Dash the rehab German Shephard. Current progress.

[thecampster]

So probably the last update here but wanted to let you all know how its going. We're 8 months into his rehab.  Dash will never be a "normal" dog. He will always be sensitive to certain triggers (screaming children, diesel trucks, rattling paper), but he's come to the point he is no longer a serious flight risk.  His harness has come off a few times at the park from pulling out of fear and he doesn't run, but sits patiently waiting for it to be put on. We are now his people. He will occasionally try to wrestle with the other dogs when excited and no longer hides when visitors arrive. He will even greet outsiders he recognizes.  At this point, he's about 80% a normal dog and great companion. He is less nocturnal than when he got here but still prefers to roam at night.  He still does weird things like steal our socks and toys and line the perimeter of the fence with them. If we're eating dinner in the living room, he'll go pick up a mouthful of food and drop it by my chair so he can eat with the family.  But leashes, harnesses, food bowls, boxes, birds, cats, toys, balls, frisbees no longer eat dogs. He's mostly normal around them all.

Most recent progress is he's now catching food tossed to him.  In the passed, anything air mailed was super dangerous and reason to scramble for cover. Now he'll catch most bits of food tossed his way and doesn't run most of the time if a ball is tossed to the other dogs.  Thanks for indulging this thread and if anyone ever needs help with a dog they're having problems with, don't hesitate to message me directly. I am not a professional trainer, I am not a professional. I just come from the school that dogs should be treated with respect. They are companions, not watchdogs, family members, not property.

[macdaddy]

That's so great.   Thanks for sharing this i was just wondering yesterday how he was doing.   

[bird_dirt]

On 4/12/2022 at 1:08 PM, thecampster said:

So probably the last update here but wanted to let you all know how its going. We're 8 months into his rehab.  Dash will never be a "normal" dog. He will always be sensitive to certain triggers (screaming children, diesel trucks, rattling paper), but he's come to the point he is no longer a serious flight risk.  His harness has come off a few times at the park from pulling out of fear and he doesn't run, but sits patiently waiting for it to be put on. We are now his people. He will occasionally try to wrestle with the other dogs when excited and no longer hides when visitors arrive. He will even greet outsiders he recognizes.  At this point, he's about 80% a normal dog and great companion. He is less nocturnal than when he got here but still prefers to roam at night.  He still does weird things like steal our socks and toys and line the perimeter of the fence with them. If we're eating dinner in the living room, he'll go pick up a mouthful of food and drop it by my chair so he can eat with the family.  But leashes, harnesses, food bowls, boxes, birds, cats, toys, balls, frisbees no longer eat dogs. He's mostly normal around them all.

Most recent progress is he's now catching food tossed to him.  In the passed, anything air mailed was super dangerous and reason to scramble for cover. Now he'll catch most bits of food tossed his way and doesn't run most of the time if a ball is tossed to the other dogs.  Thanks for indulging this thread and if anyone ever needs help with a dog they're having problems with, don't hesitate to message me directly. I am not a professional trainer, I am not a professional. I just come from the school that dogs should be treated with respect. They are companions, not watchdogs, family members, not property.

I don't know how I missed this thread about Dash the very good boy, but I'm glad you shared it in another thread.

I love GSDogs and Huskies are my favorite breeds. Usually have a mix of the two. Here's my current girl, Penny:

[thecampster]

16 minutes ago, bird_dirt said:

I don't know how I missed this thread about Dash the very good boy, but I'm glad you shared it in another thread.

I love GSDogs and Huskies are my favorite breeds. Usually have a mix of the two. Here's my current girl, Penny:

Love those, "eyes on you" stances.

[bird_dirt]

3 minutes ago, thecampster said:

Love those, "eyes on you" stances.

She's a tripod. Gets around pretty good, stairs, up on the bed and couch ok. But it takes a couple of days for her back leg to recover if we go on too long of a walk. She always wants to walk more, that husky just wants to keep going.

I hope I come across a black GSD rescue some day.

[bird_dirt]

Hey @thecampster, we just adopted a GSD about a month ago, thought of you and this thread. 
She was a stray, around 6 months old. Super smart girl. Guessing she’ll get up to around 60-70ish lbs. she’s already a little bigger than our 8 year old husky. 

