I'm inspired by Chewy here, and thought I would share Amber's story.
My dad thought he wanted a GSD forever and ever. We already had a 4 year old spayed female husky/shepherd mix from the pound who was from day one, The Perfect Dog, with very little training and effort on our part. Just one of those dogs who seemed to come by it naturally. So we were looking at breed rescues, especially for a nice looking male. Then Amber caught my dad's eye and we filled out the app, did the phone interviews and arranged to come to one of their weekend adoption events to meet her. She was a nut. No focus, lots of energy, but she wanted to play with Sami and they seemed to get on, so we went to lunch, thought about it, then adopted her.
Her history is that someone got her as a pup, stuck her in a backyard and ignored her until she was 6 months old and out of control. The rescue took her, took one look at our app and tagged us as the suckers that could and would wind up taking this high-drive, zero-training, scared of touch 7 month old pup they were beginning to worry about being able to place. She hadn't been handled much as a pup and consequently had some trepidation about the whole affair and little use for pets and cuddles. She's still not a huge fan of it, but is learning to tolerate it more and more as time goes on.
She quickly became 'my' dog as my dad realized that maybe he *didn't* like the whole 'working dog' mentality as much as he had thought he would. I took her to training, exercised her, taught her to run next to a bike (after 10 miles she's barely taken the edge off) and turned her into some semblance of a pet, so naturally when I moved out I have to take her. She is NOT a perfect dog for anyone but me. She's my heart dog and I can't imagine life without her. She's a dog that will run herself into heatstroke and will work forever if I ask her to. She has NEVER lost a ball- so long as I encourage her to find it and help her walk a pattern, she will keep working to sniff it out until it is found.
She quickly teaches visitors to give her attention and toss her ball on command and let her get away with murder. She knows my rules, but she knows that strangers often don't/won't enforce them and/or think behavior I disapprove of is 'cute.' She's vocal... almost non-stop. She barks and play-growls when she's happy, whines and growls when she's not and wishes the cat would just leave her be, and that we would play ball or run agility all. day. long.
She has become a great agility partner- the only time she really gets frustrated is when I fail her and don't tell her what she's supposed to be doing. She'll save my bacon if I can give her the least clue of what I want, but I'm still working on my 'handler' skills and sometimes I think she'd like to box my ears and tell me to get it together. Sometimes I think she's smarter than I am... she's certainly more consistent.
She's sensitive to corn or wheat and gets colitis (diarrhea) if she eats food with that in it, but grain-free and raw diets work great for her. She loves a good chew. The only real medical 'problem' we've ever had with her is that she became spay incontinent at a little over a year old and is on lifelong medication to prevent her leaking all over the house. So far so good!
My dad thought he wanted a GSD forever and ever. We already had a 4 year old spayed female husky/shepherd mix from the pound who was from day one, The Perfect Dog, with very little training and effort on our part. Just one of those dogs who seemed to come by it naturally. So we were looking at breed rescues, especially for a nice looking male. Then Amber caught my dad's eye and we filled out the app, did the phone interviews and arranged to come to one of their weekend adoption events to meet her. She was a nut. No focus, lots of energy, but she wanted to play with Sami and they seemed to get on, so we went to lunch, thought about it, then adopted her.
Her history is that someone got her as a pup, stuck her in a backyard and ignored her until she was 6 months old and out of control. The rescue took her, took one look at our app and tagged us as the suckers that could and would wind up taking this high-drive, zero-training, scared of touch 7 month old pup they were beginning to worry about being able to place. She hadn't been handled much as a pup and consequently had some trepidation about the whole affair and little use for pets and cuddles. She's still not a huge fan of it, but is learning to tolerate it more and more as time goes on.
She quickly became 'my' dog as my dad realized that maybe he *didn't* like the whole 'working dog' mentality as much as he had thought he would. I took her to training, exercised her, taught her to run next to a bike (after 10 miles she's barely taken the edge off) and turned her into some semblance of a pet, so naturally when I moved out I have to take her. She is NOT a perfect dog for anyone but me. She's my heart dog and I can't imagine life without her. She's a dog that will run herself into heatstroke and will work forever if I ask her to. She has NEVER lost a ball- so long as I encourage her to find it and help her walk a pattern, she will keep working to sniff it out until it is found.
She quickly teaches visitors to give her attention and toss her ball on command and let her get away with murder. She knows my rules, but she knows that strangers often don't/won't enforce them and/or think behavior I disapprove of is 'cute.' She's vocal... almost non-stop. She barks and play-growls when she's happy, whines and growls when she's not and wishes the cat would just leave her be, and that we would play ball or run agility all. day. long.
She has become a great agility partner- the only time she really gets frustrated is when I fail her and don't tell her what she's supposed to be doing. She'll save my bacon if I can give her the least clue of what I want, but I'm still working on my 'handler' skills and sometimes I think she'd like to box my ears and tell me to get it together. Sometimes I think she's smarter than I am... she's certainly more consistent.
She's sensitive to corn or wheat and gets colitis (diarrhea) if she eats food with that in it, but grain-free and raw diets work great for her. She loves a good chew. The only real medical 'problem' we've ever had with her is that she became spay incontinent at a little over a year old and is on lifelong medication to prevent her leaking all over the house. So far so good!
I'd like to see more of her too! 
