german shepherd/great dane mix

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Originally Posted by LPicardster

About Rex:
During my visit this evening with Rex, he initially looked really depressed in his kennel but maintained good eye contact. Once we were in the visiting pen, he continued the eye contact, permitted considerable handling all over his body, obeyed a few commands acceptably for an untrained dog after just a few instructions (sit, stay, come). He fetched with vigor and amped up the energy the longer we were together. Physically, he's remarkably clean and fit for a shelter dog with a shiny, short Brindle coat, clean ears, nice teeth and breath, bright eyes, etc. His body, legs and paws look GD while his tail and head look more GS. He doesn't really know how to walk properly, which is somewhat expected, and responded to some body language with jumping. Rex has been neutered, micro-chipped, vaccinated and comes with six weeks of free dog training classes. He's getting cat-tested [again] tomorrow at my request.

My Quandary:
I feel I have the space, experience, income and interest to take on Rex, but am unsure about how the German Shepard part of him may differ from what I'd expect from a Great Dane. My only exposure to German Shepherds has been limited to police and service dogs. This is a huge decision and commitment I'm facing. Taking on a brand new, pure bred Great Dane puppy would be more predictable than gambling on an 8-month old mixed breed who spent his first 6 months as a yard dog and the past 2 months as a shelter dog, with a 2 week foster care respite reportedly due to his increasing depression. This indicates his personality may be largely Great Dane since they are super sensitive. However, his intellect was exceptionally sharp, focused and quick. I had him sitting on voice command after maybe 3-4 physical instructions. As I sharpen my own training skills, I suspect he may be a very eager and adept student. But who knows?! Argh!! Should I visit him every day for the next week and see how we progress through 'Beginner' dog training lessons? (Katharina Schlegl-Kofler). I'm not worried about someone else adopting him since he's not moving now because of his size, energy level and jumping behavior.

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I adopted an 8 month old (at the time) Great Dane-German Shepherd mix (Banner) in Dec '08, very recently. He has been a great dog so far, but some of your concerns are valid.
He definitely shows some amount of separation anxiety typical of danes, and also because he wasn't properly socialized as a young puppy some minor aggression (barking) towards strangers; mostly when we're out at night or in small spaces.
He is amazingly smart and eager to please, because he's not a young puppy we've had hardly any problems training him or with him chewing the "wrong" things.
Crate training was a must for us because of the separation anxiety, as well he sleeps in our room with us at night otherwise no one sleeps - we tried for a while with him downstairs.

I think that's all for now, if you have any other specific questions I can let you know how the mix plays out in Banner.

i just want to say that i adopted my dog (a GD/gs) in november of 2007 and it was the best decision ive made. it was my first dog, and i rescued him from a shelter. im a medical student and knew that i would be away from the apartment, and i asked the people who worked at the shelter to pair me up with a dog who wouldn't bark due to seperation anxiety (since i live in an apartment), wouldnt chew (since i have 3 grand worth of books), and was potty trained... they went straight to the gd/gs.



i must say that i didnt realize how great a dog he was when i first adopted him as i do now. he was so well-behaved that i felt bad attempting to crate train him in the beginning because he just didnt need it at all... he followed every command perfectly! my girlfriend's family has 5 dogs and her brother has 3 and ive since adopted a second dog, and i must say my gd/gs is one of a kind in the behavior department. since the day ive adopted him he has never gone to the bathroom in the apartment, never shown aggression, never chewed anything... he has been a little saint. very playful, large and extremely strong but not aggressive in any way. he is just the best behaved dog in the world. i couldnt have asked for any better.

the only way that he is less than perfect in the behavior department is when we are out for a walk. he tends to pull a lot. i have either gotten it under control or just gotten accustomed to it by now, because it doesnt bother me as much. i was using a no-pull harness for a while and that worked rather well, but i dont bother anymore. regardless, this doesnt put a dent in my fondness for this breed whatsoever.

Her name is Oakley. She is one year old and the best dog in the world. I would not trade her for anything. she has big ears that stand straight up like a german shep. they arent cropped. and she has a snout that slightly droops like that dane. a beautiful dog. Her color is merle and she is about 100 lbs now..still growing.She is very affectionate and loves giving kisses! The awesome thing about her is she is protective of me and my siblings and parents. Just yesterday she ran 2 bears off that were outside walking in the backyard. She jumped in front of me kicking her feet back and growling. You never see her aggressive unless she feels that i am threatened or she is scared. She plays well with other dogs and loves babies. She is very gentle. She has a huge personality and carries around stuffed animals like they are her babies. You tell her "oakley bring me your baby" and she brings a stuffed animal to you. She is very intelligent and literally opens doors with her mouth or paws by turning the door nob. she was potty trained by 2 months old and has never had an accident. she loves being outside. she was never big on chewing things up. its like she knew better! she hates being alone and loves car rides. her only flaw is she sheds a lot! i dont believe breeding them is a bad idea at all considering there are so many good traits that come out of the two breeds to form such a great dog. could go on for days about her. wish i knew how to put a pic up.

