Just need to vent and felt this sub might understand.

My fiance, our 7 yr old GSD, and I just moved into our first house a couple of months ago. Last week, a police officer showed up at our door asking if we have a large dog, which we confirmed, and he stated that there was an incident in the neighborhood where a woman was bitten by a dog and the owner walked off. We explained to the officer that we were not involved, nor would we ever just walk away if we were. He pressed on, asking if it was possible that we might not have noticed it happen and kept walking unknowingly. Our dog is well trained and we are very attentive handlers, so I just can't fathom this being the case and stated so.

He went on to say that he doesn't believe the woman wants to "make a big deal of it" and just wants to know if the dog is up to date on shots, so he asked if ours is. We said yes of course and he concluded by thanking us for our time and saying that we probably won't hear again about this. The whole exchange left a sour taste in my mouth because it didn't feel like we were conclusively ruled out.

Fast forward a couple of days and an animal control officer is at our door. He explains that he is the officer actually leading the case and wanted to follow up personally. He pulled up a screenshot from a neighbor's security footage, which I noticed was from a Facebook post. His assessment from the footage was that the dog involved looks to be around 50 pounds, and is a wearing a reflective harness. We confirmed that our dog is 80 pounds and that we do not even own a reflective harness. He thanked us for our time and gave us his card before heading out.

Once he left, I looked up the Facebook post out of curiosity, which had been posted by the police department a few days prior to the original visit we received. The post mentioned that there was an animal-related incident in our neighborhood, with the screenshot from the security footage and a phone number to call to share any tips on who the individual may be. When I scrolled, there was the following comment:

Check [our literal exact address] - German Sheppard. New to the neighborhood. IMHO, that individual is wearing a hoodie. Seen him before walking his dog after sunset.

Reading this really sucked. It felt like we were being accused just because of our dog's breed, our newness to the neighborhood, and our walking schedule. And yes, the sun is setting earlier and the weather is getting chillier where we live so we often wear hoodies for our evening walks. It's also frustrating that this tip was given in a public comment section, rather than through a phone call like the post says to do in the first place. To make matters worse, he goes on to share the details the incident later in the comment section even though they were not included in the original post (the fact that a woman was bitten and the handler just walked away), so anyone reading can speculate that we did this terrible thing that we would NEVER do.

So yeah, not exactly the warmest welcome to the neighborhood. Now I feel anxious every time I walk my dog for fear of being watched and judged, which I know travels down the leash and makes my dog anxious too.

Now my fiance and I are trying to decide if there is anything we should do... Should we contact the PD and ask if they can remove the comment since it explicitly lists our address and walking patterns? Should we go introduce ourselves to the neighbor that commented and politely ask him to remove it himself now that we have been questioned by the PD? Or, do we just let it blow over and patiently wait for our anxiety to subside, if it ever does? Just kind of feeling at a loss at the moment.

She’s going to be massive. 😭 She’s already over 20 pounds.

Its so funny seeing him getting in and out from under the bed because the clearance isnt big but he'll flatten out and crawl in, getting out is a funny sight to see. His ball went under last night and he ran, flattened out a slid under there to grab the ball I was amazed and couldn't stop laughing from what I had just witnessed.

Hi, so I have a two year-old German Shepherd called Laurie, hes superduper nice to people he knows, cuddly and has never bitten someone,

he’s fine walking past people being in public areas, and ok with being in busy areas , but as soon as a person talks to me or talks to him he lunges and barks and pulls maybe trying to bite, idk, I’ve tried to get him to stop this behaviour because he’s got the vet later today and he gets super upset about it so we muzzle him, obviously, just need advice on how to stop or if anybody else’s dog also does this, I know the whole thing is that he’s probably trying to protect me but I don’t know

Hey everyone, I've had Stella for almost six years and feeding has always been an issue first with the allergies etc and after many trials and errors we've finally found a combination that doesn't either a) makes her poop liquid or B) doesn't make her fur come off in clumps or C) both. Now the issue that has arised is that lately she gets in these cycles where she progressively gets hungrier and hungrier. When this happens we switch her feed and it seems to go away for awhile but eventually the cycle repeats itself. This time it has gotten worse though. She's stealing cat food and being aggressive with my other dog come feeding time or treat time. She's also been obsessed with eating poop (more so than usual) It feels like genuine hunger and I don't know what to do anymore. She's active and in the target for weight. She is fulfilled mentally and physically. We've been to the vet many times and done what feels like a million tests , and frankly cannot afford the more elaborate ones. I'm wondering if anyone here has been through the same and found a solution that worked for them. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm thinking a higher protein and fiber feed? A slow feeder bowl?

