapist to help you & the kids get through your grieving period and then to help train the new pooch by setting it an example - GSDs learn VERY well by mimicking their elders (one of my group's members amused us with tales such as watching her elderly Border Collie trying to train her GSD pup to herd Collie-style, and succeeding in getting the pup to stand in the right place so that the sheep would go THROUGH the gateway instead of straight past it). •• Bad idea #2: You sound as though you want them to spend all their time in the yard. GSDs do VERY poorly in such conditions. They NEED to be with humans in order to develop their "vocabulary" of what is & isn't allowed and what your funny sounds & hand-signals mean. Left to their own devices they accept leadership of the pack - which includes you & the children. I doubt you or the children will like the ways that dogs discipline their inferiors if the inferiors don't behave the way the dog wants. I prefer buyers to have a roofed security run (at least 12ft between gate & raised sleeping box) in their yard, with the yard fenced to not just keep their pet home but to also keep stray dogs and stray brats OUT. That way their dog has room to exercise safely and doesn't need to put up with being locked in a crate until it HAS to mess in its own nest. But it should be in the run only when no-one can be with it - such as when everyone is asleep or at work or away shopping. And if you want 2 dogs you NEED 2 such runs. • Health problems: None, if you pick the right breeder. Heaps if you go to an ignorant BYBer or a pet shop (or the puppy mills that supply pet shops). Most of what rescue groups look after are castoffs from the "bad" sources, dumped by or taken away from "bad" buyers, but some are excellent - a blind pen-friend got sick of the problems she had with 4 guide dogs in a row from professional schools, so carefully selected a GSD bit.ch from rescue and trained it herself to be her guide dog. But always maintain comprehensive veterinary insurance with a pet from a rescue group - they don't know the genetic background of what they're caring for, so you cannot tell whether yours will be healthy or has bad genes that will require an expensive operation. Despite [Beaa]'s claims: (1) Well-bred well-reared GSDs are NOT susceptible to dysplasias. My current oldest is 15 with no trace of HD or ED. The last case of HD from my kennel was born back in 1984, and the litter wasn't planned by me - a sneaky 4 month pup impregnated his cooperative mother. (2) Nor do they need LONG walks - they need to be able to exercise when THEY want to, and they do need calm on-lead exploration walks for learning that the world's movements/scents/sights/sounds/textures are not anything to worry about. But just about anything any dog breed can have wrong can be wrong with a GSD too. Click http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/The_GSD_Source/ and put it in your browser's Bookmarks or Favorites so that you can easily look up such as feeding, vaccinations, weights, clubs, teething, neutering, disorders. Join it so you can go to its Files and download Choosing_a_GSD.doc to find out what things are important when deciding who to buy from. • With children: More important is how sensible & well-trained are your children? But some examples of how well-trained GSDs behave: - Our 2nd GSD was rescued from a violent family breakup, and she would attack anything in trousers (including the woman behind us who, wearing jeans, decided to lay a paper-trail across our horse-paddock without asking us first) unless we introduced the pants-wearer to her. Yet we would tether her under a tree at a friend's place and their children would use her as a horse plus as a ladder to reach fruit that they could not reach from the ground. - When my son was born I had bitches aged 8 & 14 months. The most danger he was ever in was of being dropped by whoever was holding him - occasionally a damp nose would jost
