I've only had one (and a half) shepherd, so I do not know if I should say that I am an expert on how German Shepherds as a breed work or “is”. For those who wonder about that half, is the second bitch I fed for a while, as I mean. But today I thought I would write a little about German Shepherds and my experience with the breed.
To have one Armed forces bred German shepherd is, especially now that I have a perfectly normal German Shepherd, like having a German Shepherd raised in cubic and square. Kind of like that. Everything is turned up to maximum volume in an FM-bred dog. Now Boyo is pretty accurate 7,5 months old, and until for between 5 – 8 weeks ago I found him to be actually quite boring. And in comparison to Ella, who was anything but boring from the first second, He was actually quite sad, Boyo.
But now begins he will be really big. Not just in the body, but things happen in his head too. He has discovered that Lilo smells different back there than he does himself. Not excessively, but like that, he's a bit curious at times and it's bound to get worse. 😀 He has also discovered that he has an I of his own that is separate from both me, Molly and Lilo. We have gone from a collar to a muzzle because he started behaving well on the walks. And, but then, things happen.
Today we were off to visit a friend of mine. She always thought that Ella was far too outgoing and shy, which I can really understand, because she was. The last time we were at her house, she really liked Boyo, but this time she thought he was decent. And that was what the thoughts were about “shepherd” sort of started. Because he is very similar to Ella in many ways that were not so clear before.
This is some characteristics I can see as common between Ella and Boyo; energetic, assertive, go-go-ig and stiff and the absence of impulse control. When Boyo hits his on button, he has quite a lot of energy. I didn't think so before, but then he didn't really have an on button in the same way that he has now. We'll see how it will look going forward. He can also be quite assertive, so much so that if, for example, Lilo wants to be petted, he interjects. Boyo kind of thinks he's the center of everyone's attention, always. 😀 For example, he likes to be petted, and have difficulty accepting a no – and besides, he likes to jump on whoever he wants to be patted by. Not quite comfortable all the time. The stubbornness consists in the fact that when he gets up to speed, it can be difficult to take him down without physical contact, and you look at him how the eyes sort of roll around in his skull.
My take on Boyo is changing a little bit, actually. From being half-dead in my eyes, he is now on his way to a more normal energy level, which is gratifying. But I also notice that with this more normal energy level, the need for activation becomes more apparent. So far he has been small and ridiculous and quite stupid, but the older he gets the greater the need will be. As long as it's summer and warm, there will only be longer walks at night, but eventually when it becomes a reasonable temperature even during the day outdoors, we will start going differently.
Then it is so that the way I want to activate Boyo requires focusing on him alone. Considering how the situation looks for Lilo's family, I stand up 100% when needed, but that means I can't focus on Boyo as regularly as I'd like. But it must be so – Lilo needs me too. And besides, I simply have to make sure to do the best possible when Lilo is actually at home with her family. Then I have all the time in the world to spend on Boyo. Both when it comes to walks and the disappearing little one after all “exercise” I think is important. But that me thinks is important, feels also important, and I want to be able to engage in it.
It's fun to see your dog change. Especially when it's for the better and more fun. I have been convinced that Boyo will be a super lovely dog as an adult all along, but now I only become even more convinced of it. It will be so much fun to see how he will be and function again.. say a year or two. Not to mention how much fun it will be to see how big he ends up being. He's already quite big, how young he is.
But because back to this thing about shepherds and common traits; although Ella not always (rarely, actually) was easy to live with, so I have missed most of what was her. The energy, the assertiveness, the stiffness, the will to work (although personally I'm not that interested in working out, I like the mentality), the forward spirit and so on. Boyo will never reach her level of all this, but I like to see that they actually have similarities too, not just differences.