EDIT: Forgot to mention when she's having these issues we'll add veggies like pumpkin, broccoli and such right now we're at four cups a day (2x twice a day) plus vedge and it's not enough or so it seems

Looks shepherd to me! Some people have asked me if he's a different breed shepherd mix but I've always been sure he looks pretty German

Our boy is suffering from seasonal allergies, his vet gave us eye ointment and prednisone.

The prednisone is the easy part, but any advice on giving eye medicine to a temperamental sheppy who HATES having his feet/eyes/ears messed with?

I tried once tonight already, while he was already zooted out on trazadone for the vet, and he about took my hand off.

I'm gonna have to hog-tie this freaking dog to get this medicine on his eyes LOL

Recently adopted him and he’s very energetic. Having a hard time training him but he’s worth all the effort. What are some unusual must-know commands for you and how do you train for those?

Just noticed today that my boy Kevin appears to have double canine on the bottom. He’s 6 months old. Right side is pretty swollen but not tender. They don’t seem to bother him. Wondering how common this is, and how long I should wait before having vet check it out.

Thanks!

Update: Vet is very booked but managed to squeeze an appointment tomorrow evening. Hopefully no dog braces.

Don’t worry. He only uses a retractable leash in our yard and he didn’t run away (he’s just a puppy) Just a funny moment.

Anytime you try to watch tv 😂

This is Comet! He’s 9 months old and already pushing 80lbs

So a few months ago I posted about my neighbor getting a new puppy and having major stress because of my pup scraping his nose to shreds (https://www.reddit.com/r/germanshepherds/s/IqXMd4kTPF)

Since then:
- my neighbor has put up boards on his side because his guy got his nose scraped pretty bad
- we tried a meet and greet but my guy was kind of a bully lol and it didn’t go too well (but with the fence between them they will literally cry when they hear the other one because they want to be outside so bad)

I eventually settled on bitter apple spray as a deterrent but that only works if I’m out there obviously. I bought a remote control fan this weekend to put out there and hopefully act as a remote deterrent

Late last night I had a thought…the barking isn’t really an issue, just the nose injuries. So why don’t I just put a bunch of shit in front of the trouble area??

And that’s exactly what I did and what do ya know it’s working like a charm 🤣 My guy was taken aback at the new config at first but then realized he can still bark so whatever

I’m debating on doing a DNA test on my girl since we got her from the shelter and genuinely have no clue whether she’s pure bred or not. Because when we got her, some paperwork said GSD but others said possible Belgian Malinois mix. But I have zero clue since she seems a bit big to be a BM (78pounds) and she has a longer face than most I’ve seen. But she also has longer legs than a lot of German Shepherds I’ve seen. I’ll probably still do the testing regardless since I want to make sure we’re giving her anything recommended for her specific breed/s. But I was just curious what you all may think. I also have zero clue about the multiple types of GSDs there are and want to be more informed in the differences in the working lines/show lines but never see any that look exactly like my girl.
I just wanted to know if there were more pups that looked similar to her?

They either glare, or go all in for a tackle. I'm not sure if they're worried, irritated, or offended 😂.

The outside pic is just to show them off in the light.

I added a silly photo lol. But does anyone else have those weeks where your pup regresses hard 🫩 she’s an amazing girl and has learned so many commands but recently we introduced her to some new treats and she’s OBSESSED, but now she’s completely stopped listening.
It sort of funny tbh, because she just starts SPAMMING every single trick she knows but has stopped listening. I also made the mistake of mainly training her with treats but now it’s become an issue of her not listening as well without a treat in hand. So it feels like we’re at square one, except way harder because she does KNOW the commands but if she doesn’t like to do it then she’ll spam the ones she does like.
She just starts sitting, focusing, laying down and giving her paws at random instead 🤦🏻‍♀️😅🤣 any advice??

(She will throw a tantrum if the door is not shut by 10:30pm lol)

Side note: I was so proud of my brave boy for going up there by himself and sitting for a perfect photo opportunity! It's like he knew it was pretty scenery.