Hello from maryland

[Brian51]

Hi I have a 10month old dutch shepherd name Kára I am wondering if she is too small( was the runt ). She was just weighed last week at Banfield. She is 57lbs and I don't know her height but she is taller than all of the medium size dogs I came across. She is as tall as my 7year old husky but her head is smaller...I asked the vet but none of the vets were familiar with the breed and couldn't give me a answer....I was also wondering if I should of feed her reg puppy food vs large breed puppy food since I think she undersized?

[centrop67]

Welcome.

57lbs at 10 months does not sound underweight.

My Radar is 65lbs at just a little over 4 years.

You have a beautiful healthy looking dog. What are your plans for training/activities?

[TimL_168]

En is 50 lbs full grown. Her sire is around 80, I think. Don't worry about the weight. I feed En large breed food because I'm too lazy to stock a separate food from my Shiloh. In your last pic, she might even look a little thick in the waist.

[TimL_168]

Oh, I forgot: where in Maryland are you? We're in Towson. I take En to Fullerton animal hospital. One of the doctors there has previous experience with police K9. Falls rd animal hospital also does a lot of work for the local police dogs. They have their own entrance.

[Brian51]

@centrop to be honest I originally got her to be a protection dog, because our husky was too friendly and was not very alert. But after getting her and spending time with her. I realized that this breed can handle just about any task so I want to do everything from hiking to protection with her. I am waiting until she gets a year, as advised by vets and other dog owners to prevent damage to her ligaments and bones.

[Brian51]

@timL I'm in the laurel area, thanks for the information. I'm going to check them out. I was thinking about switching after she get spaded since we are on the puppy plan already, and invested months into paying for it.

[Brian51]

My concern for her size came after seeing a Belgian mal and her being smaller than it, and I was under the impression that they were the same size if not bigger.

[TimL_168]

My concern for her size came after seeing a Belgian mal and her being smaller than it, and I was under the impression that they were the same size if not bigger.

There's incredible variation in size in both breeds. I have experience with only a few of these dogs. All of them from working lines. They were all under 65 lbs full grown. I have READ that it's common for working line dogs to be on the lower end of the scale. I honestly have no personal evidence of this. I do know that members on here have dogs that run the full spectrum of size.

[TimL_168]

@centrop to be honest I originally got her to be a protection dog, because our husky was too friendly and was not very alert. But after getting her and spending time with her. I realized that this breed can handle just about any task so I want to do everything from hiking to protection with her. I am waiting until she gets a year, as advised by vets and other dog owners to prevent damage to her ligaments and bones.

Definitely keep her exercise sessions short until she's at least a year old, for the reasons you stated.
With regards to protection, when I was thinking of getting a puppy, I was told to start her as early as possible in order for the training to take the best possible set in her psyche. I have never done protection work. I'm just relating what I had been told by a local trainer. Regardless of the age you might start any kind of protection work, begin teaching her the "OUT" immediately. There's a wealth of info on here and YouTube to help you along.
If you're in laurel, those vets are a big hike for you. Maybe look up what vets AA county or Howard county use.

[Brian51]

@timL I really don't mind the drive.i understand what you're saying about the release command. As far as basic obedience, the problems I have is her jumping on people to greet them and getting overly excited when going to the dog park. What I'm looking for, as far as protection training goes, is for her to hold her bite and to bite correctly and as you stated to release when told to. What I did see from her is that she barks, bites,releases, moves around and then repeats the process almost how a pack of wolves would attack and defend against a bear. I really wish I would have found this board when I first got her cause petsmart was the wrong place to get information from cause everyone kept telling me to wait a year on almost everything. As far as hiking I did a 10mile with her once and some other small ones...next year I'm hoping to be able to do part Appalachian trail from va to pa. I also had one more question, my Dutch shepherd seem to be a bit sensitive when disappointing me is that natural and she is also really clingy ( I love it tho lol ) but the downside is she get a little separation anxiety and she is also jealous of my wife.

[TimL_168]

Last to first:
Separation anxiety can be a tough one to deal with, but as with anything else, build time alone in very small increments. There's a lot of support for dealing with that.
Dutch and Mals can be way softer than GSDs. If you come down to hard on them, I was told they can shut down for days. En is forgiving, but soft. If I need to yell at her to get her attention, she'll cower and move away. However, I've had great success in simply moving along to a different lesson and maintaining her drive.
Does she chase squirrels and rabbits uncontrollably? If you toss a tug for her, does she go after it? If you give her a tug toy, does she shake it around like she's trying to kill it?

