New here and to Dutch Shepherds

[Engel]

Hi, I'm new here and new to Dutch Shepherds. Both my husband and I have had a German Shepherd or a GS cross for all of our lives, together and separate. When his 14 year old GSD/Lab died last year, he said no more dogs for him.... We already have a Black Mouth Cur dog and a Corgi. After searching long and hard for just the right dog, we found our Dutchie on Craigslist, of all places. The story we got is that a man bought the dog for his girlfriend and when they broke up, she sold the dog because she no longer wanted him because she traveled a lot. The next owner had an infant and the 8 month old pup was just too much dog for them....
Luckily, we think have been able to track down the breeder and are hoping to DNA test Engel to prove his parentage. He is a wonderful dog. He is learning obedience at an incredible rate. He picked up on herding the chickens "easy" with very little trouble. Engel is a reverse brindle and we couldn't be happier. He is clearly happy here too.
I am interested in learning as much as I can about Dutch Shepherd and have already found that there is a lot of conflicting information out there. I'm going to try to post a picture.

[johninny]

Welcome.
Engel does look like a very good and very happy puppy. it sounds like he got through his first 2 homes without much trauma/damage. [?] just show HIM lots of respect and make him feel secure - and you will work out the rest just fine. you are both very lucky.

[Schlussdibusti]

Welcome! Craigslist of all places, wow. "Engel" - German word for angel - is a nice name,

[LyonsFamily]

Welcome! I'm glad a craigslist pup snatched a good home. I'm always typing in Dutch Shepherd and Malinois to find out if any are in my area and worry about someone looking for a cheap dog and getting in way over their head. Craigslist can go either way sometimes. I know a lot of people are really happy with their craigslist dogs and it was one of the best resources for rehoming certain dogs when I worked with rescues in Chicago. I got a nice house bunny off of there once.

[Stacy_R]

He is gorgeous!!

[Engel]

Johninny, he was only slightly worse for wear. He was thin, but that is changing quickly. I put Frontline on him immediately, and got off the worst of the ticks... but I stopped counting at 50. This all seemed to come from his second owner who only had him for around a month, so the first owner must have taken good care of him. Schlussdibusti, you are right. "Engel" is German for Angel, which is why we named him that. Although I checked later and it is also Dutch for Angel.
LyonsFamily, I was actually on Craigslist looking for a new goat. I had been looking all over for the "right" dog, and I looked at dog ads on Craigslist while I was there, but most of the ads were for livestock protection dogs, which was not what we wanted. Craigslist does have everything!
Thanks Stacy... He looks even better now that he has put on a little weight. Not too much weight, Bella, our Black Mouth Cur Dog is very playful and Engel is adding mostly muscle. The last owner, who had him for a month kept him chained to a tree much of the time.

[johninny]

gee, poor Engel. over 50 ticks? how disturbing! glad you got him out of there. his last month of bad experience and his current good demeanor speak very highly of him. like my new pup TexXander who came through his own experience as a stray and pound dog in Texas with nothing but enthusiasm.