This Time I'm Really Going To Do It

Karmacat

Ooh, German Shepherd puppies! I saw one on the tube in London once, never seen such a fluffy bundle of a pup for a long time, utterly gorgeous - and thats me as a cat lover!

The people through my party wall have 3 German Sheps, and although I think they're insane to do that in houses of this size, they're very well trained, only bark for 30 secs when someone comes home (or another dog walks by, fair enough!).

hiddenshadow

Watty1 wrote: »

German Shepherd arriving in 3 weeks.

Ooh, lovely. The one puppy I've raised was German Shepherd/Lab. Crazy smart, so that did help with house breaking. It also meant she could open the fridge, the cabinet with the rubbish bin, and the patio door to the back yard. Unfortunately she didn't really inherit the Lab temperament so while she was sweet, she viewed herself as clearly our superior and condescended to allow us to share her space, and would only respond to commands if she knew you had a treat for her. :rotfl: Especially in her older years she was quite blatant about flaunting the rules (not sleeping on the furniture, etc).

Would love a GSD again, though it did take her until about age 5 to fully act adult and not puppy-like.

SueP19

Watty1 wrote: »

Never having had a puppy no idea what we are letting ourselves in for!
German Shepherd arriving in 3 weeks.

Wow Watty, that's great news, we love German Shepherds...............................come on details how old etc :D

Watty1

SueP19 wrote: »

Wow Watty, that's great news, we love German Shepherds...............................come on details how old etc :D

Puppy is currently 4 weeks old
GSD rescue turned me down on the basis we have a 5 bar gate onto the lane at the back of the house and post and rail fencing around the fields. I was shocked, after all the WattyDog was a German Shepherd and he never got out. (The post and rail fencing has rabbit proof mesh at the bottom and electric on top). GSD rescue wanted all replaced which quite frankly was ridiculous. Although the WattyDog was a rescue we had found out his breeders and this puppy is distantly related. He is huge and I am hoping he will be adorable. As our last dog didn't grow up until he was around 5 I am thinking puppy will be a puppy for quite a while.
I did feel bad about buying until a friend who is a vet pointed out that the reason there are so many rescues needing homes are that there are too many dogs being bred and that the attitude of some rescues is deplorable. So donation to a dogs charity sent (who did not have any GSD's needing a home) and a puppy from a lovely family who have only ever bred 2 litters on its way.
Mr Watty is already over excited

Watty1

hiddenshadow wrote: »

Ooh, lovely. The one puppy I've raised was German Shepherd/Lab. Crazy smart, so that did help with house breaking. It also meant she could open the fridge, the cabinet with the rubbish bin, and the patio door to the back yard. Unfortunately she didn't really inherit the Lab temperament so while she was sweet, she viewed herself as clearly our superior and condescended to allow us to share her space, and would only respond to commands if she knew you had a treat for her. :rotfl: Especially in her older years she was quite blatant about flaunting the rules (not sleeping on the furniture, etc).

Would love a GSD again, though it did take her until about age 5 to fully act adult and not puppy-like.

Yes just love the way a GSD knows it is a superior being

SueP19

Am shocked re GSD Rescue, we donate and follow on fb :eek::eek::eek:

When we got our Samson April 15 we were accepted by 3 rescues despite being at work all day but we had been mum and dad to a real nutcase GSD. We didnt proceed with any of them because they all wanted to do was to tell us what we could have and it doesn't work like that. We got Samson of gumtree, paid for him but he had had multiple homes before us and is a bit damaged in a sad way.

I totally agree with your vet friend, whilst rescue places should make sure dogs go to good homes their criteria is way off sometimes and they seem to think its alright for dogs to be held in kennels.

Not surprised your excited I would be lolol

PS Our last GSD we got from a breeder and I do shout at those dog programmes that imply buying a dog is a criminal offense......................oh and had a few rows with dog stalls raising money too lolol

EatingTheElephant

Exciting news Watty :T

Look forward to those floppy over ears!

Watty1

Freezer use up going well. Have thrown some fish though. Mr Watty refusing to eat it. One more week and we should be done. Have saved a lot doing this, so should feel the benefit at the end of the month.
Plan to defrost freezer and then have another batch session of winter foods like stews. Inspired by the lovely Tilly I started having cooking days when I made lots for the freezer and it has been an excellent MS move. Thank you again Tilly

Watty1

In process of drawing up a spreadsheet showing where money is, interest rates etc. Outstanding mortgage is £68,801 with £14,825 in savings and S&S isa at £29873. The savings pot fluctuates as sometimes need to draw from it when we spend as I keep one of the current accounts very low but as of today £24103 is needed to become completely mortgage free and thus well on the way to independence. I have other plans to achieve the final part of independence but lets start with getting the basics covered - so here goes - time to put a date on it - aiming for Easter 2017 to be completely free of all debts including BTL Mortgage.

Watty1

PS I have worked out that means £4000 a month. No way do we have that spare :rotfl: so my aim is ambitious to say the least and I will have to do a lot of fancy footwork to get there by Easter. At the moment we have very little spare as my business not fab, but, I have set my intention and am going to go for it.