Hi everybody - I'm considering getting a GSD mix puppy. She's 8 wks old and is getting spayed by the rescue before she can be adopted. I'm not sure what she's mixed with but maybe some pitbull and maybe something else. She's not going to be very big - she's got small paws - the rescue said maybe 60 lbs.

The thing is, she's really confident and spunky. She's sweet too - I held her on her back in my arms and she wasn't distressed or squirmy...just licked my face and hung out until I put her back down. But she's definitely a confident, high ranking female. I like this about her because my 1 yr and 8 month male lab mix is a super, super nice dog, but he's also really sensitive and soft and low drive. I'm thinking a confident "alpha" female might be good for him to be around and learn from.

I guess what I'm wanting to know is: what do I need to know about a confident GSD mix and what should I watch out for?

I'm not raising these dogs for anything hardcore - just basic pets/companion animals - but well-trained companions, and we are starting to get into agility...


BTW: I've also got 3 cats, who are good at training dogs to respect them, but a GSD-pit mix might be a bit of a worry - I guess I'd have to be really on top of that!

You'll need a crate. Read of the e-books on the main site for how to bring a puppy into your house. I didn't find them until a week after I got my pup and I really wish I found them first.

Oh yeah, I've got several crates since I crate trained Dante from the beginning.

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Will he learn to be more driven from being around a more driven dog? There are times when I can get him into high-drive (usually when fetching in the water), but he's generally a really low drive dog. I've got the drive and focus dvd and have worked on that some and it's helped, but that's one thing I'm wondering... is if a higher drive female can help bring that side of him out more (?)

You'll want to keep them separated for quite a while, actually. You want the pup to learn everything from you not another animal, so that you become the center of its universe.

From my limited understanding, a dog's drives are genetic. Does it have food drive at all?