German Shepherds

[dngrscrvs]

Hi

Currently my husband and I have 3 Alaskan Malamutes (1 male and 2 female 10,4,3) we are actively involved in the Sled Dog Racing community in South Australia for the past 13 years. We have had 3 German Shepherds in the past our first two we were involved in Dog Obedience and trialing the 3rd was purely our "dog boss" who would keep our Mallies in line and out of trouble, she was a busy girl, and went grey prematurely though lived to a good age of 12.8 years.

We would like to get another GS (short or long coat not fussed, have has a soft coat Mally in the past, we know the work involved with a long coat) in the near future. I'm of the thinking of introducing an older dog but no older than 6 months old to our pack, probably a female as our male mally is a bit of a bossy boots. I've looks and joined some rescue pages (as one of our Mallies is an adopted rescue), but these dogs are generally older.

My husband is looking to get involved in other dog sports like luring, obedience, agility as well as the usual sled dog racing.

Question is do you think an older puppy would fit into a stable pack? As mentioned we introduced a 2 year old mally to a mally pack with minimal issues as the 2 year old was a placid female.

How much do older dogs cost generally? Our last GS was 14 weeks old and was $600 back in 2002 from a registered breeder, I suspect that price has risen significantly.

Thank you in advance for your answers.

Sandy

[ish]

German shepherds are generally a very slow maturing breed, 6 months olds are still very much puppies. Different bloodlines mature differently but mine don't start to grow up and worry about where they are in the pack until about 2 years old.

Puppies are around $2000-$2500 give or take a few hundred dollars. Mature dogs prices vary wildly from the same as a puppy to the cost of desexing

I think ideally you should look for a dog from a breeder who has run the dog as part of a multi dog pack. Some beeeders have great success with thee dogs getting along and others can not run bitches together. In my experience this is a bloodline thing as well as management and considering your situation it would be a benefit to know the history of dogs getting along.

Hope that helps.

[yarrr]

Good thing about buying older is that breeders are usually happy to offer a trial to see if everyone gets along.

I prefer to buy 6-18 month old dogs and have not had any real trouble.

Males seem to blend in easier whereas bitches want to climb the pack hierarchy.

Might get minor issues but this is no different to puppies.

Can't comment on German Shepherds but I paid about half to two thirds of normal puppy price.

[kamuzz]

We adopted Chocolate in mid December. At first I was a bit hesitant because of her age, but the person recommending her was dead-on with their assessment of how her energy level would fit in with my existing boys. (And that was without having met any of us. She had an teenage GSD for sale and asked many questions.)

 

There are generally quite a few advertised here. Over three months or so I had lots of conversations with different breeders. They were all very happy to hear about my dogs, what I was looking for, and to offer advice. You must be prepared for the breeder to say 'No, that's not the home I am looking for.' (Personally I think that is a good thing.)

 

Prices will vary with age.

 

ETA Chocolate came for a three week trial, and I am sure we could have extended this if it had been necessary.

Edited January 17, 2017 by kamuzz