[Brian51]

Yes she have a high drive,but I can usually snap her out of it as far as chasing other animals

[TimL_168]

I've read that there's a common thread between violently shaking the toys and a dogs level of prey drive, and that those two things can be good indicators of potential for bite work. I don't have any real world experience. I thought about doing protection training with En, but it's way too expensive& far from home for me right now. I can tell you that she is hyper focused on ANYTHING SHE MIGHT POSSIBLY BE ABLE TO CHASE. She hits the tug and drives into it. She fights like all hell on a tug and does NOT let go until I tell her.
Also, there's different kinds of bite if I understand correctly. I believe that in IPO, you specifically want a deep bite, but I think I've read on here that other disciplines aren't as picky about how the dog grips so long as it doesn't let go.
Get the wife involved in training her. Even just a little bit. Both of you should feed her by hand. Both of you should practice giving food and withdrawing it and giving it again to help prevent the dog from developing any resource guarding. It also helps with the wife not getting jealous
Think of your girl as something like a 5 or 6 year old human right now. I wouldn't expect to see any real ability to focus for more than a minute. If you can get her thoroughly engaged, run with it.
The dog park: you won't find many supporters here. I used to go to one with my Shiloh shepherd, but I stopped for the following reasons: PEOPLE ARE STUPID, PEOPLE ARE @$S HOLES, the facility was unable to handle the number of dogs that frequented it, and not least- Aurora caught a nasty virus that put her or of commission for weeks. With all that said, it can be a great way to socialize during the slower hours. She's going to be hyper. Be consistent and fair with your corrections and she'll get it. The moment I met Endeavor, she jumped up nipped and tore a hole in my shirt sleeve. Her old handler had taught her "bounce"because it was the only way she could have any type of control at all. I still use the command in the mornings and when I get home, but after another 6 months of her mellowing out, she has much more control of herself. She still jumps. She still nips. But not as much. She will sit and tremble because she's so excited. I don't expect that will ever go away. It's part of what these dogs are!

[Brian51]

I've read that there's a common thread between violently shaking the toys and a dogs level of prey drive, and that those two things can be good indicators of potential for bite work. I don't have any real world experience. I thought about doing protection training with En, but it's way too expensive& far from home for me right now. I can tell you that she is hyper focused on ANYTHING SHE MIGHT POSSIBLY BE ABLE TO CHASE. She hits the tug and drives into it. She fights like all hell on a tug and does NOT let go until I tell her.
Also, there's different kinds of bite if I understand correctly. I believe that in IPO, you specifically want a deep bite, but I think I've read on here that other disciplines aren't as picky about how the dog grips so long as it doesn't let go.
Get the wife involved in training her. Even just a little bit. Both of you should feed her by hand. Both of you should practice giving food and withdrawing it and giving it again to help prevent the dog from developing any resource guarding. It also helps with the wife not getting jealous
Think of your girl as something like a 5 or 6 year old human right now. I wouldn't expect to see any real ability to focus for more than a minute. If you can get her thoroughly engaged, run with it.
The dog park: you won't find many supporters here. I used to go to one with my Shiloh shepherd, but I stopped for the following reasons: PEOPLE ARE STUPID, PEOPLE ARE @$S HOLES, the facility was unable to handle the number of dogs that frequented it, and not least- Aurora caught a nasty virus that put her or of commission for weeks. With all that said, it can be a great way to socialize during the slower hours. She's going to be hyper. Be consistent and fair with your corrections and she'll get it. The moment I met Endeavor, she jumped up nipped and tore a hole in my shirt sleeve. Her old handler had taught her "bounce"because it was the only way she could have any type of control at all. I still use the command in the mornings and when I get home, but after another 6 months of her mellowing out, she has much more control of herself. She still jumps. She still nips. But not as much. She will sit and tremble because she's so excited. I don't expect that will ever go away. It's part of what these dogs are!

Thanks a lot for the help. I also just measured her and weighted her she is 23 3/4in and 55lbs

[Brian51]

Weighed lol