Dutch Shepherd Forum

Hi everyone!
First off, thank you for all your warm welcomes and words of support. We are happy to announce that Amber has come home today!!! We owe a huge thank you to NADSR for being an amazing and tireless organization, and to Kim who is simply the best foster mom one could possibly hope for!
Amber had a 2.5 hour car ride from Maryland to Philadelphia and apart from the first 20 minutes, she was quiet. When we let her out of the kennel on the street corner of where we live, she was a bit scared of all the sights, sounds and smells of the big city. But she did fine and I gave her a steady stream of treats. She was ok around the passing cars and people, and even an ambulance!
We live in an apartment in the city so one of our greatest concerns was noise. So far, she's been really good! Despite the ambient noise of the street outside, the neighbors talking, muffled footsteps next door and even someone accidentally ringing my door bell, she has been wonderfully quiet. Thank goodness for an "environmentally sound" dog!

Over the next week or so, we will do our best to take training measures now to prevent separation anxiety. We are mindful of how we train her (as we are dog novices) so any advice you may have would be greatly appreciated!
Annie P.S. Photo credits goes to Kim

Yay! You finally got her! Glad to hear that the car ride was pretty uneventful.

I live in an apartment in the city (Chicago) with my rescue DS and the noise reactions do get better after a month or so. It's all about how you approach it. I think the best thing to do is make a safety spot in the apartment away from doors or street side windows where Amber can go to relax if it gets noisy. While Odin is the opposite of gun shy (puts my parents' gun dogs to shame) the 4th of July and Halloween are sometimes to much for him with all the people and noise.

Since you're novice dog owners, it would really be beneficial to get a private trainer to do a few sessions with you and show you how to go about training your dog and responding to the environment. The important part of dog training is the owners' learning. At least you were smart and skipped all the puppy non-sense.

Yayyyy! Congrats on finally getting to bring her home!

Congratulations on adopting this beautiful DS!

We found with our DS he settled after a few weeks sometimes it gets tough but hang in there persistence is the key!

Set those boundaries from the start we sent ours to a protection dog and shep specialist for an hour and he came home a changed dog There was no harsh methods used but he's just a very tame dog in comparison now!

All the best with this beauty! x

Congratulations! She's a pretty girl!

We thought we lucked out with Zane not barking in the apartment at first, but he just needed time to come out of his shell. Now he loves to bark at the doorbell and at his treat dispensing toys if they're not dispensing treats fast enough! Luckily he still doesn't bark back at the other dogs he can hear through the walls of our building!

All the best to you guys and congrats. Must post pics and stories about your life together as it happens!!