Hello all! I'm new here!

My husband and I have a 10 month old German Shepherd, a 4-5 year old blue heeler mix (a rescue that acts more like a shy house cat than a dog), and a 15 year old quarter horse mix horse. My husband is an officer in the USAF.

I'm mostly here to learn more about dog training for the German Shepherd. She's more my husband's dog than mine, but he can be pretty hard headed about learning new stuff! We got Millie at 11 weeks old. At 6 months we sent her back to the kennel we bought her from for training as a protection/shutzhund dog...but she when we got her back we found out that she wasn't trained "happy". So she's had her mind messed with and now we're back to the original plan of training her on our own, only we're also having to teach her that work is fun, not scary. David (the hubs) would like to do search & rescue with her, with maybe some shutzhund. I'm sort of taking a back seat on her training. David has a more laid back approach when it comes to discipline than I do, so we used to butt heads quite a bit over that.

We've talked about getting a dog for me to train on my own within the next year or so. I'm trying to learn quite a bit and take more time to choose the right dog for me than we did in choosing Millie.

Well...that's about it.

Welcome to the forum from west Texas.
you came to the right place. there are lots of people on this site with lots of info and expertise

Welcome to the forum Megan.:smile:

When are you guys moving?

Welcome to the forum Megan. I guess you will be coming to Lackland? Lot's of dog folk here.
This forum and the Leerburg website have lots of great info.

Michael...we're leaving Sumter, SC next Friday to head towards San Antonio. We'll be spending a few days at my parent's home in Alabama, and then on to San Antonio. Yes Kristi...my husband will be stationed at Lackland! I'm super excited about San Antonio!

As a matter of fact...I was watching some moving guys load up my living room furniture while I was typing my first post!!!

Welcome Megan.

I suggest you spend some time on the Leerburg site. There are tons of ebooks and articles there that should help you get a good start.

And if I could ask you a question ...

Anecdotaly, I've heard that GSDs pick a person of the opposite sex as their favorite. Hans follows my wife all over the house and yard. You said your female is more your husband's dog. Does she act like she thinks that too?

Rich, yes she does. Millie obeys any commands I give her just fine because she knows I won't tolerate being ignored. She spends most of the day with me as I've taken her to work with me (I worked at a horse barn here) every day. She knows she can get away with things with my husband, but at the same time she's more protective of my husband than she is of me. When my husband is around, she hardly comes near me. She's too busy following him around.

I might add that she tends to be more well behaved with me, but when she's with my husband you can just see that she adores him...it's hard to describe it.

 Quote: MeganMPontious

... but when she's with my husband you can just see that she adores him...it's hard to describe it.

I see the same thing with Hans and my wife.

Hi Megan,

I'm farily new here too, its a fantastic place for learning new things and getting help, everyone is very friendly and helpfull.

I have a one year Old Dtandard Poodle, and we live in Scotland In the UK, Im trying to train my Poodle to do Obedience work with me, but so far we are finding it hard going as I just can't get my dog to get really "happy and Excited" I want to train the "happy" way but Pepper my dog isn't really into Playing at the moment so I am having to train her to play.

She is also MORE my husbands dog than mine as he is the one that walks her everyday, as I am dissabled and can't walk very far.

I also find my husband and I have the odd argument about how to train dogs LOL so maybe your idea of getting a second dog would be a good idea, alougth I can see my husband arguing about that Idea too lol.

Yours Naomi