[thecampster]

13 hours ago, bird_dirt said:

Hey @thecampster, we just adopted a GSD about a month ago, thought of you and this thread. 
She was a stray, around 6 months old. Super smart girl. Guessing she’ll get up to around 60-70ish lbs. she’s already a little bigger than our 8 year old husky. 

They grow a little longer than most dogs, up to 1.5 to 2 years old.  She'll end up close to 70lbs as a female.

[thecampster]

I guess an update on Dash can't hurt. He's currently sleeping under my desk. He's never adapted to the sound of high pitched, children voices (little girl voices remain one of his fear triggers). He's more of a dog now and is even silly sometimes.  He's never adapted to playing with toys, loves to dig holes all over my yard, still fears the cat, likes birds, is fascinated by the little skinks that run all over the yards, flower beds.  

He really likes my neighbor, hates the lawn mower, takes mouthfuls of food outside to eat and leaves it sprayed all over the floor as he drops it while trotting. He's still nocturnal but will now greet visitors to the house (cautiously of course).  He prefers men to women, puppies to other dogs. 

He likes frozen sausage, doesn't like to eat anything sticky.

[thecampster]

The frozen sausage thing.  One morning while making breakfast, I dropped a frozen sausage. He went full puppy mode trying to figure it out but settled for holding it between his paws and licking it. Now whenever I cook breakfast, he gets excited if I get out the pigsickles bag and gets disappointed that I never give him one.  But he's optimistic he'll get another.

[bird_dirt]

1 hour ago, thecampster said:

They grow a little longer than most dogs, up to 1.5 to 2 years old.  She'll end up close to 70lbs as a female.

For the past two dozen years, I’ve always had dogs around 70-80 something lbs. After our Rottweiler died, my wife got a puppy we thought would get big, but she tapped out at around 44 lbs, same as the husky. 
It’s so great having a dog with a “big dog” bark in the house again. 

[thecampster]

37 minutes ago, bird_dirt said:

For the past two dozen years, I’ve always had dogs around 70-80 something lbs. After our Rottweiler died, my wife got a puppy we thought would get big, but she tapped out at around 44 lbs, same as the husky. 
It’s so great having a dog with a “big dog” bark in the house again. 

Dash has 2 barks when cars pull into the driveway.  The danger, danger bark and the OMG, you're home bark.  Both are terrifying but, the danger danger bark rattles the windows.

[Spud2nique]

On 4/28/2022 at 11:37 AM, bird_dirt said:

She's a tripod.

I know the feeling.  

[bird_dirt]

The doofus is now up to 70lbs at 10 months. 

She’ll end up a little bigger than I expected. 

[thecampster]

On 7/22/2023 at 9:09 AM, bird_dirt said:

The doofus is now up to 70lbs at 10 months. 

She’ll end up a little bigger than I expected. 

LOL.  Consider yourself lucky. Dash is 95 lbs now, is on a digging holes kick and has taken to begging me for bites of dried kiwi.

[thecampster]

The dried kiwi. All of the dogs like it. I have no idea if any is good for them so I just break off a tiny bit but they all love it.

[bird_dirt]

 

She’d probably run through a wall to get to a ball. 

[bird_dirt]

1 hour ago, thecampster said:

The dried kiwi. All of the dogs like it. I have no idea if any is good for them so I just break off a tiny bit but they all love it.

Never tried dried Kiwi. Sometimes carrots. Luckily none of our dogs are bad beggars, but they do get excited when we finish dinner because sometimes I’ll give them some meat scraps in the bowls if there’s any leftovers. 

[thecampster]

9 minutes ago, bird_dirt said:

 

She’d probably run through a wall to get to a ball. 

"I jumped a fence??? What fence?"

[bird_dirt]

2 minutes ago, thecampster said:

"I jumped a fence??? What fence?"

Yeah, the gate is more to keep chickens out of our garden than dogs away from chickens. 
She has jumped out of our yard exactly once though, and that was when neighbors were playing with a volleyball and she wanted to play with it too. That caught us off guard, but she stays in the yard otherwise regardless of any car, person, dog, or critter that goes by.