Ditto, could not have said it better!

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Originally Posted by Flatcoatluver

Yes, she may find all loving homes and they may not end up in a shelter. But every dog born, is another dog in a shelter that is put to sleep.

There are plenty of mixed breed puppies needing a home, it's a really depressing thing.

Good luck and if money is ever a problem with spaying and neutering, there is shelters that will help pay for them.

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Please don't breed or buy while shelter pets die.:(
Besides you'll never really know who or where the puppies will end up, if their being mistreated, abused, neglected, tied out, the list goes on.
People will tell you anything you want to hear in order to get what they want be aware!
My Deja was just DOTD and she's a Aussie Dane rescue, that may give you some idea of what the puppies may look like. But the responsible thing to do is S/N.
Good luck to you.

I know this post is super old, but I could not help but join when I saw it to comment. I have a 2 year old Dane/Shepherd mix named Tyberious. The Mom was a Dane, in heat, and the Dad, the Shepherd, jumped the fence to get to her while the owner was in the shower. She had 14 puppies, all of who made it. One boy, whom is now mine. He is Brindle with the body of a Dane and the head, tail, and coat of a Shepherd. He does shed! A LOT! Riding in the car with him the other day on the way to the dog park, his fur was literally flying out the window off of him. With that being said, he is one of the best dogs I have ever owned. He loves to be up in everyones business, which can put some people off. He has a really annoying habit of taking my arm in his mouth. He is not biting down when he does it, he just kind of sucks on it and slobbers up my whole arm. He only does this to me, I don't mind so it is a problem I did not care to work on. Extremely intelligent and sometimes a bit ADD, but he is the most eager to please. If In the car, the windows can be down in every seat other than mine with 5 open seats and he still wants in my lap. I know everybody has touched on the topic of shelters and ignorant breeders, with that being said, I think they make a wonderful breed in their own. I would love to see them one day professionally bred out. We have the luxury of knowing 6 of his sisters and their families and they all have had wonderful experiences with their dogs also. He has some of the best traits from both breeds. Although, I have never seen his agressive side until the other day at the park. He normally wants to be friends with every dog he meets. In fact, when he was younger, he would whine to go play with the small dogs in the other section of the park. Unfortunetely, it made me the laughing stock of the dog park. With that being said, after making about 7 new friends at the park the other day, we saw two Mastiffs coming towards us. As we were walking along the path I could already see the owners struggling to contain their beasts and their growls were audible from a way aways. Tybo stood on his haunches and barked at them after taking his stance in front of me and my boyfriend, much like I have seen Shepherds doing. He has never had a reason to be protective over us before, but now we know he really is since we witnessed that. It kind of scared me to see my baby behaving so aggressively. With that being said, they should not have had their extremely agressive dogs at the park... but that is a whole other rant. If you want to know more about my experience, ask!

Hello!

I have a Great Dane/German Shepherd mix, he's just shy of a year old. All he knows how to do is play and love. He's very codependent (I believe this is the is the Great Dane in him) and gets separation anxiety anytime we leave or leave him outside. I've never seen him be agreessive, not even when he plays. He does chew A LOT, so we diligently worked on redirecting him, but to this day he's still mouthy, as puppies are. I will say, he's not the smartest dog in the world. I'm not sure if this is breed specific or just him. He didn't really pick up on any training until about 7 months. But now he's done a 180. I guess it just took him time to understand call and response and he picks up things easily now. Also, as a puppy he was very timid and scared of everything but still very curious. He always wants to be around animals and other people. Although, he hasn't learned to be gentle with smaller people/animals yet. I'm not sure if this is something we can teach considering we got him so early, he didn't learn much from his littermates.

I would say this breed needs love, love, love. They're a very needy and active breed. I'm positive he thinks he can survive on cuddles alone. Train them early because they're going to get BIG. My dog weighs 110 and 11 months old. We can't "make" him do anything due to how big he is, so it's really important that he's compliant. We have a really hard time at the vet when they try to take his tempature. It takes myself and at least two other vets/assistance to hold him down for anything they need to do.

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