Bringing a male GSD to a male yorkie?
 

I have a yorkie that's almost 3 and my dad has a GSD that was given to him after he bought a car garage that was meant to be a guard dog. The GSD has been sleeping at the car garage for a while now because the previous owner had him guard the place when he was gone. We want to bring the GSD home and let it sleep here then be at the garage in the day. We do have a yorkie here and don't want that yorkie to die by any means. We've had the yorkie interact with 4 other dogs, a chihuahua, basset hound, pit bull, and a little shihzuh(idk how to spell) anyways, he did fine with the basset hound and the pit bull always wanted to play so sometimes he would play too hard our yorkie would bark loudly which scared the pit bull. He was fine with the shihzuh but was always yappy with the chihuahua. If it doesn't work out then we will return him to owner but we only want the GSD to sleep at our house at night. He is pretty big and fluffy but likes to play a lot. We'll be bringing him on friday, the 10.

My first reaction is to suggest you use extreme caution. It would only take one chomp.

True guard dogs are highly trained, and their owner/handlers are highly trained as well. If that's not the case, I'd at least get a second opinion from someone who is more experienced. Have them test the temperament of the dog and maybe supervise the first interaction.

I have my little dogs around big dogs all the time, so I'm not paranoid by nature. I'd just want to know much more about the guard dog.

Here's the site I Googled. Not great, but some good information:
Guard Dog Training | Family Watch Dogs | Protection Dogs | Schutzhund Training


Here's one part that stood out to me:

The Dog Risks: Trained dogs are highly sensitive to strangers, sudden movements, high pitched squeals or screams, etc. ANYTHING that can be perceived as a threat may set a trained dog to attack - like children screaming, someone holding a raised object, loud yelling, someone moving too close to an owner, etc. It depends on the dog's temperament and nature, but not all trained protection dogs are rock solid on temperament and always make accurate decisions. This is why the vast majority of retired police dogs and military dogs are only ever placed with the former handler or former K9 police or military officers.

:thumbup: Mike is spot on.

Great advice Mike!

I'll tell you our "story".
My daughter has a large (80 lbs) mixed breed dog. He is vocally a very protective dog. We had a situation where she HAD to live with us for awhile and I'll admit, I was terrified something would happen to one of my pups. Tuffy will bark at other dogs & I know that tends to increase the other dog's protective instinct no matter the breed. The way we handled their introduction was to install baby/pet gates stacked so that they were on the inside section of a doorframe. At no time were the dogs allowed direct contact. After a month or so, we allowed very supervised contact ONLY. Accidents happen and a play swipe of a large paw could mean the loss if an eye or worse.

Personally, I don't think I'd even try until you get to know the big dog much better first.

The dog isn't professionally trained but very vocally protective of the owner. When I first met him he barked for a little then later he wanted to play ball and fetch with me. Previous owners haven't had any records of attacks or te dog being physically aggressive but we never know. I just want to introduce him to our yorkie maybe see what happens when they sniff each other out or if barking is just endless then maybe not.

Nice! Forced into the situation, that's the approach I'd take.

Please be very careful to protect your Yorkie! Are both intact or have they been neutered?
Just asking since this would be one of the things I would consider before bringing two males together. Especially if you have females around. Your Yorkie will think he is bigger than the GSD no doubt.

I would say proceed with extreme caution. Most especially as it seemed from a statement above that he has had other owners. What are the reasons for re-homing?

What obedience training has this dog had? Will he STOP on command or OUT? Will he heel, sit/stay, both from verbal commands and hand signals? Does he know the leave it command?

You may have thought that you already covered this when you say he was not trained as a guard and protect animal, but the above commands are basic to medium obedience skills that every serious breed needs to know.

And while others might feel differently very rarely will I ever let my Yorkie play with my Black Russian, and that is supervised and only for very short play sessions.

The reason I want to rehome is because the dog sleeps at the garage. There is heat and space for him at night but we think it'll be better for him to sleep at our house at night and walks would be good for him.

He does know basic commands but not sure how well he would obey them. And I am pretty sure the GSD is neutered, yorkie is not