Facebook page.Just joined here, wanted to give a brief introduction and get some input from seasoned DS owners.
I'm a graduate student living in Baltimore, about to graduate in May with a masters. I have one dog and one cat. We got our pup, Bodie, when he was 4 months old from a shelter down in Kentucky - my bf and I really wanted a dog (a German shepherd to be specific) but because of our age and status as undergrad students, had a hard time adopting from local rescues and shelters. We were pretty set on a rescue for our first dog, so we drove down to Kentucky from Baltimore (10 hours each way!) to pick up a pup from a high kill shelter whose time was to be up soon. Now our "little" man is 3 years old, and the light of my life, the apple of my eye. He's definitely a mama's boy too, he loves my bf dearly but he will not leave my side if given the choice between the two of us.
He's my first dog (that isn't a family dog), so he's kind of been a jack-of-all-trades pup. We've trained in SchH for a bit, but it was too time consuming for us as students. We have also done herding, and are currently participating in lure coursing, and hope to trial in that soon. I'd like to get involved with agility with him too if I find the time. He has been fantastic in all of our activities - very high food, prey and toy drive, but most importantly, incredibly biddable. He lives to please me, and he can and does work for only praise. In our off time we go hiking a lot - a couple of times a week - as we are fortunate enough to live within 30 minutes of many large parks and trails.
I was just wondering if anyone could give me some thoughts as to his pedigree. Since we got him from a shelter, we have no idea who his parents were. He was at the shelter with 3 of his littermates, two of them looked exactly like him minus the white patches and a third was all black with floppy ears (Bodie's ears fell shortly after we got him home but went back up again after a few weeks). We were told that he was a GSD, he had the brindle coloring on his legs and face, but he had a typical black saddle of GSDs. It wasn't until he was a couple of months old that the saddle eventually faded away into the brindle that he has now. The TD at our SchH club insisted he was either a DS or DS/GSD mix.
Here's some pics of my boy. He's usually around 65 - 70 lbs depending on the season, not sure how tall he is at the withers, but he's about the same size as a female GSD who is at the lower end of the size spectrum.
You can really see the black saddle better here - this was when he was around 10 months maybe?
This is what he looked like as a puppy (first few hours we had him, actually, while we were still in Kentucky):
Still in Kentucky outside a Walmart, getting a head start on socialization:
Sorry if these pics are over the size or quantity limit! Mods feel free to edit as necessary.
Any thoughts on his breed or what he might be mixed with would be greatly appreciated! Regardless of what he is, I adore him with all my heart and I wouldn't trade him for the world!
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Judith Van Neerland Dutch Shepherds 
