#I've been thinking about whether I'd benefit from even a part-time SD

[hellhound-wrangler]

So I sometimes feel a little guilty about getting Ripley (zero regrets! No take backs! Much like Claudius and his throne, I feel a little bad about circumstances, but would not give up what I gained and do not repent), because I kind of spotted and pounced on an opportunity in a small, emotionally volatile window in my household.

I have wanted a GSD since I was a teenager - there are a lot of breeds I think are cool and would not have minded having if it worked out that way. For example, I once fell madly in love with an adorable brown-and-white husky/malamute cross at an adoption fair, and cried when I left after 20 minutes. Like, I seriously would have taken him home and tried to convince my landlords after the fact that it would not be a problem had it not been for the ABSOLUTELY CANNOT LIVE IN A HOUSE WITH CATS warning he came with. OK, it was a reputable rescue so I couldn’t have gotten away with taking him home without proof of landlord permission, but OMG I so wanted to. And I’m not generally even a fan of sled dogs in general! I like malamutes better than huskies or Samoyeds, but I grew up in an area with a lot of dog racers and have hence met a lot of sled dogs and rejected sled dogs and sled dog crosses, and they are not anywhere in my “dream breed” list.

Anyhow, there are a lot of dog breeds I probably could have been happy with, but I’ve had a soft spot for GSDs for 20+ years, and my in-laws’/landlords’ last elderly dog had just been put down shortly before I got Ripley, leaving the house dogless, The primary reason they had a dog in the first place was because large dogs discourage burglars - they got Meg after a break-in, and Lola a year or so later. So while my in-laws winter in Florida and leave the house and left the dogs in our care, they still liked having big dogs on the property - even elderly, disabled, excessively friendly dogs. Meg had died a few years ago (three years ago this April, run over by a door-to-door salesperson), and Lola’s cancer had advanced to the point that we had to let her go early in the summer of 2016.

So the house was dogless, my in-laws were mourning Lola but also worrying about a dogless property, and I had been wanting a dog of my own for years (a no-go with socially-awkward disabled senior-citizen dog Lola), and I saw this ad on craigslist for GSD puppies. L and I had been haunting the local bully rescue groups for ages, but in over a year, not a single rescue bully mix in 250 miles of us was approved for a household with cats, so while we’d seen several we would otherwise have loved to meet and see about adopting, none of them would be safe options with Harley in our house. L would really love to have a bully breed dog, and I also like them - they’re adorable, usually v loving to humans, and tend to be snugglers. L and I also both agreed that we’d enjoy a Rottie, given our experiences to date with the breed. He wasn’t wild about the thought of a GSD because of the whole “slope back”/hip dysplasia thing (I know, I know, that’s not actually a thing and HD is an issue but not related to how a dog stacks. Neither of us knew that at the time). At least he didn’t dislike the dogs themselves the way I actively dislike standard poodles (it’s probably just bad breeding and lousy training, but literally EVERY standard poodle I’ve ever met has been a neurotic, aggressive, kid-chasing, low-bite-threshold complete asshole, and I will literally leave a park or pet store if I see one because I don’t trust them or their handlers at all), but he was concerned about potential health issues.

But there was this ad for adorable puppies, and I convinced my MiL to come and “just take a look” at them (to be fair, I really did think we could just take a look at them and then go meet some other puppies and young dogs, and make a calm and thoughtful decision). And I fell totally in love with Ripley, as did my MiL, and we wound up bringing her home. L knew we were going to go check out puppies (although he had work and couldn't join us), and he does love Ripley, but I basically picked our dog from a breed he was kind of “meh” about because I was the one who took point on Dog Search 2016 and I saw a shot for a dog from my dream breed and I fell in love.

So yeah, we got a BYB GSD, with no research or any real training experience among any of us, and we got PHENOMENALLY lucky - Ripley is a puppy and thus often a total pain in the ass, but she’s absurdly healthy (the vet comments admiringly every time she has a check-up on her physical condition - not just eyes/heart/teeth, but muscle and joint health), incredibly friendly, and (once her puppy fear period passed) utterly fearless. She’ll droop her ears and give me the Sad Face of Ultimate Pathos during the not-fun part of exams, but she’s never bitten/submissive-peed/behaved in a potentially dangerous fashion during any handling (she will mouth your wrist if you try to haul her by the collar, which is exactly why I don’t do that and tell other people to knock it off if they try it, and she did yelp and scramble/squirm when she was stabbed with the big-ass needle when she was micro-chipped, but has otherwise been a very accommodating - if bouncy - dog). I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time researching dog behavior in general and GSD needs in particular, and a variety of training methods (some of which were terrible and ill-advised, so thank you non-Milan-esque trainers in general and @slashmarks especially for the advice about how NOT to handle puppy chomping!) since we brought her home.

But I know L would have really liked to have a bully mix, and honestly, I would have been happy with a bully rescue of pretty much any age, had we been able to find one that was OK to have in a house with cats. But I had the chance to get a GSD puppy, and I took it. And honestly, if we get a second dog, I’m OK with a bully as long as it a) is NOT dog or cat aggressive and b) L is willing to be the primary trainer and handler. Rip is already a lot of work, and she’s smart and interested in making me happy. I’m happy to be her trainer, but I still get frustrated and have to take a lot of breaks as is when she gets over-excited. Working with an adult/late-adolescent dog with ingrained habits that is probably not going to be as willing to try to figure out what I mean when I’m unclear is a challenge I don’t know if I’d be up to anytime soon, and most of the bullies up for adoption locally were surrendered at 9-18 months for behavioral issues/poor manners (and are generally in shelter/foster/kennels for a few months before being adopted out) - there are a lot of 12 month+ dogs who aren’t housebroken up for adoption, for example).

If we get a second dog that is also going to be primarily my responsibility, then it’ll be another GSD (or possibly a closely related breed), although next time I’ll probably go with the whole “research and apply to established reputable breeders who produce the kind of dog I’d like to live with” route rather than the “BYB/rescue and trust to luck” route. I suspect I used up 2-3 lifetimes worth of luck getting Ripley, so I want to stack the odds in my favor next time.