Thor

Thor is my first German Shepherd and while I have owned dogs my whole life, owning a German Shepherd has come with a new learning curve for me.  My family dogs growing up were always some sort of hunting dog and for the most part those were Labs or had Lab in them.   When I was a teenager I use to house/dog sit for my uncle who owned Golden Retrievers.  I fell in love with the breed as they were sweet, friendly dogs.   When my ex and I started to talk about getting a puppy I knew I wanted to get a Golden which is how I ended up with Molly. 

Over the years I have fallen in love with the German Shepherd breed.  A large part of that love has come from watching and reading about them being used in Law Enforcement and the Military. 

 

 

 

 

I love their work drive, how smart they are, the loyalty they show, and how protective they can be.  With Molly getting older I started to think now might be a good time to get a second dog. 

 

I did a lot of reading and studying on German’s which led me to a friend of my brothers who in a well know breeder of the breed.  After a lot of thought, I decided to get a puppy from her and that is how I ended up with Thor.  

 

I love how smart he is and how he can give the best loves.  He behaves for the most part when out in public and is just a good looking dog.  However, in the last few months I have learned a lot!  One of those things I have learned, German Shepards shed!!  Molly sheds, and I use to think she was the queen at shedding.  Thor tops her easily!  He will leave shadows of himself everywhere he goes.  If he brushes up against your leg you will have a part of him with you all day long, it is impossible to get it all off.   I try to brush him almost daily right now and toss the hair over my fence into an empty field, making it look like a small animal has died back there.  Thor is also very mouthy and bites anything and everything.   I have holes in every pair of jeans as Thor loves to grab the bottom of my jeans and pull.  If I shake my finger at him and tell him “no” when he is miss behaving he will show me his teeth as if telling me that he is frustrated and doesn’t want to listen.  He has never tried to hurt me and I am not afraid of him.  I honestly have never felt like he was being aggressive to me but I can see how it was be frightening to others.  Thor can leap and jump as if he is part kangaroo.  He has a bark that would make a grown man pee himself.  He has muscles in his chest and legs that would make Arnold Schwarzenegger proud.  He gets board easy and always wants to play for hours on end.  He loves to fetch but has yet to be able to catch treats if tossed at him. 

 

He is also kennel trained and does really well at sleeping through the night.  Because I want him to be an amazing dog I have signed up for almost a year’s worth of dog training and have started to work with him more at home.  On a side note, I have also learned that EVERYONE has an option of how you should train your dog and it always feels like people look down on you when you decided to go one way or another.  Same goes with what you decided to feed your dog, it gets frustrating so you just have to do with what you feel is best in your gut and go from there.   

 

Last week I had my first experience with having a dog that did not like having another dog in his yard.  My friend Jen brought over her dog Chewy to see if our dogs would get along.  We put him in the backyard and brought Molly out first.  Molly could care less and paid more attention to Jen the Chewy.   Next was Thor.  Because he had started to bark while in his kennel I decided to leash him up first and see how he did.  It was a good thing I did.  Thor did not like Chewy and wanted to make him a chew toy.  The bark and snarl coming out of Thor sounded like he was out of blood.  It is good that I am not scared of my dog and I was able to keep the whole incident under control.   After Jen went home and Thor was back inside he would not leave my side.  To be honest though after it was all said and done it made me feel horrible and like a bad dog mom.  I was reminded that some factors I needed to remember was he is still all boy (he will be getting neutered in March), Chewy is all boy as well, it his Thor’s yard, and I was there for him to protect.  I have a lot more training and learning to do.    I know that part of his nature and one reason I got him was I wanted the protection.  Now I just need to learn how to control that drive.  One thing I did right away was go out and buy a harness.  With Thor’s Hercules strength I wanted something I could hold onto him without putting so much pressure on his neck.  I was also worried of him slipping out of his collar and so a harness would prevent that.   Yesterday it arrived and I was excited to try it out on him.  He wasn’t sure what I was trying to put on him but after a slight struggle (leaving me covered in dog hair) I was able to get it on him rewarding him with lots of praise and treats.  We then worked on obedience training while he was wearing it to teach him when it is on he is in “work” mode.  He did really well with it on and I have to say he looked good in it too. 

So here is to me learning and growing with Thor.  I hope to be a really good dog mom to him and I think he is going to be an amazing companion.