[cowgirlc]

Originally Posted by gemy

Cowgirl:

It sounds like a lot is on your plate right now (and has been for about a year).

I too would like to caution about mixing the GSD pups with your Gizmo. Every dog has a different built in "prey" drive and GSD's are reputed to have a fairly high drive dog. For this reason and also the reason as babies, they still need to learn their manners; I would be extremely cautious about allowing interaction with your Yorkie and the pups.

Just so that you know; I have one Black Russian here with a very high "prey" drive and even at 3 yrs old; she is still not to be trusted around Razz my Yorkie alone. She has been trained since a pup that chasing Razzle is a no no, but still even today, if she gets over excited she will flip into the prey mode. So they are never let out in the yard off lead alone; or allowed to "play" with each other. Razzle and my older male BRT are however. Magic's drive is a toy drive, and not a prey drive.
So it does really depend on the dog itself, and your pups are still developing their personality, and of course testing out their limits.

I hope that you and your husband can find good homes for these pups/mother, there is probably a rescue you could surrender them to, if you find yourself unable to find good homes for them. As you know GSD's should be obedience trained and Must recognize the humans as the "bosses". I have heard time and time again, and this from working dog trainers, that the GSD will overtly challenge their owner's authority at least once, and you better be prepared to handle that challenge.

In terms of Gizmo it seems like you have been given lots of good advice, I'll just add my best wishes on Gizmo's training.

Thank you for the well wished, I appreciate that. I really so not allow the shepherds and Gizmo to play together at all, there has only been one time that the pups were indoors and not crated and in that situation hubby and I were both in our reclyners watching a program and he had the 2 pups sitting at his feet and Gizmo was beside me in my chair. I already know of 2 families that would love to have the pups, but I am still working on the hubby to surrender. One thing I have to mention although my husband started this shepherd situation, he loves Gizmo as much as I do and has always been protective of him. He knows how I feel about all of this and was not happy when he found out how my day went yesterday as he was away when all of this occured. Gave him a bit to think about. Maybe this will open his eyes to the fact that he has left me in a bind caring for all of the dogs, so the discussion continues.